Spring 2023 - a short summary
21 June 2023
This is midsummer now. I mean the shortest night of the year. They're all going to go nuts up in Finland next weekend, you know, bonfires and all. Plus a yet to be defined figure of people drowning while having a piss in the lake dead drunk. There are statistics on that. Might go out for a couple of pints later, just to show my solidarity, but got to take it easy as tomorrow morning theatre rehearsals will go on 10 am. Premiere evening just around the corner. Eight days to go to be more precise. But that's not what I was about to write. Not yet.
It's most notably half a year I survived, half a year of playing, half a year of travelling, of doing what I'm doing but maybe, or rather most certainly on a level that's way up from what I'm used to. And trust me, my tolerance got quite high over the years.
January was, as always, that big black hole I inevitably drop into after ending a months long tour. No shows, a period of recovery you've been looking forward to, which never seems to bring the rest you’ve been hoping for. A period that always turns out to push you into a mood of doubt, despair and something like "oh gosh, this is the end I haven't got the power to go on like this". Just too much time to think about things. But you'll get over it. Of course you will, because there's no choice.
Gigs started again with a few warm-ups in February and from mid-March on it was all back in full swing. Started with some nice ones with my Folk's Worst Nightmare pal The Black Elephant Band, before hitting the road for the long one. Real long. 28 March a magic night sharing stage with the incredible Boucan at Kofferfabrik in Fürth, to move on just the next morning to pick up Nightbird for our ambitious challenge, playing 19 shows in 20 days. It worked out. Magic moments. A few desperate ones too but that’s part of the game. Glad and grateful for this fantastic, dreamy trip with a dear friend, amazing songwriter and singer and not least great tour companion.
Dropped Anna-Stina at Munich airport mid-April to dive right into the next one. The first solo show on this part of the tour needs a special mention. The NUUK. How can things go wrong if you’re starting your tour playing in front of a Finnish SAUNA on the bank of river Elbe in Hradec Kralove/CZech Republic. Of course I had a sauna. Of course I swam in the river. Terrific! Moving on to my beloved Poland, Wroclav, Krakow, Warsaw, then over to celebrate 6 years of Hajovna in Zilina with a bunch of fantastic fellow artists. Thanks Dasa! You made me fall for Slovakia years ago and thanks for that night in Zilina with Chorobopop and Exorcizphobia. That was a fucking blast! Again. Banska Bystrica. The Bosorka. It kinda became my home away from home. Lempi and Zuzana you're ace! Moved on to Prochot. Heard of Prochot? Or in other words: how would you feel staying at friends place in the backwoods of Slovakia. Friends who would feed you with a stew of their own goat herd's ram. Their own grown veggies. That tiny little farmhouse on top of the hillside overlooking the amazing landscape of this beautiful part of Slovakia. Playing to those friends and their family. Being fed by grandma after the show. Home cooking. See, it's a world you're not very likely to ever encounter. Moments that make up for a lot of shit you have to take living this life of a travelling songwriter/performer. Special. Heartwarming.
Got one on super short notice in Brno. Cafe Pameti Naroda. One of the nicest I ever played in that town and definitely the best time of the year to visit Brno. Can't remember seeing the city in full bloom. Everything flowering and me, fortunate enough to have an off-day, just by chance stumbled into a gig of Zabit Frantiska at the Tri Opice the next evening. Off to Ljubljana in the early morning. Another home town en route. The Jalla Jalla in Metelkova. After that it became quite a weird dream or maybe just the longest day of the year...
Zoka messages me: you better make sure you're in Zagreb latest seven in the morning. We've got to leave for Split around eight to catch a boat for that first gig in Korčula. Whatever that Korčula was, I didn't know. Apparently on the coast, obviously an island.
So it's back into the car right after the show, taking the road to Zagreb to meet Zoka at the new Kulturni Centar Mesnicka. A good place to arrive, a place with a spirit. Hit the place around 1.00am, chatting with the waiter, good little talk with the painter who's exhibition started there today. A quick lesson in Macedonian history. My head is spinning with all the impressions. Where am I?
A short night's sleep at Zoka's place and back on the road, this time his car. Picking up Krešo the guy who'll be playing with me the next two shows. Good five hours down to Split. A new place to me, never been up this neck of the woods. For a first on this tour I'll see the Mediterranean. That's something.
We're on time. It's hot down here, it's summer. Dragging our gear to the pier. I'm watching our pile of guitars, cases and amps, observing wealthy, fat, ugly tourists strolling the promenade of Split harbor while the other guys dump the car. I'm soaking up all the images. Some guy on a bicycle asks me if I need a ride, pointing at the instruments. Thanks man, might be a bit too much for your bike.
Still time for a coffee in the old town. Coffee. It's the thing here. Everything is discussed with coffee. Negotiations, arguments, plans. Business, family, weather. Coffee here is the glue of society. The black liquid that keeps it all running.
Embarked the shuttle boat to Hlav and Korcula that spits us out three hours later. We're picked up by two young lads, our tonight's hosts and promoters, who are taking us to their parents house where we're going to stay tonight. Amazing people. It turns out Zoran and his wife spent a decade in New York where he played with his band all those places... the CBGBS, Elbow Room, all of it. Anyone for coffee? Rakija? Sure. Any time.
The show is a blinder. Fantastic audience, great sound, incredible hospitality. Need to revisit. Split can't be better, how can they? After the first long sleep in a while we're heading back to Split. The Basket Bar. Man, what a terrible name. That's gonna be shite. But. It's not. The small bar turns out to be the hang out of all the musicians they've got in Split. At least that's how it seems. Another stonking show in a packed place and nice after show talks with the guys of the New Gondoliers. Check them out. Gorgeous stuff.
From here it's back to Zagreb. To Maribor and Vienna. Two more Czech shows in Ostrava and Milevsko, both of them awesome. Ending that spring tour with a late slot at the first ever Frankonian Anarcho Folk Festival and a matinee in Straubing were just the right things to do before starting theatre rehearsals just the next day...