2am Saturday morning, Martin and Pablo arrive to pick me up for a one off gig in Slovakia.
Having had a bit of an odd week, with not much sleep, and only a couple of substandard practice sessions, and only one of them with Pablo, I have to say I was pretty nervous about playing.
I guess my nerves weren't being helped by the fact that just two weeks ago we'd played an awesome show at the Hobgoblin, and I was a bit worried that we were about to fall flat on our faces and play really shitly... not that it would have mattered quite as much as it would have if it had been a local show, I mean, it's not like I'd see any of the people again, but still, nerves were present nonetheless.
Our flight was on schedule and some time around 6am we were up up and away. First attempt at getting some sleep, and it wasn't too bad, as far as I'm aware I slept for 95% of the flight, and in no time we had arrived in Bratislava.
We didn't spend any time in Bratislava last August when we played a small tour in Slovakia, so it was cool to see somewhere new.
I have to say that it was probably the coldest I've been for a very long time! Apparently it was 5 degrees, but I think that's a lie, it was more like minus 57 billion, and it was rainy and windy and within about half an hour I had an aswer to the question of whether my shoes were water proof or not.
So what now? We're in Slovakia, it's 10am, it's raining, it's freezing, and we don't have to be at the venue until 7pm. Hmm.
First of all we go and store our guitars at the train station storage room, which was a bargain! For 24hrs it cost less than 3 Euros... then we headed off in to town, and saw some really cool buildings, including the presidential palace/house type thing, lots of arty statue thingys and lots of mounds of ice which I assume was snow that had been piled up out of the way.
Why do I not have any photos to show you? Because it was bloody freezing and wet!
Ok ok, I'll try to avoid mentioning the wind/rain/cold now.
After a nice little walk around town, which was also a bit bizarre as the majority of shops don't open on a Saturday here, we find a little door between two shops, which takes us to a small alley and a queue of people waiting for a little vegetarian restaurant to open, which is ran by Hare Krishnas.
After a short wait, the restaurant opens and we all go inside. It's a nice little place, with lots of paintings of Krishna, who I believe is decsended from Smurfs, as he is blue. I may be wrong though. He seems to be a bit of a player as well, as in most of the paintings, he has various ladies hanging off him, so I'm obviously doing something wrong.
I might debut the blue look at my next gig, see if I get any action.
The Hare Krishnas are not allowed to sell food, so the way it works is that if you order the large portion, which you pay for, you can then go and have as many more servings as you like. I think that's how they keep the place going.
So for breakfast/lunch, I had a serving of pumpkin and potato stuff, with rice, cucumber, olives, peppers, and a bowl of tomato soup. It was nice, I should have taken a photo for my friend Connie who has a strange fetish for photographing food... (if you don't believe me, read her blog http://gapyearforeating.blogspot.com/)
After our foodingz, we're off for another little walk about town, where we spot a bunch of English tourists, and avoid them like bird flu.
Eventually we decided it was too cold windy and wet (sorry!) to do much else so we head to a little bar. This bar turned out to be a sort of home from home, it's a Spanish bar, and what are they playing? Manu Chao, so immediately I'm a happy bunny!
My bodys alcohol level was in need of a top up, so it was time for a beer. I put my shoes and socks to dry on the heating grid on the floor which melted a pattern in to my shoes, bit did the trick. But as soon as we left, I was soaked through again.
Martin manages to get hold of the promoter and we are able to get in to the venue at 5pm, so with a little more time to kill, we go to yet another cafe/bar. This one was racing car themed, and was playing some really cheesey chart rap and R&B tunes, which were quite entertaining, in a music-studying kind of way. Infact, it kind of inspired me, but more on that in a future blog.
It's a caramel Latte for Drewvis. Boy did that do the trick. If I'd had 2 I think I would have literally been a jibbering wreck!
5pm comes so we head to the station and pick up our instruments and hop on a few busses to the venue, which is a converted WWII underground bunker called the SubClub.
Fortunately, I had the sense to bring another pair of shoes and socks with me, so I could finally change in to something dry. The venue is quite long, for anyone that has been to one of the clubs under the seafront arches in Brighton, it's kind of like one of those. The PA was very loud, and we had a really good sound guy for the evening. One of the other bands (Bublifunk) were also getting the gig filmed and photographed professionally, so that was a bit of a bonus (there will be footage and pics up on myspace/facebook pages asap). From what I can tell, they are the local popular band, and I really enjoyed their music, which was your typical ska/punk sound, sans brass, but with a flute and accordian thrown in for good measure. Infact, the flute really added something for me as it's quite an unusual instrument to have in a band of this type.
Slovakia is quite strange in terms of language, it seems that a lot of people understand English, but tend to not speak it, so it's great to have Martin there to translate when needed. One great thing about this particular show is that we had the pleasure of playing with Brighton Ska legends the Hotknives, so it was nice to be able to speak to some other English people, and fellow Brightonians at that!
Sound check comes and goes, and we head off to the back stage area to chill out, we're on at 8.30pm, and I think it's about time to top up that alcohol level again, I feel the dutch courage-o-meter needing a bit of a kick.
8.15pm arrives and Martin recommends that we go out in to the venue to take a look.
We head out front and can't believe our eyes. The place is already packed. How on earth can it go from there being nobody but bands around, to an almost full venue in the space of half an hour?! Well somehow it happened, and I'd be lying if I said we didn't crap our pants. Metaphorically of course, but very very close to physically.
The time comes to get up on stage... the adrenaline kicks in and as soon as I've introduced myself and Pablo, we knock out the first tune of the night. The crowd reacts immediately, dancing, clapping and generally going crazy - they were loving it! And so were we!
I've never experienced anything quite like this before... and all the time spent in the freezing cold, being soaking wet and tired was all suddenly worth it, for this moment. This gig really made it clear to me why I do what I do. I've found myself questioning myself many times in the past, and tonight it couldn't have been any clearer to me.
The crowd would respond when I spoke to them, they'd sing along when I asked them to, and they'd clap along too. These people really really appreciate music. One kid was practically glued to the front railing for the entire set and seemed to be mezmerised, and was really appreciative when we gave him a CD! He seemed to be amazed by the fact we had no drummer...
If only every gig could be like this!
I had discussed this with the Hotknives later on in the evening, and it seems that over here it's a bit saturated, there's too many shows and people are spoilt for choice, which in a way spoils the scene a little. Even I can remember a time when just about everyone and their dog would go to the Concorde 2 once a month for the Brighton Punk Rocks shows which had a line up of around 10 bands and everyone was in to it, and danced and enjoyed themselves. These days, most shows are poorly attended and the ones that are busy, people just stand and watch rather than dancing and participating, they can be hard work.
But anyway, tonight, we were blessed with the best audience anyone could have wished for, and it was easily the furthest thing from hard work.
45 minutes later we leave the stage feeling on top of the world, and head backstage for a celebratory beer (naturally!).
The rest of the night was equally as fun, talking to people (as best we could), dancing and enjoying the other bands, Bublifunk, The Last Minute (from Hungary) and also the Hotknives, and then Martin DJing, along with his friend Muso of the Respect Vibration Sound System, who had a habit of feeding us home made vodka, bad bad man. But we love him.
By 4am I was functioning purely on alcohol and that crazy lack of sleep energy that seems to kick in once you reach a certain point.
I'll be completely honest with you, I have no memory of leaving the venue... I have a vague memory of a bus to the station, and eating a schnitzel, and I remember nothing after that until getting on the plane home.
I'm not sure how I managed to escape a hangover the next day as I'm fairly certain I drank more than my body weight in beer, but I'm certainly not complaining!
I would happily do this every weekend if I could afford to. This is why I do what I do.
Special thanks to Martin (Special Squad) for sorting everything out for us!
