Return From New York
Yes, we’re back from the (deep breath) New York Summer Antifolk Festival 2007!!- and aside from jet lag and a mild sense of anticlimax, it was pretty damn good.
So what were we doing? At the behest of Lach, the originator of the Antifolk anti-genre and the organiser of the festival, we went to play two sets at The Fort, the Antifolk HQ situated in the back of the Sidewalk Café in the Lower East Side.
The Fort is a small, intimate venue, with an in-house upright piano and a PA/desk that all actually work! (UK venues, take note…). If you know Canterbury, it’s probably best described as being how Orange Street ought to be (and probably thinks it is!), but really isn’t…
On Monday (20th August) we did a two-song primer set at the Antihoot open mic and on Wednesday (22nd August) a 25-minute set that was recorded for posterity (downloads available soon!). Only me and Leo could afford to make the trip, so we chose to make it a stripped-down guitar and piano affair (knowing that the venue has a piano, this made logistics a little easier!). The set was: Dance of the Midwich Cuckoos (unfortunately beset by tuning woe- humidity and new strings!), It’s A Small Town, Barking Up the Wrong Tree, Cocoon and Moment of Clarity.
In addition to this we enountered a number of interesting antifolkers including Somer (pronounced ‘summer’) and Cheese on Bread (though the latter sadly via CD than in person). We survived jet lag, humidity, rain, card stoppages (******** to Barclays!), confusion with bizarre local custom/plumbing and had a generally ace time (Two gigs! Feeling queasy up the Rockerfeller Centre! A Thai Meal for six quid! Jackson Pollocks and Cezannes in the flesh! Etc!).
So that was our first US, er, ‘tour’. What next? Europe! Asia! The World! Any questions?