Little Sister

Europe has re-ignited my love for a lot of different kinds of music. Or, my desire to rediscover things and learn about older eras. The time-warp/everything-but-the-kitchen sink quality of what's popular was first annoying and is now really fun.

Right now my mind is on early rock and rockabilly...last weekend kids at that cabaret were dancing and having a blast to Roy Orbison, and yesterday in a cafe in Bratislava, I heard "Little Sister" and thought, that's it, I have to start listening to Elvis.

Bratislava was a dark Prague, a little sister in a way. It felt much more recently-communist, and featured lots of crumbling, graffiti-bombed buildings. I went with my writer friend Pat and we talked music nonstop while not at the festival or seeing the few sights in town: a "bland castle" (way to sell it, guidebook), the UFO-esque Novy Most and a communist-built housing community for nearly 200,000 towering blandly behind it. There was a charming Old Town, where we saw a particularly hilarious stag party clash with chanting football fans, and other random slices of life. Best of all, we stumbled onto a fish soup festival, where everyone was cooking from wood-burning cauldrons! The park smelled amazing. 100 Slovak crowns bought you four kinds of soup. There were teams, many singing and playing accordion, and the police team's soup was the best I tried.

Wilsonic Festival: I had no idea how foxy Christian Fennesz is. The man wore a leather jacket while creating mountain-sized feedback on his guitar and laptop...I got 100% lost in his 20 minutes of music. The sound was way off for Apparat, and his fellow singer was not very good, so I regret to report that that was disappointing. Skream played a ferocious set around 3 a.m. Hearing dubstep on a huge soundsystem is the only way to go. And the damn smoke machine actually felt appropriate, as everyone danced in a murky golden fog.

I had a dance partner for most of 2562's set- people were very friendly although nobody was speaking English. I kind of felt like I had crashed Slovakia's party that way. The surprise of Friday night was Montreal's Deadbeat, who absolutely killed it. I wasn't on assignment for once, and being a tourist I drank too much pivo, so you'll have to take the tourist's word that it was blissful music. We ran into him and complimented him later, and he was very gracious to my drunk ass in particular. Sheesh.

Saturday night was interesting as the line-up was heavy on locals, so I just wandered and soaked it all (and only a couple of beers) in. Czech hip hop guys Indy & Wich were excellent performers. Like listening to MC Solaar (who raps in French), it'd be nice to understand the lyrics, but the music and flow still sounds great. If I can figure out how to upload my little videos of them, I will. And I'd like to recommend MC Solaar's "Obsolète," which someone put on a mix for me in college...where are all those mixes people gave me?? God there was a long time in my life when every new friendship began with a mix trade, and certainly every new or might-be romance. Bring it back, sing it back to me...

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Now that my most major assignments at the Post are done, I can talk about my big adventure!

As Ross gears up to attend #1 on this list- and I'm so jealous!!- I'll be heading to #3, Synch Festival, this weekend in Athens!!!! My grandmother went to Greece in her 80s I believe, and it was a very big deal. Because of that I always thought of the place as ancient, special, somewhat unreachable. I feel super lucky and amazed to get to go at this time in my life. I'll be working so if interested you can read my review for RA afterward. There's some downtime on Saturday and I look forward to exploring the Plaka and maybe a beach. I read that outdoor cinema is a big thing, and there's a few with views of the Acropolis. I probably won't get to that, but wow!!!