22 September 2011

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After 4 tough nights in Scandinavia everyone in Lean Left looked forward to heading to Wels, one of the great spots on the planet to perform. The night opened with the noise power trio, Welzl Dnatek with Didi Kern on the drums. After days of sonic frustration we were faced with yet another difficult sound situation, though not as bad as what Welzl Dnatek faced- the sound tech manipulated their saxophone players sound throughout their performance, running it through all kinds of effects without his control; unbelievable. For us it was just more of the same issues we’d been dealing with for most of the tour, but the audience was really fine, and the evening was spent celebrating my birthday with a bunch of friends; a great time which included a birthday cake with what appeared to be a flare on top- thankfully I was not asked to blow it out. On the 23rd the group traveled to Salzburg, this proved to be one of the best gigs on the tour- great sound and 2 inspired sets of music for a fantastic audience. The double sets really opened up the music on the trip, and I wish that there had been many more of them. As the tour progressed the music became more and more unique, forms and shapes completely unlike anything else I’ve dealt with but somehow holding together due to the clarity of the overlapping ideas- strange, intense, beautiful. Hard to believe that the final concert suddenly happened in St. Johann on the next night, seemed that we had been out for months and would continue to play each night forever- in a good way. Of course, the Lean Left had to go out on a somewhat surreal note- we played on a double bill with a surf rock band from the area during the annual Knoedel Festival that brings thousands of tourists to town! Wow. Lean Left encore from Warsaw on the tour: