"Italia III:
Back again
from the third trip to bella Italia. This is what happened:
The evening
of the 3rd of January we (that’s me, Anders and Nicko) took the plane from Bergen to London
Stanstead. Here we spent the evening (and most part of the night), rating
potato chips, reading rocky (me) and talking a little bit with a man from
Sardegna (me again). 6-ish
the next day we flew to Italy .
There was fog and generally crappy weather, and also some technical failure, so
we were circling over Bergamo
for quite some time. This freaked me out quite a bit.
The first
gig was on the 4th. After some sleeping and eating (this is by the
way two of my all time favourite things to do) we went to Morya, a bar just
outside of Brescia .
We played there last year also (in February), but then I was near dead from the
flu, so it was nice to play there as a “real person” also. Nice gig and nice
people I think.
The next
day we went to Carpi ,
a town just outside of Modena .
Really cool place called Mattatoio (this means Slaughterhouse). Some videos
from this evenings gig are on youtube. Among these one where Anders is telling
me how one of the songs start… I know it probably is a very bad habit to forget
one’s own songs. At this gig there was quite a lot of people I’ve met before,
and also some new faces: A really pretty boy on my right hand side, and a girl
who knew the lyrics to the fall! This made me happy. There was also a dude
there who yelled something about it being “brutto”, I think. (And just in case
I’m right about this: Fuck off! I know not all can like my music, and that I in
general have gotten very little bad words about it (which I think is a bit
weird actually, it should be hateable enough), but when I’m doing concerts I’m
actually happy, and although this old fart didn’t destroy the experience for me
– not at all, he could have (for me or someone else)…And how cool is it
standing safe in a crowd telling me, relatively exposed, that I suck? Does it
cost you anything to just be polite? Write shit about me in your blog instead,
asshole.) After the gig Enzo was DJ-ing. Tu sei perfetto!
This night
we slept in a nice hotel. Nice nice nice.
The 5th
we went back to Brescia
– or more precisely Nave, where we were going to do some recording with Ale.
Very nice studio in quite rural surroundings. Mountains, fields and foggy,
foggy days. I borrowed drums from Simone (drummer in LMALL). Grazie mille! We
used 3 days on 9 songs. Mostly old ones that I think deserved a better
recording (and some of you probably agree with me on this, right?). These are
the songs: The Catcher, You Can’t Stop Me, Are Philosophers Lonely?, Pirate
Love, Too Late For Us, You are Not Invited to my Wedding, Dogwalkin’ Summer,
Give Yourself a Break, and New Dancing Shoes. Probably due for release sometime
this fall. During these studio days we slept in the local priest’s apartment
(no kidding!), as he was out of town. A really big flat above the church bar
(!). The priest seemed like a cool guy, and he had lots of religious artefacts.
I should get me some mo’ of that stuff. While in the studio Anders lost a lot
of money to Nicko playing “North and South” (Yes, the NES-game)! I myself
managed to beat my old record in Tetris. In the evenings Anna made fabulous
food for us, even if she was quite sick. She is a great cook! All this great
food means that I’m still a bit chubby… (more to love?)
As we
finished all 9 songs in only 3 days, we had one extra day off, and went for a
little road trip to the Garda lake. Also we went to a mall, and I bought some
silver adidas superstars shoes, a ski hat and a pair of fat pants. And Coffee,
and Nutella, of course.
The two
last gigs was in Chieti
and Rome .
Further south than we’ve ever been before. Paolo (Spelo) was the driver, as Ale
had to work. Long drive, and lots of nice things to see from the car. Really
many tiny-tiny villages on top of little hills (“på små kullar ligger några
lustiga hus”). In Chieti
(or a little outside of this city) we played in a bar called Relé. Classy
place! The owner, Manuela, was very nice, and we got great food and wine. I
managed to knock over my glass and made a mess, of course. Both southern gigs
was with an Italian band called The Calorifer is very Hot! This night they
played before us, and then in Rome
the opposite way around. They are only 2 people on stage, but it works like
hell! And they are good on CD too (they also recorded with Ale). Not many
people for this gig, and I found it a bit hard to know if people liked it, but
we had finished they wanted more songs (some of them did, anyway), so I guess
it was ok! Talked with some nice people afterwards also. For some reason many
Italians ask me for my age. Do you get disappointed when I say I’m 25? I hope
not. One thing that is really cool about Italians is that they almost never ask
what else you do in life, or talks a lot about jobs. In Norway that’s
always question nr. 2 (after the name maybe?), and I don’t like being rated
based on this. Also I doubt people are really that interested in what I’m
“really” doing. So: copy the Italians, people!
This night
we slept in an apartment that was Manuelas grandmothers. It’s one of the nicest
places I’ve ever slept! Also she has five (!) cats, and I got to say hi to a
couple! For me this is perfect.
Then it was
time for Rome .
I think Rome
has too many cars, and I can’t see how people living there can manage to drive
there every day, at least without some sort of benzodiazepines… Me and Anders
did some acoustic songs at some sort of Fair-trade-food conference (yes?), and
Spelo talked about the label My honey, and honey. His dad’s got lots of bees,
and makes honey (Spelo’s dad is really cool, by the way). It was weird (not bad
weird, just weird).
The
evenings gig was at a very dirty place called traffic. Quite a lot of people,
and some seemed to quite like it. A pretty girl danced in front of the stage. I
had a little bit of a cold, so after the show my voice was very “sexy”… This
night we slept at the most shitty place ever.
Back in Brescia on the next
evening we got lots of great food, and a really nice cake from Ale and Anna.
Some of their friends were also there. Kind people all of them, and it was sad
to say goodbye. Spelo gave us some honey! Yeah!
The worst
with these trips is always having to say goodbye to Ale. This summer it was
easier, ‘cause I knew I’d see him again in Copenhagen . Now it was harder…
The flight
home was boring, and there were stupid people all around us. I feel that no
matter where I’m going, or what kind of public transportation I’m on, I’m
always stuck with some sort of people that are either annoying or stupid or
evil (or a combination of these). On the train home there were two guys that,
at best, would work as living adverts for contraception.
I can’t
wait to go back!
Forresten: ble omtalt i urørt-panelet den 9. jan. Om noen
skulle være interessert i å høre hva en litt muggen dame og en kul fyr syntes
om ”I wanna be your cat”. Egentlig ble jeg i litt dårlig humør av det (ikke pga
den kule duden), men så fant jeg ut at nevnte fyr var med i reprise, og da steg
hans vurdering så jævla mye sånn verdimessig (for meg) at nevnte dame kan hate
på meg så mye hun vil, og mer til! Haha!"