dr.GREEN tour diary by Domas
written for Banana skazine, donbrunoferrari@yahoo.com
Pre-history of the tour is quite interesting. In the middle of summer'01 we went to play in ecological action against genetically modified food in Jurmala (Latvia). As far as I remember, it was the shortest dr.GREEN gig ever - people who organized the event "forgot" to tell us, that its allowed to make noise only till 11 pm. So it turned out that we came too late and played 15 minutes set without any soundcheck. After the gig we met few Russians, who were on holiday in Latvia. They were already familiar what is dr.GREEN about and very disappointed at so short performance. We talked and drunk all night long.
Few weeks later we have received an e-mail from them asking about possibility to make gigs for us in St.Petersburg. After our planned autumn euro-tour failed we wanted to play somewhere very much. Later we've got in touch with a guy who re-released our tape in Russia - he was very excited to hear that we are coming to play in his hometown. Together Sergey, Marina, Larisa and Roman booked 5 gigs in St.Petersburg and 1 in Moscow. We have added one more gig in Latvia by ourselves.
The only things were to get Russian visas and find a van, because our beloved Renault "Tragic" was not ready for the trip. After some misunderstanding at Russian embassy, we have got visas (about 15 USD each). Thanx to our friend Krilas (hardcore band BORA and Kablys zine), we have exchanged our van to his spacy and powerful bus. Everything was ready.
First gig was in Valmiera (Latvia). Well, we thought it was going to be in Valmiera. After we met guys from local punk rock band NON-SKID, they said we gonna play outside town. They used to make concerts there, because of very low bar rent. It was a big surprise to see few hundreds alternative crowd in the middle of dark and icy village. There were about 5 local bands. We played the last and expected few tired people after punk/hardcore music marathon. But people were still very active and started to dance from the very beginning. Sometimes I wonder, maybe we are more popular Latvia than in Lithuania? They knew many songs and sung along. During one song I jumped to dance in the crowd and realized something strange - wooden floor was waving like rubber.
The same night we moved to the North. After few joints we slept-out all Estonia and woke up only few hundreds meters away Russia in Narva. Russian customers asked for our CDs, when they knew we are musicians, and even asked us to sign. Without any troubles we have entered Russia. One more hundred of km and we stuck in traffic jam in St.Petersburg. Well, driving culture is a bit different there - you shouldn't be too gentle if you want to survive. We laughed a lot, when one more driving lane was opened right one a ... sidewalk!
The same evening, after warm meeting in "Patio Pizza" (great salad bar!) by Larisa and Sergey, we went to play at "City" club. The club is a part of a bigger club "Money Honey", famous rock-psychobilly-rock'n'roll venue. While we were playing on the second floor, there was a band on the first. The place was quite commercial and we were tired after long driving, so it seemed that the concert gonna fail. luckily we're wrong. After few songs, Australian with dreads started to dance in front of the stage, other people joined him and soon there was nice skanky crowd, who reacted positive even to our new songs, which were more into dirty punk/hc style. We have played two sets, 45 min. each and even few songs encore. It was nice to make dance people, who probably never heard of ska.
Next day we spent sleeping. In the evening we have visited few bars. One of them is founded by famous Russian "freak art" band NOM and is called "Cynic". Loud bar with a barman, announcing about dishes by microphone. Before we went to audio-video record shop "Green Forest" (open 24 hours daily, there are lots of video, audio, books stores that open all day-night long). After we asked for ska records, they said, they have nice Lithuanian ska band dr.GREEN :) Instead we have bought nice Russian dub, some reggae and African records.
Early in the morning we turned the wheel to Moscow. 700 km away. At first we thought to take a train, but it's very difficult to get tickets - you should buy them in advance. It's possible to get tickets at "special" offices, but at higher price, of course. Though St.Petersburg - Moscow road should be Russian road no.1, its quality quite poor (reminds famous Polish roads a bit). In the middle of the road the life is very different from the cities. Russia is a country of contrasts: rich and poor, love and hate and everything is just around the corner.
"R-klub" in Moscow - black painted rock club with nice stage and poor backstage. It was Monday so we didn't expect many people. While local bands VIA ZUNAME (original street punk) and CHELOVEKI (funny punk with ska) there was something like 20-30 people. More people outside the club were "getting hot". The club was almost full, when we entered the stage. About 150 crowd reacted positively and started stage-diving. After the gig we were interviewed by a girl, who published a book "Punk virus in Russian" few years ago. Now she is going to write a book about d.i.y. movement in ex-Soviet Union territory. By the way we were quite disappointed at Kremlin and Red square - they look much more impressive on TV :)
SPITFIRE from St.Petersburg and DISTEMPER from Moscow are the main bands of Russian ska scene. There are other bands like LENINGRAD, but they are not so famous. SPITFIRE is one of the most popular ska-punk band in Europe with massive Pork Pie support. They often play outside Russia and are very popular in their hometown. They are going to record their third album soon. Unfortunately compare to their first album, the second one was more into American ska-punk style. They used to be more originalÂ… Anyway, SPITFIRE is an outstanding band with very high energy. Sometimes they play with their side-project SKA-JAZZ REVIEW in ska-jazz veins. DISTEMPER play melodic ska-punk, but their poor lyrics mostly about girls and drinking. They seem to be quite a Moscow style commercial act. DISTEMPER released "Ska punk enters Russia" compilation. Of course there are SPITFIRE and DISTEMPER, but other bands are quite far away from skanky beat. By the way, the famous SKATALITES played few gigs in Russian last year, but in general foreign ska bands are very rare there. Russian raggae/dub scene is much more developed with bands like JAH DIVISION, KARIBASY, DUBTV, MARKSHEIDER KUNST, KOMITET OCHRANY TEPLA, etc.
Back to St.Petersburg together with VIA ZUNAME we played at "Front" club. Only few months ago opened club, located in ex-bomb shelter. With a small stage and not so many people it was nice warm-up before the main tour gig at "Moloko" club. That was one of the best dr.GREEN gigs ever - nice club, nice people, nice atmosphere. Support band was melodic pop-punk act NO GUNS with one of our tour "managers" Sergey on vocal. About 200 people started to jump after the first song. The beginning was a bit nervous, but the gig ended in very hot atmosphere and stormful requiring for encore which was impossible to resist. Money from the gig were donated to SPITFIRE - one of them was seriously injured during their last tour, he is still hospitalized in Switzerland.
Next day we spent walking in the town, visiting some museums. St.Petersburg itself is an open-air museum - it is called North Venice or Amsterdam. For sure, it is the most beautiful town in the North Europe. "Red klab" was not the right place for us to play. Well equipped, but soulless club, still looking for its place. There were only few people, so it was more rehearsal with good sound.
Farewell gig was at "Fish Fabrique" - small, but nice bar. We used to play there in 1997, during our first tour abroad. Then we had only half an hour program without any saxophones, but the gig was hot as hell. Our native "Green" club was made according to "Fish Fabrique" spirit. In 1997 it was huge squat and the club was situated on the 3rd floor in a huge flat. Few years later government wanted to take the building away, but Americans bought it and now it is a big alternative culture center with clubs, galleries, museums. New "Fish Fabrique" isn't so exotic, but still a nice place. It was gig mostly for the friends we met during the week.
We went home and there were already talks about possible coming back in spring. Would be fuckin' great to play there again!
