BARCELONA 6/3
This was the weirdest festival. And the best week. I got to spend a lot of time with Dominique running around town, eating what I think is the 2nd best cuisine by country in Europe--controversial choice, right? Obv. I have voted with my stomach and my feet by putting French above all; most people would gravitate to Italy next but in my heart of hearts I have to say that jamon iberico, morcilla de burgos, sepias, etc. etc. takes the number 2 spot. But, of course, I love fine and also authentic food enough that there really isn't such a hierarchy, and that genius-level cooking can be found all over the world, in homes and restaurants both. But, suffice to say, Spain is special to me for a number of reasons--and those reasons always increase as time goes on.
Dom & I flew in on a Tuesday, Dom works with Troy Von Balthazar who was playing one of the club dates that the festival Primavera Sound organizes on the nights leading up to the festival. Dom & I checked in to a small hotel just off La Rambla, a hotel that's connected to a large medical school, and typically houses visiting lecturers and scientific conference attendees. And rock & roll couples from Paris. Already I had a good feeling about the trip, something about flying out of Orly always does that to me; Charles de Gaulle is just a jungle of stress inducing obstacles, every time (except at the very mellow Terminal 3). Dom & I rambled on La Rambla poking our noses in all the stalls selling animals (pets). They cleverly sell pigeons as some kind of French exotic dove if they can find ones big enough to look more interesting than the ratty urban birds we all know. That evening the show was at the Apolo, which is part of a complex containing a club, a theatre, a cinema, a restaurant, and a hotel. Posies stayed at the hotel some 10 years ago, I'm not sure the venue was up and running yet tho. Across the wide Boulevard Parallel, there's the famous burlesque house 'Bagdad', locals always introduce it as the place Magic Johnson contracted his unfortunate affliction during the Olympics. Next door to Bagdad and owned by the same people is a tapas bar "12+ 1" aka "Rincon de las Artistas" or "Artists' corner". It serves tapas of the most typical, old school, unglamorous type, which we enjoyed just fine with cups of cheap wine. A couple nights a week, including this very one, a well dressed man of about 70 years sings what to my ears sound like Cuban songs, basically karaoke but with 1950s instrumental records (think of the lip synch scene in "Buffalo '66"). He's very good, and seems to be performing for himself and about half a dozen friends, and, in our lucky instance, us.
Wednesday I took Dom to the restaurant Sergi Arola, the namesake of its founder, Spain's most celebrated chef. I believe he has a couple of Michelin stars to his credit. He also happens to be a real music fan, and of REM, the Posies and my solo stuff inclusive! But we'll get to that later. Dom & I went to his place, which is futuristic, tapas-writ-large in a setting of blue glass and white walls up a few stories in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, which is a very large tower by the waterfront 'Villa Olympica" area. I was amazed by the fact that the Chardonnay I ordered, a Spanish one, was in fact an exclusive product of the Torres mark, Torres also making some pretty cheap supermarket wine in Chile. I guess Torres is not unlike Guigal or Chapoutier in that they oversee many types of varietals in many locations (Chapoutier also makes wine in Australia) and you can find their bottles for sale at 5 euros and 500 euros, depending on what it is. It's like Rolls Royce making a hatchback tho. To get back to the point, Dom & I had a fabulous meal, and went back for a nap.
Thursday we moved over the the zone of the festival, checking into the official site hotel, the AC, another waterfront tower in fact. Dom & I found that we were rooming next to Lemmy...! We had lunch at the hotel with Paula, who produces a music TV show that did a feature on the Posies Barcelona show last December, and Jose, who works for Loreak Mendian clothing and has made we one of their semi-official clothes-horses. And that night I went on to the festival site to have a look around and see a bit of Babyshambles. The site is a vast complex of odd structures, straight out of Logan's Run. In fact, the site is so large, like the old Expo '86 grounds in Vancouver, as to totally dwarf any human activity therein. So, I had the impression all thru this festival that it was empty, even as people were streaming thru the gates. Add the breeze off the sea and you have a bit of a lonely vibe.
Friday Dom & I managed to leave the area for just a bit, taking the tram and walking to have a gawk at La Sagrada Familia; Dom actually giggled at the escargots on the side...we found a little spot for lunch and I had a very nice Albariña wine. We show-hopped that night, seeing Drive By Truckers, the Constantines, Isobel Campbell, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and even 20 minutes of King Diamond at a club (the metal show being much less scary than the taxi ride there--we almost hit two grandmas, and for no reason drive thru a pot-hole ridden alley at 50 miles an hour). Dom & I were in bed by 12.30, hearing Yo La Tengo from our room.
Saturday was the big show day--I woke up very rested, we met Jody Stephens for breakfast and Jon, Dom & I were invited to Sergi Arola's place by Sergi himself, who gave us a culinary tour of his work, and we talked music and travel, and the brittle union of Europe. I think I was completely high on this exercise, senses crackling with stimulation and also anticipation of thie show...and tho I missed *all* the bands/artists I wanted to see that day--Vashti Bunyan, the Deadly Snakes, and Television Personalities, I was rewarded by 2 great happenings: one, was that the Big Star show was a killer--my bass sounding rad thru a fuzzed out SVT rig, Alex making a great joke about our new record "it's flopping--just like the first three. 30 years from now you're gonna love it!". I even got a little spontaneous applause...and if that wasn't great enough, the Violent Femmes invited me up to play bass (again, with a little fuzz on it) on 'Gone Daddy Gone'. I managed to zip back to the hotel, buy the song off Itunes, learn the arrnangement, and comed back in time to see their whole set, which was outstanding, and people were freakin'. And, my turn came, and I nailed it! Not to toot my own horn...but...TOOT. I had just the right combo of nerves and beer, and it worked. There was even a little unexpected break and I managed to get that too--I got a cue from Victor...I had goosebumps at the end, that was such a great experience--thanks to all the VFemmes and Jeff.
After that, what's left? Well, I had a couple of drinks with the assembled, went back to the hotel for a bit, and managed to get Dom & I out to see some of the Boredoms and the Rogers Sisters, we're talking 3-4am; talked to a few drunk Posies fans in the VIP bar as the sky was getting light (the VIP bar was outside on a crazy piece of architecture). Dom & I got a little sleep and were back in Paris to have dinner with Jon, Remi from Cheap Star and his lovely fiancee and of course see Aden.
And I was on a plane the next morning.
love
KS
Boston MA
