MOG

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."