Awkward Pose

This was probably our most exotic location to date- not in the nature and wildlife, just the feeling of the place. Warsaw and Zagreb felt quite European, while Novi Sad felt different. Being in a place for one day doesn’t allow you beyond the surface really, everything is first impressions. My impression here was that I had few reference points. The festival had us stay at a hotel on site, which was also a massive fortress, the construction started by the Romans, layers added on by changing empires, finally finished by the Serbians. So we were perched on a hill overlooking the Danube and central Novi Sad. To get out of the hotel/fortress/festival you had to take the stairs, which were a series of underground tunnels, dimly lit. I jogged this route, down down down and across the bridge then along the Danube. Every 100 metres a different recreational riverside club blaring it’s own brand of dance music. A lot of bare midriffs in this town. As well acid wash and bejewelled shoes.

A few of us ate at a cozy patio on the river, sun setting on the Danube. They do love their meat here. I pointed to the “warm vegetable” appetizer and the waiter said “It’s OK, meat, better.” A fantastic string band began to play, serious old guys in suits looking rather gangster, grizzled faces and folk instruments. Whenever there’s live music in a restaurant it’s usually a tourist thing to be feared. But this was just regular business, we were the only non native tongues in the place. 

Show day, I got some more one on one yoga time in with one of my band mates this time. It’s so satisfying giving a sequence based on someone you know so well. Here’s where I know you’re at and here’s how we’re going to work with it. And you know all the little kinks from their instrument and their funny sleep schedule and even how they feel in chaturanga. It’s kind of the best. 

I was nervous today. Earlier in the week our manager got a call from Jarvis Cocker asking if I’d play Common People with them, last song in the set at Exit Festival, where we were playing before them. Their regular guitarist/violinist couldn’t be there. So I spent a few hotel hours obsessively watching live clips of the song, mostly from the 90’s, to see what he was doing. Simple enough, but not the kind of thing you want to do half assed. Jarvis Cocker is full on. So I had the jitters. Which is unusual these days. Arcade Fire’s been playing together so long and it’s so comfortable between us. Even when we do something new off the cuff there’s a sort of mind reading/intuition going on that makes it all flow. And of course I play with other bands, but I’ve never stepped in to something as big or iconic as a Pulp show. We met, me blushing like an awkward teen and them, cool, odd and British. i was going straight into Russell’s rig, a patch heavy on delay, chorus and, gulp, flange. Pretty awesome actually. No run through, just watched their show after ours, gripping my case. Hypnotized by Jarvis’s tweaky cat movements. His flawless banter. They’re playing really well. 8 years away from it and they come back super charged, dynamic, heavy. Their sweet crew led me to position, the only other monitor besides Jarvis’s at the front of the stage. Heart attack. In Arcade Fire you always have a buddy 3 feet away, here I had 20. I was expecting to launch right into the song- mines the first note. But he saunters over to me and starts talking, fucking with me really. Amazing. He makes me introduce the song. Deer in the headlights. I kind of wish I could go back to that moment and be witty, introduce Common People in their classic robot voice. But whatever, I was shy and Canadian, enunciating the words and grinning like an idiot. But then we killed it. I mean, they were already killing it, I just joined in. Such a good song played with so much abandon. I tore into my new flange sound like the 80’s rock violinist I always wanted to be, and didn’t even miss the shots. 

Definite highlight. Thanks Pulp.