Adventures and Dinosaurs

Sorry, too busy riding bikes and chillin with Luke and Meg and Maggie and running into Gay Pride day and taking day trips to Utrecht and seeing David Byrne to write a blog post.

So after the tour Liam went home, and on Monday I met up with Meg and Marieke to hang out. After some baguettes and tarts they asked me if I knew of any gigs happening, which was a great opportunity to propose finding Société de Curiosités, a venue that seems to be a vehicle for musicians to showcase new music in the forms of rehearsals, improvisations, etc. I found it through a gig listing that seemed to have good taste, with a singer-songwriter called Flop playing. It was equally interesting and intimidating… the location was relatively secret (you had to email for the address), and those who attend pay 5 euro to become a member, which I believe is permanent. I probably wasn’t going to go alone, but with some friends who were also keen it sounded like a great idea – a chance to see some emerging local music, and what I read on the website (via Google Translate) reminded me a lot of the warehouse spaces in Sydney.

So we got the address and headed along, and it could’ve been awkward… there were only a few people when we got there, and the most it swelled to around performance time was about 15-20 people. But instead it was wonderful! We had some wine, and watched Flop perform a set of compositions that he had written for street performance. It was really interesting music, tailored well to the art of busking… chant-like and percussion driven with minimal instruments such as a mini drum kit, tamborine and saxophone. He also translated parts of his songs to English us, which while making us particularly conspicuous in a small room of French music geeks, was really nice of him and helped us greatly.

After the show we got talking to some of the folks there, one of them being Etienne who had played the sax for Flop. He was such a nice guy, and after a while talking about music and Paris he invited us to visit him in his studio the next day to hang out.

So we went the next day, to a fantastic complex called Point Ephemere. The place is amazing, and i’d love to see it in Sydney – On the edge of the water, it is a biggish building that has a live venue (i was so jealous to see that The Pastels and The Tenniscoats are double-headlining soon), a bar, dance studios, art displays and more. After a drink at the bar, we checked out Etienne’s studio where he showed us his array of vintage synths, and played us some of his (really good) music and some of his favourite French music from throughout the years. It was great to see this whole side of the musical spectrum that I’ve never seen, and Etienne was so much fun to hang out with… it’s one of my favourite times of this trip so far. We left as the sun started going down, and finished the night with some chinese cusine (the dumplings were unreal!).

I really need to get less sidetracked by shops. On Saturday i headed out in the early afternoon to the Centre Pompidou to see their current modern art displays and that incredible building, having really enjoyed it thoroughly back in 05.

But i got sidetracked. A long-sought after widescreen edition of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (or Charlie et Le Chocolatier), a copy of Dancer in the Dark, a pair of $12 skinny jeans and a K Records 12″ from 1991 (anyone heard of Duck Hunt?) later, it was 5:30pm and I still wasn’t in the gallery.

Which is all good, last time i was there i remember it being pretty small. So the 2 1/2 hours i had to browse before having to leave for The Strange Boys would be fine. Except it wasn’t. Either my memory sucks or the Centre Pompidou has grown exponentially, because in that time I only made it through about 2/3 of the Elles@Pompidou exhibit. Granted, that’s the biggest one there, being a rehanging of the majority of their collection focusing solely on female artists over the past 100 years. It was probably the best art exhibit i’ve ever been to – absolutely massive in size, with wide range of works that were almost all pretty amazing. But that’s also why I only made it through most of the first floor – skipping the last part of it, the second floor of the permanent collection, the Kandinsky exhibit, and the handful of other ones. I’ll have to go back again.

So I headed to La Mécanique Ondulatoire for the second time, got there around 9, and there was already a band playing! Luckily it wasn’t The Strange Boys, but I caught about 20mins of them and they were pretty awesome. They were called Happy Burger, playing some sweet poppy garage rock. And the venue itself was awesome. It’s a subterranean room under the main bar, and appears to be a converted cellar or something along those lines. It’s a long brick room with a loud PA and a bar at the back, very small and very loud and very fun. Anyway, next up were The Strange Boys and they were heaps of fun. They all look really young, and there was a big sense of playfulness to their music. It was a really great show, so I’ll be sure to catch them again at Green Man… and before then they’re doing HEAPS of gigs through Europe so catch them if you can!

Yesterday I headed along to the Champs-Elysees to catch the end of the Tour De France and meet up with Meg, Liam and Marieke. The others had a long drive and took ages to get there, but it was a good chance to explore the (really busy) area, with all its shops and attractions, before finally meeting up with them and watching the race. The race was fun, and Liam’s knowledge of it made me really want to follow it next year… sounds like there’s a lot of politics behind it, sounds intriguing. Then we went across to the Bastille district for some wine, some dinner, and some more wine… stopping at some really cool little bars. The bar we ate at also had a completely insane woman talking about the secrets of the universe or something, it became annoying quickly though. She was like a David Lynch character. But the bars were ace… we went to a little one called Tape that in particular was very cool, quite small and with good french electronic music playing at just the right volume to enjoy a good conversation. Finished it all off with some ice creams, and it was one great night.

Liam’s gone home but I should be seeing the other two soon, yay! Seeing Meg again was the best thing ever. The next month should be amazing!

Paris is awesome. A few years ago when I came here briefly with the parents I wasn’t such a fan, but now with a proper opportunity to explore it’s a fantastic place. It nicely balances the classic and the contemporary, with a stylish flair that most places can’t handle. In fact, i really need to steal some of the fashion ideas kicking around here, but i probably won’t be able to pull them off unless i lose a hell of a lot of weight. Suffice to say, the hipsters here are beautiful, both the guys and the girls. Plenty of Jeremy Jay and Yelle lookalikes all over the place.

So far i’ve taken it pretty easy here, because I’m not leaving for over a week. The first afternoon i got here, though, i went to see Mahjongg, and it was awesome.

I don’t think fate wanted me to make it there. I was already worn out from an early start and a 6 hour train trip, and i was also halfway into a food coma (my relatives here are so amazingly hospitable). But i decided to go, and as soon as i got out of the metro station it POURED. And i don’t mean “oh crap i might get damp”, i mean “i hope my phone makes it out of this alive” kind of rain.

So finally i got into the bar, a little place called International. On street level it’s a cozy little pub, but downstairs it’s an awesome venue… remniscient of Mandarin Club, but with a better stage and a more clubby kind of interior. The opening band were called Le Club Des Chats, and their name was pretty appropriate… while the lyrics were mostly in French, there was plenty of meowing and references to cats. Musically they were really fun, reminding me a lot of the more lighthearted DIY bands that don’t seem to be around much anymore. They were a boy/girl two piece, for most songs both playing drums, but occasionally with one of them on guitar. So it was really percussive, cutesy music that almost had a slight no-wave influence, and as it went on it got better and better.

And Mahjongg were amazing. On record i’ve enjoyed them, but not loved, but live they absolutely killed it. With a powerhouse drummer fronting the band, they played through a mixture of styles that leaned mostly towards dance – at one bit when they really got going it even sounded like a kind of breakbeat music played live – but at other points there were more rock/indie influences such as liars and dancepunk.

Yesterday was a chilled day… I spent most of the day in, sleeping in and generally chilling out after a hectic week in Italy. In the evening I joined my uncle and cousins for some music hunting, which was pretty great – got a few more cheap Gainsbourg albums and the Atlas Shrugged 7″ among other things, but it was really hard looking through the 12″ section… I even came across a James Blood Ulmer LP on Blue Note, but how the hell am i gonna carry that around Europe?

Then I caught the metro to Bastille and walked up the Rue de la Roquette towards La Mécanique Ondulatoire to see The Strange Boys. I don’t know much about the area but it’s an awesome street, covered in bars and sushi joints and little restaurants. It kind of reminded me of Kings Cross if you got rid of the strip clubs, sleaze and wayward testosterone. I’ll have to return for dinner at some point, maybe when Meg gets here.

I got to La mechanique though, and one of The Strange Boys were sick! So the gig is rescheduled to tonight. So i just had a quiet night in, reading for about three hours. Man that F Scott Fitzgerald is addictive.

Which brings me to here. It’s almost lunchtime. I think i’ll grab some lunch, check out the Pompidou, do a bit of shopping, and go see The Strange Boys. Man, staying with family makes me lazy.

I came to Turin for the most part to see Springsteen, not expecting much at all from the rest of the city. An intriguing sounding cinema museum was enough to make me book two nights, but other than that it was really a gig detour.

So on that note, I’ve kinda liked it.

I got here yesterday afternoon and after a pretty awful walk through the industrial part of town I hit the hostel. It’s gotta be said, this place is pretty unfortunate. It’s hidden in desolate streets in what seems to be a pretty industrial area – too inner-city to have the homely feeling of the suburbs, but too far outside of the action to have any sense of activity. And while the dorms themselves are okay (apart from the dude grinding his teeth last night), the bathrooms are the worst I’ve ever seen – one shower lacks a curtain, one lacks hot water, and they are both a faucet hanging in a bathtub. And don’t get me started on the rest… nasty stuff.

Not to worry though, because I threw my bags straight down and walked down to Stadio Olimpico to finally catch The Boss in action.

Springsteen gigs are obviously a massive deal, but there seems to be way more activity around them in Italy than i’m used to. The surrounds became a marketplace for shameless bootleg vendors, with at least 30 massive stalls set up with fake tshirts, and plenty of snack food vendors also trying to sell their stuff.

Inside the venue was a hive of activity too… In an attempt to get a good spot I got there 2 1/2 hours early, and already the venue was a third full. Unfortunately that meant missing out on being in the inner barricade, but with the spot I got just outside, it wasn’t a big deal.

And the man himself? Amazing. Anyone who half knows his music knows his live reputation so I’ll just say that it was more than fulfilled. Highlights came in the form of Backstreets, Born to Run, 41 Shots and Drive All Night, and ending the three hour set with a ridiculously fun version of Twist And Shout was a good call too. And it was a blast seeing the E Street Band too… Clarence Clemons has unbelievable swagger and Steve Van Zandt’s rock poses with Bruce were awesome.

One thing Bruce knows how to do is put on a performance that feels exactly like an EPIC SPRINGSTEEN GIG. the stage is set up for him to run to the front of the stage and along the length of his end of the stadium all the time, and even the cameras were positioned well, with one of then behind him, ensuring plenty of classic “Springsteen rocking out while facing a massive stadium of fans” moments on the big screen. I was also intrigued by how reminiscent his onstage persona was to that of a pro wrestler… I reckon I know where Hulk Hogan got his crowd-hyping skills from.

So the gig ended, red bull girls were giving out free cans on the way out (do this at every gig pls), and I went to sleep.

Today i afforded myself a sleep in and headed for a walk down Via Roma (the main shopping district, which didn’t offer much) and towards the Museo Nazionale del Cinema. I was hoping it would be good, and it certainly was… taking up almost my entire day, it had a floor dedicated to early light and perspective experiments – the 18-19th century precursors to cinema that wowed people at fairs and exhibitions. I wasn’t expecting it to be so intriguing, but it truly was. It was perfectly staged so that in the space of an hour you went from experiencing early shadowplay, to viewmaster-esque attractions with 3D perspectives (noblewomen gone wild… 1860s 3D porn hell yeah!) to early experiments with animation and projection such as the Zoetrope. Somehow each step still felt like a breakthrough, and with each room you would feel more and more in awe of the technical achievements, despite them being primitive.

The museum continued throughout props, portraits and behind the scenes delights from the world of cinema… things like Superman’s cape, Darth Vader’s helmet, manuscripts for Godfather II and Citizen Kane, Cannes portraits of everyone from Brigitte Bardot to Jim Jarmusch, and a crazy amount of posters.

The museum ended on the ground floor with themed rooms showing clips from films – my fave was the absurdist room with toilets for chairs and fake clouds, but the animation room beats it on account of having original cells from Peter Pan, Fantasia and Yellow Submarine.

The last bit was the lift to the top of the building, a huge dome which was once the tallest building in Europe apparently. The ride itself was surprisingly spectacular, going through the middle of the building’s spiralling interior in a small glass elevator. With a wide open space in the middle of the building connecting it’s 5ish floors with a spiral walkway, it made for a giddy ride up. The view from the top was great too, although ive done a lot of dome panoramas lately.

So after disappointingly finding out that their cinema’s screening of Lars von Trier’s seemingly notirious newie Antichrist was an Italian dub (as cultured as Italy is, even their most film-geeky cinemas show dubs), I got some food and did some exploring before retiring back to the hostel at about 9 to get a good rest before Paris tomorrow. That said, with the intense, Coldplay-fuelled British Brodown happening across the hall, I’m not sure how likely that is.

Goddamn. iPhone had a brain explosion. So here is Florence again. Probably rushed because I’m grumpy, despite listening to Revolver right now.

Florence is awesome. Touristy yes, but it damn near delivers on the promises that pop culture has been making about Italy for years. Sure, they’re impossible to reconcile with reality, but it really is a lovely city.

The first thing that shocked me was the exterior of the Duomo, a gorgeous cathedral adorned with white, green and pink. It would later provide amazing views and a great free tour that illuminated a lot of the city through the stories from within the building.

Also great on my first afternoon was the Academia gallery, which I rushed to after finding out it was shut on Mondays, the main day I had there. It houses the infamous Statue of David, and smartly paired it with an exhibition of Mapplethorpe photographs. Though it leaned moreso towards his penchant for musclebound nudes (I’m more into his portraits), it was an unlikely but awesome pairing. The gallery also had some good Renaissance paintings, though I’m sure the Uffizi would have been a better place for that… Alas it is also closed on Mondays

The streets had plenty of wonder too… Buskers played late at night to bigger crowds than most local gigs I go to (and orchestrated massive Beatles singalongs), while outside the center of town there were great views to be had and pretty parks to explore. The city is small too, and could all be easily explored on foot.

In Florence I was also joined by my friend Melissa, who made exploring the streets of Florence a whole lot more fun. Plenty of gelato, red wine and good times were had, it’s a shame she can’t be around for the rest of the trip!

Right now I’m on a train to Turin, after a brief stop in Milan. 6 or so hours til it’s Springsteen time!

I’m not sure that pop music carries the same weight in Rome as it does in Sydney. The city doesn’t seem to have much in the way of record stores or venues, and the gig listings that I’ve come across seem to have a curiously empty space between (a sparse amount of) smaller local acts and large arena-filling groups – especially compared to other European cities such as Paris and Berlin. Perhaps also telling is the lack of musical exports – the only thing that comes to mind is italian disco, which seems to come from outside Italy more than the name suggests.

Mogwai was a frustrating experience. On one hand, it was Mogwai in an outdoor amphitheater. So it was going to be at least good, if not great, from the get-go. And it must be noted that they almost sold it out – a bigger turnout than Mogwai commanded back home in March.

But everything in its arrangement was so spectatorial that it made it hard to make that connection that pushes a show from good to great. The gigantic semicircular stage had the band a good 7-10 metres from any of their audience, who mostly sat in grandstands where the clicking of cameras and opening of bags was conspicuously audible against the bass-heavy outdoor mix. Adding to distraction were the click-clacking bottles of the gentlemen pacing the aisles selling refreshments, as if post-rock had suddenly become a contact sport. People seemed unsure how to act around a band that work on the contrast of sublime softness and overwhelming noise, cheering at the end of guitar bursts as if the calm remaining moments were an afterthought that followed the music. At best it was a headline slot that felt like a support slot, at worst it had the ambience of a crowd observing a dolphin show at the zoo.

That said, it was Mogwai in an amphitheater, and if you closed your eyes and let the music overtake you, there was a lot to enjoy. Even though it was near-castrated by the drum and bass focused mix (which did improve eventually), New Paths To Helicon I was an unexpected and awesome opener, and towards the end of the show they really started to get into a groove. I’ve seen them do better, but Mogwai are a consistently great live band, and even with tonight’s misgivings it was still a good evening out.

In contrast to greater Europe’s lofty reputation, though, it really does make me glad to live in a city and country with a thriving local scene and punters who love to get everything that they can from visiting musicians.

Two days in Rome has been pretty exhausting. With so many things to see, I’ve walked enough to be sore all over and rather worn out – about 12 hours yesterday and 7 today. The sights have been great – particularly the Colosseum, Vatican City and the Fontana di Trevi, but I’m not quite sure what to make of Rome. Perhaps travelling alone is changing perceptions too, but I’m finding this city hard to fall in love with. It’s an absolute sprawl, with everything spread across the city, and no central area that I’ve managed to come across. Its tourist attractions seem to all be bridged by a kilometre or two of souvenier shops, pizza joints and the odd fashion store, with endless streams of cobblestone sidestreets and alleys surrounding. Many areas are also quite forlorn, with broken windows, dirty streets and scaffolding being the status quo at times. The end result is pretty underwhelming.

Of course, there’s plenty of the sublime too, with the Colosseum being one of the most fascinating remnants of its era and St Peters Basilica a feast for the eyes. And of course, you can’t pretend to know much of a city after 48 hours. But after the exhausting experience of getting from place to place, seemingly with a lack of the fun distractions that most cities have peppered through their streets, I’m sitting on a loud, shuddering bus hoping that Florence will be a bit nicer.

(the bus, by the way, is to the Parco Della Musica to see Mogwai play an outdoor amphitheater… A snap decision made last night that should pay off in spades.)

Hi friends,

Prague was pretty amazing. There is such a rich and tragic history there, and standing in the squares that only a few decades ago saw the best and worst of humanity – death, oppression, hope and revolution. I’ve always been a modern history kind of guy, and seeing video of mass uprisings in the very plaza I kept walking through was pretty incredible and made these momentous moments much more tactile than most historical sightseeing.

In the 3 days there I ate some amazing food (the restaurant today, Maly Buddha, was a highlight with its dimly lit, earthy interior and 30 varieties of green tea), did plenty of wondering, and did some walking tours. The main one was amazing… 6 hours long with a very engaging guide (history/politics major, apparently) really brought the city to life. Sadly the same can’t be said for the complementary ghost tour, which could have maintained a great eerie campsite ghost story vibe if they hadn’t ruined it halfway through with men in costumes jumping out of corners. The key to horror has always been the unknown, and a couple of cash-strapped backpackers in bad 21st party costumes made the tour a writeoff.

Better was Patti Smith last night, who tore apart the small (~1000 person) theatre. In some ways it wasn’t quite up to the Opera House gig last year… It was less celebratory, and Lenny Kaye wasn’t quite as god-like), but in others better – the version of Birdland last night was incredibly intense, and the inclusion of Land was similarly great.

Now, though, i’m at the airport waiting to go to Rome, using Internet that is free with a drink (though a beer is 90 crowns, or about $6… About three times the price of the insanely cheap half litre beers in the city’s restaurants.) Will be getting into Rome late tonight, ready for plenty of solo exploring tomorrow – dad’s about to get his flight home, so it’s me on my own for a bit!

So it’s my last day in Viena, and it was time to see what the city’s galleries had to offer. Since I have one day and the city has an obscene amount of galleries, I decided to check some modern art.

First on the agenda (after a brief look through the St Stephans cathedral) was the Kunsthaus, an independent gallery (the city’s first) designed by painter, architect and general eccentric renaissance man Hundertwasser.

Unfortunately the exhibition floor was in transition, but the two floors of Hundertwasser retrospective was awesome. Though I found his visual art hit and miss (the hits were amazing, though) his sense of adventure and ideas for society were awesome. His plan for a township that weaves through the landscape was beautiful, and his involvement in flags and postage stamps was at the very least intriguing, and often quite brilliant. The building itself was part of the attraction too, being a bold, unusual construction among an otherwise drab neighbourhood. With grass on the roofing and uneven tiled floors, it was a bit of an experience.

After that we walked to the Daube, which was really not worthwhile, had we not run into Vienna’s fairground. While being pretty tame compared with massive theme parks, it was a really nice thing to run into, with plenty of over the top happiness everywhere. It also gave me the chance to be photographed with DINOSAURS. We also went on a ferris wheel from the late 1800s, which was apparently the last thing standing in the entire park after WW2. It was certainly more historic than fun, but worthwhile nonetheless.

Dad opted for a nap so I used the time to check out Austria’s modern art museum, MUMOK. It had a grea retrospective of Cy Twombly, who I wasn’t familiar with, but some of his work was quite staggering. The best part though was a floor dedicated to the graduates of Black Mountain College and related artists, including Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and others.

Now I am having iced tea and using wireless at the maccas near the hotel, so it’s probably time for dinner. Tonight, I think it’s a restaurant that serves hotpots from around the world!