the train line to brno found me gazing long out of the window, taking in the moravian countryside and penning some words in my trusty tour notebook. as the landscape stretched out before me and my pen moved across the page an image sequence of the last days came upon my mind, a zoetrope montage of sights and sounds in incrementing waves. the passage to brno only serving to reflect and amplify these waves; the beautiful countryside, settlements and industry and finally the ever-building city slowly coming into focus. core members of the staggeringly marvelous keftes party contingent graciously met me on the platform at the hlavní nádraží, offering warm greetings and strong handshakes. we made our way through the busy rush hour streets by tram til arriving at the mighty boro club, perhaps the only alternative venue left in the whole city. we descended stone steps into its maze of underground rooms and passageways, thick with the musky smell of sunken ancient stone. a splendid meal and a few drinks, a little light conversation along with the arrival of the kyklos galaktikos folk saw the evening begin to gather its full momentum, as folk started to arrive and the show started to display signs of impending commencement.
with great gladness, during the souncheck and otherwise, i had managed to strike up something of a blossoming friendship with martin, the very awesome soundman for the evening. we talked long on our mutual musical tastes as well as music productions ideas and techniques, which also involved him revealing to me that the city of brno contains many abandoned undeground buildings, sunken rooms and a labyrinth of passageways. we talked on gathering field recordings down there at some stage, as well as on his experiments with arduino to create software controllers and the ongoing experiment of him building his only multi-band parametric eq. awesome indeed. so, by the time it came to the performance, it was quite clear that we were in very safe hands indeed. kyklos galaktikos took to the stage first and unleashed an awesome set somewhere between electronic alt-rap and full-blown theatrical performance, something very impressive indeed. in speaking to their bold leader, it became apparent that they are indeed from the praha theatre world and the alt-rap side of things is a rather new development, very cool and pertinent information indeed. gladly it was soon my turn to take to the stage too and how the performance was so enjoyable, such a warm crowd, and one keen to listen in to all the various musical selection i had prepared for them. especially enjoyable was my performance of the new 'insect forms' song, produced by the mighty 2econd class citizen, a new live favourite for sure.
still, the show always races by when you are enjoying yourself and, despite us all managing to protract it with an encore or two, it was time to pack away the gear and begin to think about propping up the bar for the rest of the evening. it must be said that the keftes party people are a fantastically decent bunch, a great deal of fun to hang out with and most fascinating in equal measure. our conversations were filled with talk of the wonderful interconnexion of the different folk in the different cities with the underground music scene in the czech republic, on comparative studies of religion in relation to specific elements of beat culture, on the czech gangter-rap scene and on the aesthetic pleasures of the glaswegian accent amongst a myriad of others. time was, as always, against us though as the night steadily pressed on for the small hours. we evacuated the bar en masse and took to the brno streets, our number finding our way back to the hlavní nádraží by tram before being reduced to begin to go our seperate ways via additional buses and trams. i would find myself being very hospitably boarded in a wonderfully old housing block complex, rusted iron door leading into a large hof with small apartments lining three sides. a little juice in the doorway taking in the evening air was very much in order before taking myself away into the slumber, the hour so late already and the next morning's start to be an early one.
i awoke to a gentle murmuring of my name at some very early hour in the morning. not much time til i would have to take the train back to praha. just enough time to jump up, brush my teeth, gather my possessions and then take to the street with the marvelous pavel, who would be guiding me back to the hlavní nádraží. we rode the early morning tram through the bustle of brno as he told me a little of the history of the quarter we were riding through, we talked about the next keftes party and of my hopes that i might return again myself before too long. we arrived in good time and pavel kindly helped me to fix myself a ticket for the journey as well as fixing himself a refreshing drink. all too quickly it was time to say goodbye on the platform though as the train to praha slowly pulled up. we bid each other farewell as i boarded the train before finding myself a seat and started to anticipate arriving back in praha once more, of the evenings show and of my gladness to see david and veronika again.
so, might i extend my deepest thanks to the keftes party family and all those who made it to the brno show, i am most grateful indeed. thank you to pavel, ondrej, michal, irena, martin, the kyklos galaktikos family and everyone else whose names i did not get to learn... til next time!
next field report : one thousand years on the banks of the vltava
jamesreindeer
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