June 22, 2018 Ronca to Livorno
Ronca feels downright Hawaiian at 7am. As we load up, it’s cool and overcast, long thunder rattles the hills like a subway under cement. I took in a total of 4 1/2 hour of sleep. We have to bolt back to Livorno as the van is needed as transport for the musicians arriving at Pisa.
It’s a long drive; the Google says 3 1/2 hours, but takes 5. There’s rain for the first half, the van doesn’t feel comfortable going over 120kph and of course, an inevitable stop at an Autogrill. The band took sporadic naps, but I am pretty wiped out by the time we get to the diner. As we are loading the gear into the upstairs backstage area, Lorenzo says to me, "Watch your head." I navigated the first hazard, but not the second. Pow! and then I saw stars.
Downstairs, bands are starting to show up and the first group we see is our old pals DaiKaiJu, who apparently had a fantastic performance to open the festival last night. A little chat, then we find our hotels and take a long, long nap.
Karen and I had some busy work to do, her with the keyboards and I had to change my strings. But we kept running into friends from around the world who have all convened for the biggest international surf music festival. Let’s face it, there aren’t that many surf music fans, and I’m guessing that goodly portion of all of them are here! I got to watch the first band, Molokai Cocktail. They gave beautiful renditions of traditional surf songs. Our friend "Gardo" is on lead guitar. A great opening for the festival.
Karen and I missed the second band, The Seasick Surfers, as we left for dinner. Livorno is known for it’s seafood and the restaurant Zanzibar is just up the boardwalk. We have been there a few times before, so this time we went a little deeper into the menu. I had the lobster with linguini and sweet tomatoes, Karen had the mussels, swordfish, prawns, squid and crawfish platter, and shared a side of grilled veggies, which we can’t get enough of (see last night’s dinner details.) The portions were tremendous! More than 50 mussels on Karen’s plate. Luckily, we see Jono and his wife and daughter walking by and ask them to join us and help with the consumption. All at a very reasonable price!
I got back in time to see Jonpaul Balak and Lorenzo introduce the next band, Dave & The Pussies. They are a power trio with overdriven guitar to fill up the sonic space. Their songs start out with a more or less surf arrangement but progress into blues jams. The guitarist is really competent, and bares an uncanny resemblance to a young Unsteady Freddie.
Next up is The Necronautics, with a more conventional 4 piece surf lineup, and they play a set of traditionally inspired original songs. My friend Clarry says about their look, "More beards than Meshugga Beach Party."
The Typhoons from Hamburg follow. I love their layered sound, with the arrangements allowing each voice a distinct frequency range. A solid rhythm section shaking the first shakra , and atmospheric guitar elevating the mind’s eye. They do an inspired mashup of the traditional Russian song "Polyushka Pole" and "Shalom Alechem".
All the way from Japan (though the girls arrived but their instruments didn’t) it’s Lulufin and the Woo Woo. They are crowd pleasers in the way that only four cute women who play guitars taller than they are can be. The crowd is crunching up toward the front of the stage now and the Woo Woo’s mid-tempo, mostly covers set inspires dancing and love. I feel really sorry for the band that has to follow this!
The quarter moon is high, with Jupiter chasing it, and there’s a delightful light sea breeze. No equipment failures mire The Pool Boys tonight-- some minor human lapses, but mostly it’s all fun. We charged through a 50 minute set playing almost all of our new album. Everything sounds great on stage, and the audience doesn’t leave :) As I look out, I see so many familiar faces-- fans and band members, people we’ve gotten to know over the years. Our pal Gundi from Berlin gets the dancing going up front, and there’s movement all the way to the far reaches of the sea wall. All in all, it’s a pretty good night.
After our set, about half the crowd stays for DJ dancing under the stars, the other half crams into the upstairs tiki bar for the Messer Chups set. It’s dank and humid in that room, but no one leaves, and the Chups play for nearly two hours, Boris the drummer is dripping with sweat, but Oleg and Svetlana never seem to loose their cool.
Outside, we are making new friends and connecting with old. I can’t possibly list everybody, but it’s nice to talk to my dear friend Ivan Pongracic and the members of the Phantom IV, who will be busy on Saturday night when they play their sets. There’s a couple folks I want to look for today to make sure they found their way home last night, although it wouldn’t be bad to sleep by the sea.
Karen and I get back after 3:30. I look in the mirror while brushing my teeth and wonder, "Who are these people?" Just a couple of young kids staying out all night partying, and looking forward to doing it again the next night.
2 comments:
Awesome show as far as I am concerned but others demur. Had to stay until the bitter end to get the equipment stored properly and make sure we don't lame out. Jonathan and Abe did goodnight shots of tequila with the Daikaiju folks and it may have been one drink too many. I had to guide them back to the hotel as the effects of all that alcohol started to percolate up to late-night reality.
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