Posts Tagged ‘czesław śpiewa’
Off Festival 2011 – Day 1
Best festival? Best party? Best mates? I have one answer for that: Off Festival 2011. Everything was just perfect (except for the thunderstorm and me going back in the train with too much stuff) – we reserved four rooms in one hostel, talked about music and gigs all the time, swaped CDs, met some new people and ate in the best veggie place in Poland (in my opinion).
And the people. You’ve got to love off because of the people. All kinds of friends from all over Poland (and abroad), some you see every day, some just for a couple days in a month, some you meet once a year… But the music junkies are all there. Metalheads, ambient-lovers, drone troopers, pop fanatics, cold wave surfers, experimental geeks, dance dudes – Off, like any other Polish fest I’ve been to, brings them all together for three days od musical bliss. I don’t know ANYBODY (that’s right!) who didn’t like this year’s edition. Talked with around a 100 (or more…) people and everybody were happy as hell.
The bitter part was that the day before my clients server went down and because of some malfunctions, I had to upload the pics one by one. The biggest drag of all time and before I got to enjoy some free time before the gigs, I found myself uploading the pics one-by-one like crazy. Even worse, days before Off my D300 went crazy. Bogna Kociumbas helped A LOT lending me her D700 with 24-70 2.8 plus 85 1.4. A company of brothers that is hard to forget and for the three next days it was pure bliss to shot with this gear. I think, it was then when I’ve decided to buy the D700 as quickly as I could. And if anybody asks what’s the best festival coverage I’ve done in 2011 – I’m putting all my bets on Off 2011. Really nailed those shots!:)
NOTE: Do NOT use any of those photos. All the coprights belong to me (Joanna ‘frota’ Kurkowska) and some pics belong exclusively to Wp.pl. And I’m good at sending invoices ;)
Trójka Tour (Gaba Kulka, Dick4Dick & Czesław Śpiewa) @ 10 XI 2009
Trójka Tour brought together three popular polish acts: Gaba Kulka, Dick4Dick and Czesław Śpiewa. Pretty nice combination of electro-rock, jazzy pop and cabaret.
I saw Dick4Dick years ago, when they were some sort of a local attraction and gained quite a big number of fans. The shows were different there, much more energy and crazyness, however they are still great to listen to. As for Czesław, I didn’t stay untill the end of the show but he and his band were charming as usuall – it’s really hard to belive thet their music, best sung and listened to in a small club, still has the charm and moves tens of people, in a big club such as Studio. And Gaba? It was the 5th time seeing her this year, and 8th in total. It’s nice to see a singer-songwriter that you met a couple years ago, going from playing shows for 15-20 people now entering almost all the biggest polish festivals and clubs and instantly winning the crowd. However, nothing can compare to her intimate gigs at Ucho club (she played one this year, and for me, it was one of the best concerts of the 09). It’s not worst, it’s just different for me.
Funny thing, the managment phoned me to inform me that we were denied all the passes because of the DVD/program recording, but in the end I managed to enter the pit. There were 7 or 8 cameras on the whole location, so it was just like shooting Behemoth in Stodoła – looking out for the camera, not stepping on the cables and so on. Also the lights differed from song to song, the background was a red curtain (reminded me of the Red Room from Twin Peaks!). Also, it was a one-time event (on the next shows they will have only 2 or 3 cameras) so maybe I’ll end up in a DVD? Who knows;)
Big thanks goes to Piotr Miecznikowski and Damian Moskalski.