OOOOOOOOOYAAAAAAAAAA
I spent the beginning of the week laying low, we went to see the Batman movie, which I found to be heavily influenced by the nonsense/dada editing style of Godard. In other words, half the time I didn't understand what the hell was going on, but also we were in the main auditorium of one of Europe's biggest cinemas, the Colosseum.
On Tuesday we Disciplines met up at the SAS Radisson Plaza Hotel, and filmed a great live version of "Oslo", with Bjorn on acoustic guitar, and Baard and Claus manipulating cocktail glasses, bar nuts, and ice cubes for percussion. We start outside in the parking area, and over the course of the song we go up the glass elevator to the 34th floor panorama bar--incredibly, I am walking into the bar when I sing "I bless the bar that held me tight the night I fell"...it's still daylight when we are doing this, and the bar is far from being a smoky den, it's a brightly lit observation deck. The handful of patrons are obv. not Oslo folks, since they're in a hotel--it's a great mix of typical people off the street: a few middle American looking types, a few dudes in turbans, a few so nondescript as to defy description! And they all do an amazing job of completely ignoring us. It's so great! It was all done on the first take, with no real way for us to know how the timing would work out, and it couldn't have worked out any better. If you listen carefully, there are wonderful transitions as we go from audio landscape to audio landscape--outside, reflective hallway, elevator, bar. Here it is:
On Wednesday, Dominique arrived! We took it really easy, as I wanted to be in top form for Oya Festival.
OSLO, 8/7
Well, this show was so huge that, much like the Batman movie, I didn't know what the hell was going on. I had to ask Dominique a hundred times afterwards "was that any good?" It wasn't until I got home that evening and put on the DVD that NRK burned for us that I realized, holy bejeezus, this is enormous. We were so well practiced (I won't say rehearsed because all of the moves are spontaneous, but we had a good solid footing to operate from) that we managed to hit all the right cues without effort. I was nervous enough to be a bit breathless, but essentially all was superb. And best of all, you can see the whole show online. I will put one song below, but you can go
here and see the whole show. You can play individual songs and skip around, but left to its own devices the player will jump to the next song when one finishes. The sound is superb on the DVD...I guess that NRK shows these concerts on TV a few more times thru the year, I hope they show us again!
Well, climbing back up onstage during one of the songs I boinked my leg on the edge of the stage and essentially gave myself a charley horse that I am still getting over.
BUT IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT. I loved this show, even tho I was so in the moment I couldn't tell anything about it during the time...it's hard to explain, but being in the moment is a joy in itself. Freedom!
After our set I recovered, watched a bit of the National, watched a bit of Lightspeed Champion, and watched what I thought was the highlight, an amazing Sonic Youth set. I have seen this band perhaps 20 times, and I tell ya, they never cease to amaze. Duel bass action! It was apocalyptic, ecstatic, and outrageously good.
I went home! What else could be done?
As soon as Dom & I got to Claus' haus, we watched the Oya DVD, and marveled at how little I realized what a boot stomping I had just given Oslo. Relief!
Everyone else came stumbling in later, Bjorn was, uh, celebrating hard! I found him in the entryway, on the hardwood floor, the next morning.
I had gone to bed nice n early and quite sober.
The next day I had to go to Drammen, 40 minutes by train, to meet with our accountants! Hahaha!
I took Dom with me and by way of compensation I took her to
Statholdegaardenwhich I believe holds a star from Michelin. It was superb, anyway, although we avoided the 'crapaccio'.
AARDLASTANGEN, 8/9
The last of the great festivals on our summer run! It went by so damn quick. Ah, it's not online, but there was a great photo series in Norway's biggest paper, VG, the day after Oya, of me hugging the cameraman, plus a 5 star review of our show.
Anyway, we didn't have to leave until the late afternoon for this show, so during the day Dom & I went into town and I bought a bunch of the very special Aricha #7 coffee from Tim Wendelboe. It's available nowhere else, it's $4 an ounce, and in my Aeropress (cue Harry Nilsson) it's berry and cream tones in coffee. Oh, so good.
Claus borrowed an enormous 7 series BMW for the 4.5 hour drive to Aardalstangen, which is both in the middle of the country and on the sea. It rests at the tip of Sognefjord, the second longest fjord in the world at 127 miles (the longest fjord is in Greenland). So, you drive up into the mountains, take some hairpin turns inside tunnles on the way down, shoot out over Aardal, which is coal mining town, and come to est in the smaller town of Aardalstangen. The festival, Maalrock, takes place in a small park nestled next to the lovely old Klingenberg Hotel. Well, underneath the 1960s remodel was a lovely little hotel. Now it's like a kitschy small town motor in, in a way. Well, I enjoyed it!
The entire hotel was devoted to the bands, and thus the dining room was our catering area, with a tabel for each band, and a buffet (with lots of delicious salmon, and bowls of the world-renowned black cherries that grow on the western slope of Norway.
The sun set. The Delillos played. A superb rockabilly quartet from Sweden, Nisse Hellberg's band, played. We went on at 12.30 that night, the headliners tho much of the audience had passed out drunk or were a bit too old to really have it for us. So, we were left with the kids, which is exactly who you want to be left with! And they were great...I had a few 'I am going to die' moments when I was in the crowd, but no one incl. me was hurt (I am usually more worried about losing my earplugs than actual harm but it could happen). My bum leg didn't slow me down too much, and we pretty much brought down the house!
Then it was done. I went to my room (after seling tons of merch) and turned on the TV and there was a live Queen show from 'the Game' tour. It looked so tame and unrock after being in the sweat sprinkler that is a Disciplines show. Sorry, but...we DID rock you.
Long drive back to the airport the next day, I finished Lord of the Barnyard and embarked on my 3rd Pynchon novel of the year, 'V.'. I forgot to mention til now that this drive is quite stunning, with exceedingly primeval landscapes, the teeth of Norway's long jawbone. Blue green lakes, endless forests, and lonely cabins.
Upon arriving in Paris, and unpacking 3 weeks of travel, I was instantly depressed...the fun of those shows and those times are so hard to hold on to, and then, it's a memory.
But, I had work to do. Mixing A Life A Song A Cigarette! On Sunday, after fortifying myself with the usual welcome home meal of a steak tartare, I revisted one song, adding horn parts that we weren't sure were going to arrive (but they did), and then today, mixed the last song of the batch. During the day I had errands to run, and it's great to see Paris boarded up for summer.
Tomorrow I set off for Ile de Re, and Aden, whom I haven't seen in a month!
All this is a bit hard to write over the top of the fact that there is a war unfolding in Georgia, once again most of us are insulated from a huge amount of human suffering, and are oddly, able to go to restaurants, get mad at cashier lines for going too slow, leave a shitty tip, zone out to 'Cold Case'. I am sorry for this. Also, I thought, being Georgian, that Katie Melua would have something more sympathetic than 8,000 live photos of herself on her website. Guess I was wrong. It's like it's not happening. But, check it out, it is happening, and I think it will get worse before it gets better.
Love
KS
Paris.
