Yesterday my travel buddy Em gave me two tickets to see Gogol Bordello at their one and only gig in Canada this year. It just happens to be in Vancouver, a couple of days after we are due to arrive and a few days before my birthday, and the venue is only 500m from our hotel.
Oh, it's just all so wonderful.
Years ago (1989?) I was travelling round Northern Italy with my boyfriend and we found ourselves being driven around Milan late at night in a raging storm in the teeny-tiniest little car, that doesn't have a red doors and a plastic yellow roof and that you push along with your feet, by an Italian soldier who was trying to outrun the military police and get us to the railway station for the midnight departure to somewhere.
Cowardice being the better part of valour, we ran like fuck when he slowed to walking pace and opened the doors, and got on the first train we saw. It was absolutely packed to the ceiling with a Dark Side of Pink Floyd fans who were on their way to Venice to see them perform on a big floating pier in front of St Mark's square. We changed our plans and went along for the ride. A lighter in the air affair, but one to remember with great pleasure.
Does anyone remember Archaos? They toured and then camped out on Clapham Common in the early 1990s for a couple of summers and juggled flaming chainsaws while doing wheelies on the wall of death on motorcycles. The first time I went to see them I came out in a daze, it was like a 3D virtual Mad Max circus, but real. You just don't get entertainment like that anymore, outside Moss Side.
Any favourite nights out...?
5 comments:
Pearl Jam gig we went to in Sydney was brilliant, sound was great, songs were great. It wasn't a wild night out but it sure was a night to remember. Having said that, I actually don't remember having wild nights lately. Bummer. I will have to keep my eyes peeled for any possible wild-style event.
Archaos were bloody brilliant, in a fucking insane way. I saw them in Edinburgh in about '89. It was a bit touch and go, because they'd staged a motorbike ramp jump in Princes Street at rush hour, and a few local worthies wanted to deport them.
Channel 4 televised the show later that year. It was OK, but you couldn't smell the sweat and cordite.
I bought the Gogol Bordello album on your recommendation and it is fab bet it will be amazing to see them live.
Hi gaye, hope you're settling in well.
Health and Safety - pah! I'd like to see a recording of it now and see how it compares to my memories of the show.
Tallulah, am so thrilled you enjoyed it!
Jeez Health & Safety, now there's a thought! If they were performing nowadays they'd probably be banned from anything more dangerous than jumping off a stepladder (provided there was a safety net of course). But I gather they disbanded after their tent was destroyed by gales in Dublin.
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