2012-12-08 Zimný Žákovic Open - Le Payaco, Walter Schnitzelsson

click for fullscreen slideshow

I am still not sure how I feel about a friday night at the MMC club. First of all, I should thank my friend Martin "Soki" (maybe you remember him from PJ's 2012 Prague and Berlin show) for the opportunity to even go there. He won this ticket contest you see, and as he was in North.Slovakia, he couldn't pick it up. So he sent me instead.

Long story short, I got there a little late, but not for my favourite Hex songs. I tried to capture the moment on camera when I found out I'd left the battery at home. Being on my own, I decided to go back, so it really was a festival feeling for me - getting in and out of sets. When I got back after hurrying in chilly night, Le Payaco was already in full power, allowing me to immerse into the songs and take some photos. The band was much, much better than when I last saw them at the Pohoda Festival a year ago.

I could feel the band and the audience were sharing the moment. They were over way too soon for me, and even hough the evening was peaking with the next new band, quirkily named Walter Schnitzelsson. You should really see their unique train station performance in Bratislava here:
http://tv.sme.sk/v/25219/ani-policia-nezastavi-rocknroll.html
Again, I had to flee from their performance to catch the night bus way too soon, and so the Friday's Zakovic Open Festival still resonates in me a bit.

2012-12-01 Adventsmarkt Hainburg

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What a marvelous idea! I finally got a weekend afternoon trip out, thanks to Nadja. We were choosing between several locations close to Karlova Ves, Bratislava, where we live. Our close wine centers, Modra, Pezinok and Svätý Jur were all among the choices, but in the end, Nadja had a brilliant idea. "Why don't we just take the Bratislava public close-border transport and go to Hainburg, Austria instead?"

Long story short, two hours later we were on the bus. 20 minutes ride (shorter to some parts of Bratislava) took us to a small town on the other side of Austrian border, which is known in Slovakia for:
- the first mass trip from post-communist Bratislava to Western Europe ("Hello Europe" in Nov 1989 - see http://www.slovensko1989-90.sk/, part fifteen)
- shopping - for some reason, things are cheaper in Austria, where people have their wages 4-5 times the Slovak ones. Facts of life.

So we went here for a third reason - to sightsee and enjoy ourselves. Both of which we fulfilled to a high degree. We were lucky tho, because when we arrived, we found out, that there was a Advent market with charities offering Christmas products, punch, mulled wine and so on, so of course we had a sip of the orange punch and went for a stroll around the city, trying out two caffés, loosing Nadja's ring on the way unfortunately, taking photos along the way. These you can see up here of course. Cheers!

2012-11-23 Živé Kvety U Očka, Bratislava, SK

Testing my new Tokina 11-16mm lens and this photo widget to show my pictures also in HTML5 with appropriate music. But enough technicalities, enjoy the show as we certainly did with Nadja, who managed to get through the show without falling asleep, which was really admirable after a long first week at work.

2012-07-04 Pearl Jam, Berlin #3

Back to the previous night, of the glorious Prague show

After the Pearl Jam show in Prague, we'd been left one day of pub crawling with my sister, who has shown us her favourite spots to have good Czech beer and spend her studies. One was a spot, where the football fans hang out (thankfully, no rowdies or hooligans), and one, where Slovaks supposedly hang out in Prague, Cross (we've seen no Slovaks there either, but you can't check everyone for nationality, can you? ;)

Anyway, shortly after she bid us farewell at the local tube/tram/train station. Here we were crowded not by Pearl Jam fans, like the night before, but TJ Sokol (an old Czech gymnastics movement) members of all ages and corners of Czech Republic. A certainly interesting sight, being cornered by an enthusiastic crowd like that.

But back to Pearl Jam..

4th July
~12 AM: Thanks to our friends from Orava, we were safely and quickly escorted to the new Berlin O2 World arena, where we found fan club friends already lining up, camping near the site, using flags as sunshades. It wasn't that easy to join them though, because due to a failed pre-sale, we were left without fan club tickets and early entry wristbands. Thankfully, there were fan clubbers buying only one ticket and generous enough to help us out with the spare wristbands they received. It was bit nervewracking and not the first thing that day to make us worry.

~4 PM: Here's another thing. We've just entered the fan line for the time being, when we're mugged by these "friendly" o2 world security people, that in 30°C heat it's unreasonable to keep a water bag! Yes, you heard me. A water bag, one of those bicycle bag ones. As a "hard rock fan" and therefore, criminal, I was asked the spill (!) the remaining water on the ground below the nearest recycling bin. What a waste! (and what thirst later on) None of the common sense arguments working, of course, this being Germany.

~5.45 PM: By this time, thanks to a rigorous lady in the line, we'd been all lined according to our handwritten, blackpoint-penned numbers, starting from those camping near the site the previous night and roughly finishing with us as being somewhere under 200. What an effort! Excerpt from two German old ladies and some anarchists, these numbers were folllowed to the letter, once we were oficially let in the front rows of the arena (without our water bag or camera, but with an escorting corridor of security people..)

~7.15 PM: In the front we meet fellow friends again, cheering for the X at their rehearsal, and when they play, I remember the story I heard from one of the Polish guys in fron of the arena. They were driving to the show as we did, but they were lucky enough to meet X at a gas station, asking them to play a specific song The World's A Mess, It's In My Kiss. And that is the song X now of course play.

~9 PM: Long Road is the song, with which Pearl Jam opens a long, but also a bit wilder show than the one in Prague: Why Go/Given to Fly/Fixer is intertwined with an unbelievable Faithful and Small Town and fast again into Got Some/Corduroy/In My Tree/Even Flow. The It's Okay tag in the song Daughter is a first hint to The Ramones, and their Berlin museum, visited by Ed and the band the night before. Another one, the cover of I Believe in Miracles follows a lively edition of State of Love and Trust/Immortality/Lukin and Unthought Known. Following the Ramones cover, the atmosphere is really getting very intensive and during the last song of the set, Rearviewmirror, Ed tries to protect the people pushed in front of him.

When he comes back on stage, Eddie relaxes the atmosphere with The End/Just Breathe and something really Hard To Imagine. After this gem, the crowd, the band, Mike McCready, us together, it all comes into one big whirl during Once/Evolution,and even during old, wild, but also introspective numbers like Jeremy or Leash. There is an outburst of energy in the air for Black/Alive, and when they end, to our big surprise, the guitarist in front of us is younger, more confident.. and NOT Michael McCready.

A young boy is pushed forward and handed the guitar by Mr. McCready himself. He doesn't waver at all - we can see he has already spent many days on stage and rehearsing with the band, which he is now a very poignant member of. So who is he to make Stone and Jeff weave their solos around him?



It is Ray Cameron, son of Matt Cameron, who proudly supports his son for a once-in-a-lifetime edition of Neil Young's Rocking in the Free World. Everyone is happy and exhausted at this moment, but the night's only over after were treated with Indifference and the band saving their best for last. Or wait, they're also here tommorow? Who're they're going to bring with? What will they play to complement this magival evening?

To be continued...

2012-07-02 Pearl Jam Prague #2

Here I am, again The same place, different venue (this also applies to Berlin). Prague. The last time I went here, it's my first show. Now, with 10 other show under my belt, it feels a lot different. Much more at ease. And I am happy to agree with Jessica Letkemann (in her Prague review for TwoFeetThick.com`; she's also a Spin, Billboard.com editor),that "time seems to stop and all the best ingredients are fully present"

6 AM:Not all is the same. Even though I have traveled here again with a Student Agency bus (a very early, yet comfy 4hr ride from Bratislava) with my cousin, a PJ first-timer as I was back then. We are now a traveling group of friends, I am arriving at the city which is both a base for my sister and her namesake Kristina, our mutual friend from my first stay in London.

Once we arrive at the venue with my sister and the gang, I can see that it looks a bit different, more o2-ish than the one which 6 years ago sported a bronze memorial inside that read "built in spite many and against many...developed by Czech minds and built by Czech, Slovak and Ukrainian hands" and some very interesting insights by the venue's creator, such as "every iniative and success in Czech Republic will be rightfully punished." Very PJish, I thought then.

Aside from all those new O2 logos, right off we see a small "10C entrance sign", a HUGE and a smaller Polish flag (smaller on the picture below). Right next to it are Justyna, Magda, Filip, Maciek, Adam and scores of other Polish fans which I know so well by now from all the tours before (the ones with whom we famously chanted "you-forgot-Poland" to PJ 6 years ago)

From 2012-07-02 Pearl Jam Praha

12 AM The "Touring Poles" had been camping here from early morning and started of waiting line list, where we sign our names in lucky slots 67-68-69 and in turn they sign our Slovak flag (an idea which I longed to realized since I first saw that sea of Polish flags back then).

3.30 PM:In the 10c ticket line we meet Jessica from New York, the editor; Sandra from London and other fans from all over the world (spanning from Brasil to Greece, maybe beyond). They all came or flew in to have tremedous fun and are hanging around the site tossing frisbees, chatting, crowding the nearby mall.

From 2012-07-02 Pearl Jam Praha

6 PM: It's 15 minutes to the early entry and we're frantically trying to find someone responsible for a luggage area, which according to tens of bemused O2 workers "usually opens after six". I leave Nadja and Danka in their spots in 10c entrance line, while I am waiting for someone to show up and relieve me of three rucksacks. At the line, they start letting people in. After 10 minutes or so, two youngsters appear casually at the luggage "caravan" and I run off to the entry number four, where I can hear the security signalling "public gates clear to open!" I realise that I am probably among the very last lucky early entry ten clubbers to enter the arena.

Here I find Nadja and Danka at Mike's (the guitarist) side. I join them in the second row and before the show a small Slovak circle gathers around us: my cousin with his friend, our friends from Orava; Kristina with her mom and boyfriend, whom I meet for the first time here in a PJ crowd.

7.30 PM: I thoroughly enjoy the opening set from the band "X", while we marvel at the guitarist Billy Zoom's style, which Nadja describes as "I'm sexy and I know it.." Eddie joins the lead singer Exene Cervenka and bassist/singer John Doe for the last song of their 45 min set, Devil Doll.

From 2012-07-02 Pearl Jam Praha

9 PM: Pearl Jam opens their set with Sometimes, one of my favourite No Code numbers and then drives into an energetic 19-song set, dashing out the likes of God's Dice (with Eddie dedicating the song to the "God's eye " of the O2 Arena and wrongly citing "Oliver" Wilde), Setting Forth (only played twice in Europe), Push Me, Pull me (with its very odd rhytm only played the 10th time ever), a beautiful rendition of Garden (my first time for this one) 1/2 Full (which replaced Down from the original setlist and featured Ed beaming off light of his guitar over the audience and our Slovak flag of course), ending with a meddle of Wasted Reprise/Life Wasted/Why Go



~10.40 PM: It's nearly eleven, we're all sweaty and out of breath, but the show is nowhere near being over. For their second set, Pearl Jam mellow down for a country number Of the Girl (played here for the first time in Europe since Prague 2000), romantic Just Breathe and Victoria Williams' Crazy Mary for which Eddie comes in front of us and Mike, and fills our cup with Spanish wine ("take a bottle, drink it down, pass it around...") The band teases us with Rolling Stones' Angie, ending in embarassment with Eddie and the first of completely forgetting the lyrics. Refueled we enjoy two thumping numbers Once and Evolution

From 2012-07-02 Pearl Jam Praha

~11.15 PM: The band on stage for the 3rd time this evening, we share a big smile with my cousin, who thought he could catch the midnight train back to Bratislava and work in the morning ("you ain't goin' nowhere, man!"). A 6-song closing set comprising of WWS, Better Man, Black, Alive, The Who's Baba O'Riley and of course, Mike wailing his guitar on Yellow Ledbetter.

12 PM: Everyone is hesitant to leave after what many rightfully call "the best show in a long, long time.." and people hang out in the lobby and before the arena. Kristina manages to persuade the techs to give her the night's setlist, which after several attempts to catch the night tram to her boyfriend's appartment ends up on the door of his loo. Once in the apartment, our conversation and joy slowly dozes over and we nap on the floor.

From 2012-07-02 Pearl Jam Praha

But this is just beginning. In front of us is a day of pub crawling with my sister in the city where she studies, a fast ride to Berlin with friends from Orava, two wild PJ shows there and a day of exploring with our host Alex. But more of that, hopefully, later.

2012-06-22 Kolowrat U Očka, Bratislava, SK

Okay, I have to admit I was really hesitant to show up for this show, although Kolowrat are my dearest friends, as you can see from many previous occasions here. I have just been dispassionate and a little disillusioned about my photography. However, I have overcome this unwillingness and the laziness of friday night and rightfully so.

When I turned up, the new lineup of Kolowrat was already on stage in full power, with the new bassist, Janko Horňák, performing their new songs, created in a really collaborative spirit. These songs, such as ráno ráno (morning morning), mladí a hlúpi (the young and stupid), Niky už vie (Nicky knows already), , benefit from the creative input of the guitarist Robo "Pajky" Rímsky, who introduced delicate guitar patterns, but also massive soundscapes into the new pieces, as Nepokoj v tele (A bodily unrest), Zámok v porceláne (A Castle in Porcelain) which was introduced U Očka. There is also another new element in the band's chemistry - vocal harmonies provided by the band members, most notably the drummer, Zuzana. As I was later told by Peter, the lead guitarist, these harmonies were painstakingly rehersead over and over even during the road to their gigs in Bratislava and Prague.

As for Kolowrat's future plans: no concerts scheduled, but plenty of room for completing the new set of the songs and completing the album somewhere near Košice, their hometown. And a possible show with Longital in Prague in December, if my sister's plans to book them for their college club, named K4.

I am really happy for them!

From s1nko memorabilia

Letters by Seinnasay

Forced to listen my sister practicing her piano skills day by day for years,it took me a while to realize her true music potential and inventiveness. But after years spent at the Kosice's conservatory, organizing concerts with friends, appearing on quite a few cds, and finally her stay with the band Gangway and other groups while studying musicology, it is apparent that she lives and breathes for music.

All that gone for the moment, she's here with some new piano pieces. And as always, they're simple and brilliant. Please, take a while to immerse in her arrangements.

From 2010-05-20 Mladá Hudba, Čajovňa Amana, KE

2012-02-02 "Draky sa vracajú" Longital/Zapaska Za Zrkadlom, Bratislava

In a cold, cold night in the club Za Zrkadlom (Through the Looking-Glass), two pairs of warm hearts (Bratislava's own Longital with their Ukrainian protégés Zapaska) ignited the air with their music in a reprise of their earlier October performance (a photo review of which you can see here on this blog), dubbed as "Draky sa vracajú"(Dragons are back), an allusion to Longital's current crowd favourite "Mraky Draky"



On my way by tram to work earlier that day, I had realized I was missing out on Zapaska's morning slot at Slovak Radio 4 _FM. I tuned in and magically, a bleak, depressing January morning tram transformed itself into an Ukrainian "каламбур" (Calembour; a pun), with listeners guessing at least three out of more than 50 instruments, the duo uses regularly and Longital radio-premiering their new video. As I was still on the tram, the only clues I got on the actual look of the video was from the colorful commentary by Shina and Dano, the entertaining duo Longital.


You can get the idea from the description they posted below the youtube video themselves:

"The author and animator is Czech artist Piotr Kacenkow alias Kaczena, with the use of original graphics by Polish artist Piotr Kalinski, alias PIO.

The fate of the video was quite winding, with the original idea of a screensaver which ended up in the dust of Kacena's Hardisk until his girlfriend (to whom we are infinitely grateful) discovered the unfinished version recently and made him finish the video. We would also like to thank Kaczena himsef for sleepless nights over the animation process, and last but not least to PIO, the author of the wonderful graphics and our dear friend from Krakow."

It was bound to be an interesting night out in Slovak's biggest housing estate, Petrzalka, an an interesting night it was. From the broken beats of Zapaska, entirely different to what attracted us to them in the first place, through Daniel Salontay's folk dancing during his guitar solo, to Shina and Dano ending the night in a staged-up fight during the last song's roaring outro.

US friends, you can catch Longital later this year at Austin's SXSW showcase on 15,16,17th March
Canadians, later on 22,23,24th March at the Canadian Music Fest
and at last my dear friends in Prague at Roxy /DEPARTURE SERIES/ featuring Milan Cajs (Tata Bojs) + VJ Clad.

A sight to see! Thank you for your attention.

2011 place/date

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2011-01-14 Kolowrat(11), Hvozd / Bratislava, U Očka
2011-01-27 DAD Vtáčie mlieko / Prešov, VS DAD
2011-01-30 Ruines / Čičva, Brekov
2011-01-31 Carnival / Vranov, CVČ
2011-02-01 AAA Hang out / Prešov, Dublin Pub
2011-02-08 Michal Knitl "Couch Surfing in South America" / Vranov
2011-02-21 Day out
2011-02-23 AMC Trio, Ulf Wakenius, Peter Lipa / Prešov, PKO
2011-02-26 Longital / Bratislava, U Očka

From 2011-03-09 Efterklang (DK) at Tabačka, Košice, SK

2011-03-09 Efterklang (DK) /Košice, Tabacka
2011-03-24 Collegium Musicum / Prešov, Scala
2011-04-02 Pillow fight, Živé Kvety (14) / Bratislava, U Očka
2011-04-15 Diploma Thesis: "Eric Woolfson's Poe" Deadline, SVK-SWE / Prešov, Košice - Steel Aréna
2011-04-16,17 Botanic-zoo gardens / Bratislava

From 2011-04-21 OK+AB vyliezli Ivanovi na hrb

2011-04-21 AB + OK zdolali Ivanov Vrch / Slánske, Ivanov Vrch
2011-04-25 Turistika
2011-04-28 Otvárací ceremoniál IIHF IHWC (Vidiek)
2011-05-01 Hermanovce - Zlatá Baňa
2011-05-03 Biele Divadlo Bratislava "Ibsen:Nora", Nowy teatr Praga Warszava "Paraziti", BD Košice "K. Brožek: Aucassin a Nicoletta" / Prešov, MS VS DAD
2011-05-05 Frank Winter / Bratislava, Rock OK

From 2011-05-14 Longital at SNG

2011-05-14 Noc Múzeí - Longital(8) / Bratislava, Nádvorie SNG /
2011-05-16 Diploma Thesis: "Eric Woolfson's Poe" A-ced / Prešov, University
2011-06-02 State Exams A-ced / Prešov, University
2011-06-04,05,06,07 Domaša cycling trip
2011-06-16,17,18 CS hosting the Nomad Biker
2011-06-23,24,25 hosting family in Bratislava, SK
2011-06-26 Marie Therese Crowning ceremony / Bratislava, SK

From 2011-07-02 Komajota at Dobrý Festival, Prešov

Dobrý Festival, Prešov, SK
2011-07-02 Pressburger Klezmer Band (SK), Peter Bič Project (SK), Padequa (SK),YPS (SK), Nocadeň (SK), Komajota (SK), Zašo a Group/Groovin Heads (SK), Gladiator (SK), Overhaul (SK), Chiki Liki Tu A (SK)
2011-07-03 Andy Belej (SK), Popcorn Drama (SK), Bon Jovi Revival (SK), Hugo Čáves Orchestra (SK), Raindown (SK) , Katka Knechtová
Festival Pohoda 2010, Trenčín, SK
2011-07-07 Balkan Brass Battle, Moby (US)
2011-07-08 Janáčkova Filharmonie Ostrava (CZ), Billy Barman (SK), Molotov (MEX), Dan Bárta (CZ), Trombone Shorty (US), Lila Downs (MEX), Le Payaco (SK), PULP (UK)
2011-07-09 Madness (UK), Lamb (UK), Hex (SK), Peter, Bjorn & John (SWE), Lisa Hannigan (IRL), Susana Baca (Peru), Beirut (US), Oy Division (IZ), Dirty Disco Rockers (SK)
2011-07-10 Esben and The Witch (GB), El Tinku (IT), Ekumenická bohoslužba

From 2011 in pictures

2011-07-12 Pohoda day 6 - Picnic / Bratislava, SK
2011-07-14,15,16,17 CS Party, Wedding Party, Afterparty with Massimo
2011-07-23 Ervín SCHÖNHAUSER A Soňa RADULOVÁ Židovské piesne / Altánok, Hv.Nám, Bratislava, SK
2011-07-26 Moustache / Štúdio 5 SRo, Pohoda_FM, Bratislava, SK
2011-07-29 Dhaffer Youssef "Abu Nawas Divine Shadows" at VivaMusica / Hl. Nám, Bratislava, SK
2011-08-05 Preßburger Klezmer Band / Hl.Nám, Bratislava, SK
2011-09-03 CS hosting Kubo, another cyclist, a Slovak this time around ;)
2011-09-06 Longital(9) /Music Gallery u Dežmára, Bratislava, SK
2011-09-08 Frank Winter U Očka /
2011-09-15 Dobrý Trh na Panenskej
2011-09-16 S1NK0: 10 years of Slnko Records Exhibition Announcement
2011-09-18 to 2011-10-08 Planning the S1NK0 exhibition and its installation /
2011-09-25 The Klezmatics,Preßburger Klezmer Band (3), Zev Stiefel / Pod Hradom, Ba,SK
2011-10-08 S1NK0 exhibition opening/Bratislava, Next Apache /

From 2011-10-08 s1nk0 vernisaz

2011-10-19 Longital(10)(SK)+Zapaska(UA)/Bratislava,U Očka /
2011-10-21 Gangway(SK,PL) Jazz!/Košice,SK /
2011-10-30 An Afternoon with Picasso/Bratislava-Sad Janka Kráľa,Mirbachov Palác
2011-11-18 Živé Kvety (15) S Magorom/Bratislava,U Očka /

From 2011-12-08 Živé Kvety (16) unplugged / Alexis, Bratislava

2011-12-08 Živé Kvety(16) unplugged/Bratislava,Alexis Books /
2011-12-30 KĽUD Fotbalamuta /DK Kladzany