Geoff Berner's Newsletter:
Dear Everybody,
Well, I'm back from a lovely time in the UK, and the big (controversial) road trip out to Winnipeg Folk Fest. About to hit a couple of Scandinavian festivals, and the famous MIR in Oslo on Monday, before I head into the studio to work on the NEW ALBUM! I believe that it'll be called Klezmer Mongrels.
But first, a reflection on festivals.
I've had untold adventures at festivals, and without them, I wouldn't have a career at all, I think.
As far as I can tell, festivals are always crazy, stupid and beautiful.
Here's how you make a festival:
You generally gather thousands of people together in a place that's usually not considered fit for human habitation, like a farmer's field, or a park, or a race track, and then those people proceed to lay waste to the land and themselves for about 2-3 days. By the end, the people are exhausted, ravaged by the forces of nature and the forces of booze and drugs, and the land is a churned up wound full of garbage and shit. People die, people are concieved, marriages begin or collapse. And there's music!
Somehow, magic emerges from the process.
2 examples from the Glastonbury Festival--the UK's biggest, most ridiculous rock festival:
1.
At first, it seemed like a really bad idea to put Leonard Cohen in front of 150,000 drunk, druggy, muddy English people. You could have got a similar auditory experience by sitting at home, putting on a Leonard Cohen record, then phoning up a bunch of rowdy football hooligans and inviting them over for a keg of lager. "I've seen the future, brother, it is murder." intoned the Old Rabbi, and his young, stupid audience seemed to be there for some kind of jaunty illustration of the lyric.
Then, an odd thing happened. The band slowly summoned up (Cohen's band never could be described as "kicking in" to a song) the opening of "Hallelujah". I'd forgotten that mainstream English people love Jeff Buckley, for some reason, and that Buckley's one good song was a cover of that. Immediately, the chavs started to hoot and scream, as if "Wonderwall" was coming on the stereo. And they ALL sang along. Every last philistine, drugged out, ballcap backwards one of that enormous throng lifted their voices and swayed together for a cold, broken Hallelujah. You could see a moment of surprise flicker across Cohen's giant ancient eagle face on the superscreens, before he also gave himself completely to the song, to the word. It was strange and unexpected and beautiful. Festivals are like that.
Then, later that night, back at the circus tent where I was stationed, along with the Stranger Than Paradise burlesque troop, (and after my memorable performance of the Irving Fields classic "Facher", accompanied by a lovely fan-dancing Detroit Jewess named Scarlet O'Harlot), Gordon the dj and I came across a well dressed man, lieing muddy and comatose, face down against our perimeter fence.
We roused him to make sure that he wasn't dead. "You alright there, mate?"
"Alright? No I'm not. I'm a corporate head-hunter. I'm just making money for no purpose. I've been wasting my life!"
Festivals are good for that kind of thing, too.
Here are some dates. Please come see me at MIR, won't you? I love it there.
August 1 - Ostersund, Sweden - Storsjoyran Festival
August 2 - Near Trondheim, Norway - Storaasfestival
August 4 - Oslo - MIR!
October 3 - Vancouver - The Railway Club. Accordion Noir Accordion Festival.
Late October to Late November: European Tour with New Album
http://www.geoffberner.com
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