OSLO 2/17
This night was triumph piled on triumph. I don’t mean a Rottweiler puppet either. The day started well—I got up early and went to a student radio station, in the same building as the venue Betong, and performed live on the air (no mistakes this time). On the way back to Claus’ I picked up the Dagbladet, one of the main dailies in Norway, which had a good half a page on yours truly and a badass looking photo.
The stage at Gloria Flames, the venue being on the second floor, is a grid of metal supporting a sheet of what I believe is hard plastic, not clear, but opaque. When you look at your feet you see a bunch of little squares lit by the natural light—coming in thru the windows downstairs. In other words, you hope the thing is made well and you tend not to bring an SVT…anyway, we set up all our stuff (the Briskeby lads and I) and soundchecked and dined and I was back at the club after dinner, at about 8.30. I was supposed to play at 9, I begged them to let me play at 9.15, and they hesitatingly agreed—as long as I was definitely done by 10.45. You know, Friday night, DJs, blah fucking blah. DJs, meaning, the guys that make it impossible to talk to anyone in the bar. People are always so worried about getting their fucking DJs on on time even though it takes people a long time to get loose enough to dance, until that point they are at worst a major annoyance, at best, a jukebox that takes your money but doesn’t play the songs you want unless you get lucky. Exceptions: Andi from Weekender, me, and some DJs in bars in Spain. I think the main worry was that no one was coming to see the show but it was sold out by 10, and when I went on at 9.20, with Claus accompanying me on drums, very quietly, it was so packed the last stragglers had to watch from a lounge area behind and to my left, standing on chairs. And I wasn’t allowed to leave the stage—the club relented and let me play until sometime after 11. I played basically the whole night with Claus, I think I played ‘You Avoid Parties’ in the encore w/o drums but everything else he jammed along with—original songs, a nice double shot of drink songs (‘Little Ole Wine Drinker’, a hit for Dino and Robert Mitchum, and ‘Scotch & Soda’ the Kingston Trio’s number that certainly got them laid). I did a re-imagined version of ‘Flavor of the Month’ that sounded like the Cars. I had rehearsed several songs with Claus but also threw many a curveball; they all came back saucy and with lots of spin.
STOCKHOLM 2/19
I had a day off to get to Stockholm, so I bade farewell to my excellent hosts Claus and Nanna, and taxi’d to OSL (the cab ride to airport cost more than my flight. We live in strange times). Upon arrival to the glorious Berns Hotel, I met up with Jon, Jody Stephens, and Nusse our promotion buddy, and we had a very dinner, I was getting my homesick vibe on with some steak tartare, frites, fines de claires, and a bottle of Cote de Beaune. Back at the hotel I visited the bar and had a few drinks with our booking agent, James; on the way we stopped at the Rival Hotel, owned by Benny from Abba. Trendoid place but quite friendly.
The next day Jon, Jody and I headed to the Södra Teatern, where Jon & I played in 2000. We played in the seated theatre, which is a gorgeous venue, a mini-opera house in fact. The Big Star gig was in a kind of club venue that as it turns out is one of my favorite places to play in terms of sound and stage, certainly it takes top honors for me for rock clubs in Stockholm. Anyway, Alex’s flight didn’t get in til the day of the show due to some delays so he wasn’t ready to join us at soundcheck, he rested and would meet us for dinner, he said. So the three of us ran thru some songs on our own, songs from last year’s new album ‘In Space’. We hadn’t played any of these songs in any fashion since we wrote them, which was when they were recorded, 2 years ago now. In 2004 we played ‘Mine Exclusively’ a cover song that’s on the album, but none of the original songs had been rehearsed, let alone played live. So, by showtime, we played things a little rough in some spots, but I myself feel like I pretty much nailed the gig from start to finish. The place was completely packed, and I think people really dug it. The audience wasn’t wild (there was like, the lone drunk guy yelling, and I said to the audience…’(Q) how many drunk Swedish guys does it take to change a light bulb? …(A) hey…I think there’s a light bulb that needs changing about 10 kilometers from here…’) but they were really respectful and geeking out very politely. And that’s the gigs for the week. 2 thumbs up, twice.
And I am spending my day off here in Holland with a lovely case of food poisoning, which of course gives me something to do. Every ten minutes.
Love
KS
Utrecht NETHERLANDS
