Pole Position
Small Music Festival > Big Music Festival.
This equation continues to prove itself time and time again, most recently with Festival Nowa Muzyka that we played a couple of nights ago in Cieszyn, Poland. The smaller size affords us more time to hang with our hosts, not to mention all the positives that come with playing to a smaller crowd. Not that Glastonbury wasn’t fantastic, it’s just so giant and the audience is about 50 metres from the stage.
In Canada we’re blessed with very small festivals like the Wolfe Island Music Festival, or the multi-stage but still small festivals like the Hillside and Dawson City Music Festivals. (I’ve been lucky enough to play all three!) Festival NowaMuzyka is well on its way to such levels of awesomeness. Especially if they continue to book bands like Battles, who battled through major technical issues to deliver a blistering finale of a set.
In celebration of Battles’ conquest, Brian rode the red bull for all it was worth and we discussed the almost always ill-fated idea that is the opening band “spontaneously” joining the headlining band for the last song of their set as evidenced by yours truly on one of the drums in this sad clip (note: Brian thinks the clip isn’t so bad, we’ve agreed to disagree).
Now we’re in the Norwegian town of Bergen, which is easily one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. A big festival canceled but some local promoters picked up the pieces and we’re lucky enough to have been invited here to play a small show tomorrow night. It’ll still be light out when we hit the stage at 11:30 pm. The last time I did that I was in Dawson City, Yukon. Which reminds me, happy Canada Day!
festivals, battles, poland | Comment (0)(B)asshole
From the Don’t-try-this-at-home Files: don’t throw your principal instrument to the ground the night before playing the biggest festival of your life cuz it could very well break in two:
My poor bass had taken so much similar punishment in the past, but I guess it was fed up with my idiocy and decided to teach me a lesson. Ah well, like they say: you win some, you lose some. Or, in this case, you lose the championship game by scoring in your own net.
Thankfully, Biffy Clyro was kind enough to loan me one of their back-up basses to get through Glastonbury, saving me from having to use the cheapest bass in all of the United Kingdom, that I had purchased in Bristol during a mad scramble earlier in the day (and that broke three songs into last night’s set in Cieszyn, Poland). It all worked out fine in the end and we made it through our John Peel Stage set.
Thankfully for us, Glastonbury was not muddy in the least, so I was able to take it in with relative ease. The rest of the guys earned their Glastonbury stripes by trudging through the slop last year, but I got off easy. A guy like me needs to be eased into a festival like Glastonbury though, since its population is greater than that of my home province.
Matt and I caught White Denim blowing the roof off the Queenshead Stage and then Buddy Guy tearing it up with his way-too-slick band on the Jazz World stage. Now if White Denim was Buddy Guy’s band we’d be talking about serious shit.
easyJet took us to Poland the next day. It seems to me that their baggage handlers could stand to take a cue from their courteous flight attendants and not treat my bass like a Guantanamo detainee. But then it’s clear that I don’t treat the bass much better myself…
And on that note of self-defeat, I will retire to my quarters at Katowice’s Stadion Slaski (no idea how we ended up staying at a soccer stadium, but it is kinda neat) and prepare some photographic evidence for a recap of our time in Poland.
poland, easyjet, dumb, glastonbury | Comment (0)
