Moi moi to Finland, and Hej to Sweden it is... Thus far, Sweden is proving to be, er, interesting, I guess people would say the curse goes. Not one day after hitting these Swedish shores, we discover that our Aug 5 gig is cancelled and that the possible gigs for the 6 and 7 are not going to happen after all. As I type this, there is furious work going on in Goteborg to attempt to put on a show... umm... tomorrow. And here I thought it was only in Beijing that three days notice was enough for a gig. Alas, we await news and you will know somewhat soon after I do, what with the intermittent availability of internet connections and all...
The good news: Stockholm kicked pigu. A little joint called Kaffe 44 which, depending on who you ask, either is still the coolest, most activistic, fighting-the-power kinda place, or was until lately. A kafe, with kickin’ cinnamon rolls and many pamphlets and posters and whatnots. The kind of place where you might, if you were listening in on a conversation between a visitor and the owner, hear the boss say, in response to the former’s query about Stockholm, “This town is pretty fascist.”
But hidden just beyond the kafe is a small performance room. While we didn’t hit any saunas while in Finland (akin, I’m led to believe, to not seeing the Great Wall on a visit to China, but hey, this is rock and roll!), Kaffe 44 stepped up: A packed room made for a steamy night, and one in which your chronicler decided to try a new photo function: Nightvision (that’s the black/white-type stuff).