VIENNA, 12/14
I was out the door only as everyone else was starting to wake up around the house...but actually well rested enough to not really need to sleep much more. Yes, I fell asleep on the plane, a little. But it wasn't the usual amount of fatigue. In all the days I'd been at home in the previous couple of weeks, I was actually catching up. However, getting up at 6 this morning was initiating a process where the need for more catching up would catch up with me soon enough. I landed at 10.30, and was met by my friend Christian, (now *Doktor* Stiegler) who had put togheter tonite's show. He got me in a cab, and took me to the Hotel Furstenhof, my usual address in Vienna. I was pleased to find that my portrait, taken last year, now has a choice spot as you head up the main staircase. No time to nap, I dropped my stuff, turned up the heat in my room, headed next door to the Westend Cafe to have some grilled calf's liver on salad, and back to my room. It was about 21 F, so I didn't really have the nerve, or the body fat, to endure much. Christian collected me and we headed to FM4, where I taped a radio session and interview. Ben Martin, my bandmate for this show and my 2007 full band show, had volunteered to help me out as well, and we did some new songs of mine duo style, plus 'Birds' by Neil Young and 'Oslo' by the D's. Eva Umbauer gave us quite a lenghty interview, which segued into a lively debate on the guilt or innocence of Amanda Knox...then it was time for soundcheck.
The Kunsthalle Project Space is a glass box subdivided into smaller boxes inside--the largest being a very popular restaurant, the smallest being some kind of mini gallery. There are two medium sized galleries and one of them was devoted to my show this evening. Tho' they have musical performances there quite often, it's not actually designed for that--there's no stage, no acoustic treatment of the room, and the PA as it turns out is pretty dog-eared. My band for the evening was one Daniel Leschka on drums; one Stefan Fallmann on bass;
Ben Martin on guitar and some vocals; and Georg Tran, aka
Landscape Izuma, on guitar and some vocals. I played guitar, harmonica, and piano. I had sent ahead almost all the songs I'd written since Soft Commands, about 7 of them, and these guys had done a great job learning them, and filling out parts from the minimal demos and making the songs into...realized pieces of music. In addition to this ambitious program of new songs, we also did some of my older songs, "I Believe In You" by Neil Young, "Solar Sister" and a smashing version of "Waterfalls" by TLC. I was joined on my duet song, "Doesn't It Remind You", by able duetter
Mariles Jagsch and on Waterfalls by
Paper Bird. All performed marvelously. A rather grueling soundcheck/rehearsal to learn a 17-song set, with songs that I had certainly never performed before, so...a lot to dig into, but it came together. Tom the sound guy was not so happy with things, he has been struggling to get a better PA in the place, but I felt OK about it. Unf., in the show, the PA proved Tom right, and did a lot of crinkly crackly stuff. Mic connections were bad, and I was hopping off stage to gaffer tape things a couple of times...but, it added a goofy drama to the whole thing. My 8th solo show in Vienna since the release of Soft Commands, on a Monday night, and people actually came. I opened the show with a long monologue, then we kicked off with "110 or 220V". It was poorly lit, it was awkward, and it was totally what I'm all about. And lo and behold, it turned into a really good show, consistent with my previous Vienna showings without doubt. Climaxing with a very rousing version of "Waterfalls" and a long rap about a cosmic canary that may or may not contain the universe.
VIENNA, 12/15
They have the good sense to serve breakfast at the Furstenhof til noon. I was up at ten tho, and by afternoon I was shopping (nothing exciting, just stocking up on toiletries before all my upcoming travel was underway) and listening thru the songs I needed more work on for the
A Life A Song A Cigarette show that night. This was their big gig, since the release of Black Air, the album I produced for them last year. It was a radio broadcast and sold out live concert in the Radio Kultur Haus, the theater at the Austrian National Broadcast network (ORF). The band--already a 5 piece--was to be augmented with three more string players, two horn players, and a keyboard player. I was joining in to play some guitar and sing vocal parts that I did on the album, plus sit down at the nine-foot Bosendorfer for a couple of numbers. Again, an ambitious program that required a lengthy soundcheck. And, like the night before, it was worth it. I sang two duets with Stefan, the singer/guitarist--both acoustic numbers, with parts that were originally sung by female singers, so quite challenging in terms of range. And I sang on some rock numbers too. BTW I highly recommend the album!
In the encore we did a cover of Nick Cave's "The Ship Song" and after being very careful to play the ALASAC songs perfectly (it's really awful to *know* the gig is being recorded) we could loosen up a bit on this cover, and...woah. I really let go and sang like crazy. Woah. I don't even *know* the song very well...but it was in me that night!
All in all I was very proud of ALASAC and what they put together, it was a total command performance, and they assembled a great cast and brought the songs to life marvelously...I was really glad to be a part of it.
The RKH has a cafe next door, so we were able to have a drink after the show, and there were folks there like Toph from
Trouble Over Tokyo, and other local musical highlights of Vienna's indie scene. Nice people to see. Then I had to get out of there, and sleep a bit.
I was up at 3.30, you see, as my flight was at 6. Oh my. I did sleep well on that flight. Let's put it this way, my flight was so early I was home before Dom & Aden were out of bed. That night I went to see Kurt Vile play an excellent set at Le Scopitone, (where I'll be performing in March 2010), much more detailed and sophisticated sounding than the wail and drang at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple last month (I liked both shows). Kurt gave me his "Constant Hitmaker" CD which is excellent.
I spent the rest of the week just doing family things, but also finding a ton of things to organize in the worlds of the Disciplines, the Posies, Big Star, and my solo work--I am not exaggerating, things were piling up in an incredibly ominously good way. 2010 is booked, more or less.
On Friday nite I went to see
Lippie play a rather autodestructed set at a tiny place near my home called La Loge. In trying to find it, I first entered an art happening, and a Christmas-cheer enhanced
Flairs which was fun, then I found La Loge next door, as Lippie commenced to break her equipment, burst a balloon, seem to be about to fall of the tiny podium (what was meant to be a stage)...it was demented, beautiful, a mess, and genius. Everyone loved it, too. I think she was horrified, or at least she acted that way afterwards, but...it didn't matter.
Now I'm in Norway, having flown up here today. As I left my home this morning, saying goodbye to my family and knowing I won't see them until NEXT YEAR I thought...what the hell am I doing? Holiday travel means delayed planes and as such today was no disappointment, but I got here, and Joel, who is assisting Jon Marius on the engineering of these sessions for THE DiSCiPLiNES second album, was a cheerful sight to see at the airport, and feel good about being here...it's kinda isolated, even in terms of being relative to Tromso. When I arrived, the other Disciplines were already
here, set up and getting sounds ready. We ran thru a song, and it sounds really, really good. I was depressed, I'll be honest, to leave my home after such a good stretch of relatively unbroken togetherness (going to Vienna for 48 hours hardly counts when compared to doing back to back tours and recording projects for weeks at a time). But the guys, and Jon Marius, and Joel, and some smoked salmon made me feel better about spending the holidays in Ice Station Zebra. I will make this effort worth it...
Love
KS
Tromso NORWAY
