tolkovyislovar'
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This is to some degree the sister-mog of the previous one on Sonic Youth in Piter, because two days later I got to go stand before the radiance of Russia's rock-monolith, Boris Grebenshchikov (BG), and his band, Akvarium. And so in mog-space like in real-time.
The concert took place in a "Place of Sport", a very circular Soviet Arena. This meant I got to see a new metro station, Sportivnaia - also based on a circular theme, the platform opens up periodically in circles with protruding iron lamps so you can see the platform below. In typical soviet fashion, there was much marble, and even at the entrance there was a clearly indulgent mosaic portraying some kind of Antique scene, with a large mosaic-penis exposed near the center to give the impression of authenticity.
Circles (and homo-eroticism, incidentally) are characteristic of Soviet, particularly Stalin-era, architecture (the curious can check out Boris Iofan's "wedding-cake" architecture). The bored can now expect an uncomfortable segue into the music: BG, the radiant center of Russia's rock music scene for over 20 years. The music itself you might not call the most inspired, you might call it dilettantish, but over the years BG has done more for Russian popular music than is even imaginable. Not only has he been the principle ambassador of all sorts of Western music, composing songs in Russian that closely resemble anything from the Beatles to Bob Dylan, to David Bowie (esp. Low), to Irish Drinking songs, etc., he has even been able to reinvigorate Aleksandr Vertinskii (1889-1957) to a younger generation and also discover Kino - the greatest and most uniquely Russian Rock band of all time.
Besides all this, he also knows how to put on a kick ass show, mixing many of the styles in together, electronic numbers leading into Celtic ones, sometimes sitting on the floor, legs crossed like a Buddhist, once waltzing with his chair, and addressing the audience as "my beloved" (moi liubimye) and "my miraculous" (moi chudesnye). He kept the fans bouncing and smiling the whole time - such a drastic change from the far more hooliganish crowd at Sonic Youth, they were visibly happy to be at this concert, few tall people pushed through the crowd, and when they did they apologized, or even tried to find another place.
The set itself, had no opening act and went on for more than 2 and a half hours, with just one smoke break (besides being a Buddhist, BG is also a chronic smoker) before the only encore, 4 songs long.
For the mp3, I've uploaded one of the Irish Drinking songs if for nothing other than novelty. The chorus goes "Everyone says you shouldn't drink, Eveyone says you shouldn't drink, I say I will."
Russia's crazy and I don't understand it, ever. I've been studying its culture for several odd years now and she still surprises me.
Recently I had the good fortune of getting to St. Petersburg just in time to find out about Sonic Youth's first concert in Russia since their Daydream Nation tour back when they use to call it Leningrad.
They were advertised as the most influential band of all time. They were advertised as the band that helped discover the legendary Nirvana. And it was clear that very few people here knew who they were.
While we were waiting outside the old military academy waiting to get in, a local heard me speaking English, and then after conversing with me in a very stoned-breed of Russian for 5 minutes, he asked me if I understood Russian. Then he asked me if I had heard of Sonic Youth before, quite clearly indicating that he hadn't. Anyway, he couldn't pull himself off the wall once he got in. But the rest! They were pressed in a c. 1994 mosh-pit, throwing debris at the stage ... and then all of a sudden the music would stop, become staticy and dissonant and they would stare at the stage. Once one of them even brought out a lighter, but had to put it back again shortly after when the music would return to its previous pitch. It was fantastic.
The set was also fantastic, though I thought with a bit more of a poppy daydream-nation orientation (also a lot of the poppier stuff off Rather Ripped).
This came to a blistering halt when at the very end of the concert they brought the mayhem and most looked very confused (random applause were given at what they figured was the end only to be followed my more madness), many left (telling themselves that they still had NIN to look forward to this summer), but truly it was glorious.
And despite all this snob-like frowning on Russia's rock fans that, by the by, I think you would understand if you were there being shoved about by this bunch of mosh-pitting morons, - despite that, it should be said that these people were a particularly "popsovyi" bunch, and that there were a few people who really loved what they were seeing. I just read a really enthusiastic review of the concert, hailing Sonic Youth as the rebirth of guitars (accepting that most bands here, where Metallica holds the strongest influence of any Western band, have made rock music seem rather boring for at least the past ten years).
That was two days ago. Just tonight, I went to one of the most entertaining concerts of my life - and that is why Russia confuses me. More on Akvarium to follow.
Comments
I loved reading your review. What an experience, to see Sonic Youth surrounded by quite a few people who had never heard them before!
It's true, it was pretty amazing to see them, lacking their usual crowd. One time Kim Gordon asked if there were indie-rock boys in Russia -- pure silence. And before the encore everyone were chanting "Sonic You..." followed by a brief pause and an awkward, dissonant (in its own right) improvisation of "...th".
Alright, now I know this should probably be a comment on kristiana's post from about 5 minutes ago, rather than a whole new post, but I can't help myself. It seems people have been pretty tough on Hayden, and I wanted to post something on how much I think he's great (well, I guess I mean his first album, since I'm not familiar with his other ones - but when I can rub two nickles together, I swear I'm gonna head down to a record shop (or itunes since I'm not in Toronto or Canada at the moment) and fix myself up with his latest).
His songs are good because they're not just simple - they're naive to a degree where they just stop being regular, boring. There's a plethora of AA rhymes, like "more" and "store", "I bounced on my bed,/ I hurt my head,/ I'm so red, I thought I'm dead/ from my bunkbed/ - I hate bunkbeds", "I bought a rose to give to you, /a windy day - the petals flew / from a stem unto the street/ I tried to catch them with my feet", there's almost no plucking, and the lyrics couldn't be more simple in meaning to boot.
I think there's a tendency to believe that songs should only sound simple if they're complex in meaning. This album goes against that trend. A comparison with Beck at the time was (and, of course, is) ridiculous; Beck's music at the time is too complex.
I'm posting one of the sweetest songs from Everything I long for.... Maybe it's too sweet, too naive, and too short, but that suits me just fine, and all the more so when I was sixteen and this album came out.
My Digital Music Collection
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Comments
Pretty good beat. Very fast lyrics, gracious. Thanks for sharing this, it's always fun to hear something new. And the snippet you shared about everyone saying not to drink but he says he will is hilarious!