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| Tour Sponsored by Zildjian , Pirelli and Les 7 Portes |
Journal entries:
February 26 - March 12 Friday February 26 After a giant stress to get on the road we were driving by 1:00 p.m. or so towards Brezno, Slovakia - our first destination of the tour. The whole car was packed to the gills with our instruments, film equipment, bags and the four of us: Chris, Hilary, Christine and Nchan. Christine and Nchan already had the touring mindset as they had traveled from France to join us for the tour and they had essentially already been on the road for a few days. Any jealousy about who was on the road first soon faded as we realized we were all on the road together. No problems at all at the Czech-Slovak border. We prepared a Carnet de Passage for the car and a full list of all equipment, but no one asked for anything. Making an incorrect decision about the highways we ended up driving over the Tatra Mountain National park-the first real test of our 4-wheel drive and suspension. It was beautiful, but time consuming. Naturally, we arrived in Brezno a bit late for the show. The lateness of our arrival did not seem to matter that much to the people who were waiting. We played a great show as SABOT and met a lot of new friends as well as discussing things with Miro Lanik, who not only promoted the show, but is also an old friend. We slept at a typical housing complex on the student campus. Sipping coffee at the Aral gas station the next morning we had a superb view of the mountains capped with early Spring snow. Saturday February 27 Still in the beautiful Slovak mountains we began our journey to Hlohovec, Slovakia. The place we played was called Bar Bar, and although we had never met the people running the venue they turned out to be wonderful, helpful and especially supportive. The trip was quite short compared to the day before and we were happy to be able to sleep a bit as the previous week we had slept only 3-4 hours per night due to super heavy last minute preparations. The owners and workers at Bar Bar were really special. Ivan and Heno (the owners) had started a business a few years ago distributing plastic pipe. Upstairs in the same building they have a nightclub which seemed to be the only form of night entertainment available for young people in Hlohovec. That evening we performed the first collaboration of the tour. We played with Simulacrum (formerly Einleitungzeit) from Slovakia. We met them originally as participants in the Orient to Occident festival at CESTA in 1997. We invited them to prepare something together and it worked well, more or less an improvisation on a post industrial theme. They played computers, samples and metal percussion, and we added our brand of complex rock. Sunday February 28 The day was mostly spent preparing to fix the rear suspension of the car. We had not completely tested it with a full load yet and the back was really dragging ( it would not be the last time we worked on the suspension during the trip). Ivan and Henry hooked us up with an old garage mechanic who added some extra leaf springs to the back and front suspension systems. We learned on the next drive that even these additions wouldn't be enough. We also took advantage of Ivan and Heno's email and computer for some last minute communications. Monday March 1 We traveled to Budapest, Hungary. Again, no problems at the border. Upon arriving we met the most wonderful people: Adel Rozsavölgyi and her husband Loci. We had never met Adel. She is a friend of Tamas from Trottel and he had suggested that we ask her to use her cinema (Cirko Gejzir) as a meeting place for the collaborations we were planning. In addition to agreeing that we could use the Cirko Gejzir for a meeting and workshop the next day, Adel and Loci made us a wonderful dinner and we felt at home staying with them. The Cirko Gejzir is an alternative cinema in it's first year at it's new location by the Danube. Their calendar included films from Iran, Spain and Hungary and we even saw The Crying Game on one of our free afternoons. Adel told us that they also organize film festivals with movies by and about Gypsies, Gays and Lesbians and other minorities. Tuesday March 2 Spent the day attempting to have a series of meetings with local artists and musicians. Unfortunately due to a lack of preparation we were unsuccessful in arranging anything, but we learned from the experience. The most important thing we arranged was a clear repair plan for the car suspension at an out of the way garage that specializes in leaf spring suspensions. Wednesday March 3 The entire morning and afternoon we spent getting the suspension repaired, and although it wasn't cheap the mechanics found the perfect solution to our suspension problems. Now we were confident to cross the Himalayas. We left in a rush to get to Eger, Hungary on time. We were really happy to arrive at the Mas Klub in Eger as the place was the most clear example of a 'self managed' independent youth club we had seen so far in Hungary. The show was pretty normal by SABOT standards, and the people very open and friendly. Our contact Misi was sick, but we met and dealt with all the others involved with the club though without the advantage of a translator. Thursday March 4 Traveling to Miskolc, Hungary that day was not such a problem and when we arrived at the classic culture house environment in the midst of a concrete jungle of apartment buildings we felt like we were back home in the Czech republic. The concert event in Miskolc was set up by some local fans and music distribution people running a company called Ragaly. We played with a few local bands, a poet and there was also a photo exhibition of the history of the punk/ underground movement in Miskolc. Our friend Sergey Deviatkin (a doctor of science from the Ukraine and a music fan we have known for years) was at the show. Sergey has been working in Hungary for years at the University of Miskolc and had set up our first concert in Miskolc in 1993. The show this time was good and the people seemed very happy that we were there, but we did not succeed in forming any collaborations due to the time constraints of having too many bands on the bill. Unfortunately Chris' Gauss 18 inch speaker was blown during the concert by one of the other bands. We couldn't fix it there, but fortunately Chris had a spare speaker back in Tabor. We weren't that far from home yet, but we needed to arrange for someone to bring it to Budapest for our show there. We called ho me and our CESTA co-administrator, Dimitri, agreed to bring it in time for the Saturday Budapest concert. Sweetheart. Friday March 5 Very long drive to Pecs for a concert in the University with some local groups including a pretty comical industrial act that seemed to be very popular. It was the first Underground Rock Festival in Pecs and we were honored to be invited. Again, no time to form collaborations, but we had a great time just playing and meeting the mostly University student crowd. Saturday March 6 Back to Budapest for the event that was set up by the notorious Tamas from Trottel - a mini fest type show at the famous Black Hole. This show was particularly interesting for us as the first concert we ever played in Hungary was at this venue. In fact the sound person remembered us and said he remembered that show because in his opinion it was the best sound ever at the club... that was about 10 years ago! Lots of people came to the show from the underground music scene and Dimitri made it to Budapest from Tabor with a replacement speaker for the blown Gauss 18. We left right after the show and began our marathon drive to Constanta, Romania. Sunday March 7 DRIVING ALL NIGHT AND ALL DAY, in a bit of a tense mood especially driving on Romanian highways (if they can be called that). Continuing our good border luck, we had no problems. Finally we arrived and were met by the greatest angel of them all - Marian, the alternative energy engineer who Hilary met hiking in the Carpathian mountains about a year before. Marian had arranged that we could stay at the guest house area of the Alternative Energy Resources Laboratory complex where he works. The complex was a maze of discontinued alternative energy experiment right on the Black Sea coast. It was a very tranquil place. We slept incredibly well and were relieved to be in good hands. Monday March 8 Daytime event set up (as all Romanian events) by Marian at a local "art high school." The school is fascinating in and of itself. More than 1,000 students; ages ranged from 12 to 17. The curriculum is based on art and music studies and the high school degree from the school is accredited nationally. We played alone as SABOT and together with Arthur's Jazz, a local jazz group featuring a very talented young trumpet player. The show was similar to famous SABOT show in Siberia where we played to an audience of children. This was similar and by the time we finished playing the students STORMED the stage all insisting on autographs. The students loved the music and we played well with Arthur's Jazz as well. Tuesday March 9 The day was spent looking around Constanta, filming and recording. In the evening we played at the local club called Phoenix to a more or less jazz audience and many friends of Marian's. The Phoenix club has all the aesthetic elements of a West European nightclub, but the owners related tales of the difficulties to operate a business like that in a country with such grave economic problems. No money, no customers. Arthur's Jazz played on the bill with us again, but they were too afraid to jam together with us again so it was just a concert with the two groups. Wednesday March 10 We stayed in Constanta and made some use of the computer and other resources at the Alternative Energy Resources Laboratory where we were still staying, even though Marian had left town. Thursday March 11 Another crazy drive to Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Improperly estimated travel time made us quite late, but no catastrophe. We were met at the train station by the SWEETHEART Boris and rushed to the venue- a small bar where the other band and audience were waiting for us. The setup was a bit harried, but the event was successful and after the show we ate with Boris' family at their home. Boris and his family run a small magazine and newpaper kiosk nestled in between various market stalls on an open market street. In fact the whole neighborhood at night looked like a container storage field, but when the sun came up the containers opened up to reveal a whole world of products for sale. Boris and his family have two small houses behind their kiosk. They fed us, housed us and their generosity was incredible and warm. Friday March 12 Looking around Plovdiv with Boris. We were able to get our last immunizations (for meningitis) and spend our last night in Plovdiv chatting with Boris, his family and friends. |