Poland 28.01.
massive thanks to all poland crew for two wicked gigs. hospitality & enthusiastic people, poland never disappoints. people seem genuinely good natured, you get the sense that they just want to live simple lives, love, food, friends, basic comforts. years of harsh travel restrictions have been lifted recently and as a result there’s been a massive polish outflux in the past year… fanning out throughout the world in a huge diaspora, in search of the good life… but by now many have traveled to the usa and the uk and become disillusioned. they discover an isolated emotional void and a system that won’t accept them. feeling used and disappointed, many return to poland, and i always meet them at gigs. being both a native of one of those soul-sucking countries, and now a foreigner in an extremely xenophobic one, i empathize on many levels. the gigs themselves don’t drip with avarice dirtiness like you often get in many hyper-capitalist countries, or a place where hype drives taste. people know how to be hosts and you get a feeling of being treated like a real human being! not a machine that’s just there to bring a crowd, play a set, and then can go fuck off. the poles have good hosting skills and good manners. wow. amazing. they paid attention to the tech rider, getting absolutely every item perfectly. they are poor in money but not in emotions, the opposite of many affluent but spiritually poor places i’ve been. i can take being poor and having few resourecs, that makes sense to me. what doesn’t make sense is when you’ve got a warehouse full of spoiled american kids with macbooks and HD video cameras, & growrooms, yet they won’t provide um. a mic. or some human interaction perhaps. maybe a glass of water? ah it’s just that americans have never learned to be good hosts, i tell myself, because everyone has their own playstation, their own computer, skills like sharing are discouraged. anyway… i also see the reasons why a lot of western eu people still never play in pl – big distances with few good flight connections, & inevitably you have to take the train between gigs if you do more than one… but hell, i like the train and you always get a story. last time i got a lesson in the filthiest polish swear words. this time it was an overeager business student who wanted to get a free english lesson from captive teachers, yar. the place is experiencing a mini economic boom at the moment, and their currency is getting stronger. the mood on the street reminds me of ireland a few years ago, just after the euro. big biz brings more money, and a newfound optimism takes hold. lots of new digital SLRs at the shows…. fun new money time, and all is well. for now. i hope that the polish people don’t lose their character with all this influx of cash, but i’m not too worried. they seem resilient and adaptable.