What happens when you don’t get paid as an artist?
Well, you get the feeling that the world sucks, and that all that you’re doing is pointless. Mostly you just get mad and disappointed.
This is a story about that, and the karmic balance you get after experiencing it.
We left Warsaw, after a night of awesome partying. As I said, my endorphin level was lowered, and the whole day I was feeling the pointless dread of existence.
Poland - Krakow
We arrived at the venue in Krakow and got a tour of the place. It’s a nice looking place that’s partly a theater and partly a cafe bar – but there was something fishy. It’s like the people there didn’t like us being there. Even some person called the police because of our car being parked wrongfully in front of the club. Fortunately someone warned us of it, and we moved it in time.
I guess that was the first sign...
We knew that the club didn’t arrange any accommodation and no food to eat, but we managed with our own stash and had a friend there who gave us a place to stay.
The soundcheck was nice, and the sound-guy was pretty cool. The organizer of the gig wasn’t there, so we asked the person that looked like being in charge about arranging the donation box or something, since the organizer said it was a free concert – and the only way to cover our expenses is by getting donations and selling merch.
“The-person-that-looked-like-being-in-charge” was completely uninterested, and just waved her hand and said that everything is under control – like she didn’t want to speak at all.
So, the gig was sort of interesting at the beginning. Since, the space was really intimate and theater-like , and the audience were sitting in dark.
But we noticed after some time that we’re not getting any real feedback from them.
So the whole concert became strange and just started to fall down a bit. We tried getting back on track, but nothing happened, nothing good, nothing bad, just pure pointless polite relationship.
After we finished, we told people that we accept donations, and that it would be great if they would support us by buying some merchandise, but all the people just left the theater – and only a couple of them thanked us for the show and said that it was great. We noticed that nothing was happening with the donations, so we asked “The-person-that-looked-like-being-in-charge” about it, and she was utterly confused, even tho’ we asked her twice about it.
She then switched the responsibility to the main organizer (who wasn’t there) and said that something will be done by tomorrow.
We went to the accommodation and had a break and went to sleep pretty quickly.
The next day, we ate on the street, pretty moderately, and went around the city to have a look.
Krakow is beautiful, and it’s quite monumental, but not in a Warsaw way.
Then… We got THE MAIL.
[dramatic music]
The organizer (who was not there) switched responsibilities, said that we won’t be getting any money, and thanked us for the free show…
We were pissed like hell.
We couldn’t believe that anyone could do that – after touring for years (I think this is our 7th tour or something) it has never happened that someone didn’t pay us nothing at all for the show.
Fucking horrible…
Since they don’t care about us at all, we decided to take their donation box from the bar, at least to cover some part of our gas expenses (we traveled around 300-400 kilometers for that show). They didn’t budge. After telling us that we’re stealing from them, we tried to explain the fact that they stole from us, used us and that they made us a much bigger damage.
They didn’t blink, they just defended their institution - “We’re not a club, we’re a theater.” - “A theater that doesn’t pay artists? What kind of cultural place is this?” - “It’s not our responsibility – we’re sorry but we can’t do anything – even doing the donations is illegal in Poland… (???????)”
Anyways, we told them to fuck off, and that they’re horrible to be able to rob us like that and don’t feel any sympathy at all.
We left with a really bitter taste, and just wanted to go away as fast as we can from that place.
The most horrible thing was the feeling of helplessness.
The feeling you actually get when you’re fucked and can’t do nothing.
Horrible…
But,
Fuck em…
Slovakia - Žilina
The next day we were traveling (again) for around 3-4 hours to a city in Slovakia called Žilina.
We were traveling for ages – and the GPS was leading us a strange way through some woods. Finally we came to the location where the venue is.
First glance – a squat, happy dogs running around, and nice people with calm eyes. :)
It immediately felt good.
We came inside, and were welcomed with some beer and a short tour of the house.
They actually don’t squat it – but they rent it from the land-owner, and try to restore the house to a nice state so they can make a small cultural center.
The place is called Hajovna – which is sort of a “hunters house” and it was deserted for 15-20 years until a couple of them decided to rent it and try to fix it up. And the best part is that it’s just the beginning of their project – since they started it on the 1st of May 2017.
The house still doesn’t have any infrastructure lead to it, like water plumbing and electricity. But they manage with some solar panels on the roof, and when doing gigs, they use an aggregate, which works just fine.
The opening act was Dáša Fon Fľaša who is described as an acoustic – solitaire – DIY – folk – punk singer-songwriter. He was absolutely beyond amazing. He has such an energy that can translate so easily, so just after a couple of minutes of his show we felt very happy and energized.
His lyrics are fast, and rhythmic, his playing is energetic and punk and by the end of the show we found out that this was his 999th performance (!!!!).
It was really clear that he’s a legend, since a bunch of people came to see him, and it was quite full for a Monday night in Žilina.
We were absolutely amazed and excited.
Our show was pretty different than usual, since they couldn’t connect our DI’s without turning the phantom power (+48V) for all the channels – which is not a got idea if you’re using dynamic mics.
So we decided to try and do a couple of our songs without our backing tracks (some of them we couldn’t do).
It was amazing. The audience was really listening to the songs, and immediately recognized our energy and gave it back to us somehow. That’s the feedback that’s needed – just to feel the connection with the listener in some way.
The show went great, and everybody was really happy. :)
We felt like we deserved it after the whole incident in Krakow.
And I already wrote before how it really shouldn’t amaze me that every time the best hospitality and organization happens in DIY places like squats and centers.
I guess that the bigger the institution is, the smaller the people working in it get.
So, it’s really awesome when you see that it all balances out somehow. After dealing with inhuman corporate cultural robots – we stumbled upon real people who welcomed us and made us feel awesome.
The whole experience recharged us in a way, and we felt great, and were ready to press on.
Next stop is Trenčin in Slovakia, and after we're going to Hungary.
Hope you enjoyed this,
stay tuned for the next post :)
Cheers! <3