RIO Again
Here's the story of the time Secret Chiefs 3 flew to France to play at the Rock in Opposition festival in 2015.
It all started with basic travel from SFO to Heathrow: waited in an epic security line, killed time in the terminal, anxiously lined up to board, nabbed some of the last precious overhead space, and shared a row with a nice chatty couple from Martinez en route to a wedding in Rome. During the flight there was some ruckus where a guy nearby suddenly got up and shouted at the woman behind him. "Stop kicking!!" he yelped. The stewardess calmly managed the situation but I wondered for a second if this is gonna be one of those flights that has to land early due to an asshole melting down.
Had a long layover, so I enjoyed walking all the way to terminal 5A. But once in the security line I realized I left my hoodie on the airplane stuffed under the damn seat. Not a big deal as it was that shitty $20 Target black hoodie. But it's September so I need a jacket. But I'm in fucking Heathrow. The best I could find was a black "Underground" hoodie for 25 pounds (40 bucks). Fine, whatever.
Easy enough flight to Toulouse. Sitting at the head of the economy section meant the curtain separating the rich and poor people kept flapping in my face. While waiting for my keyboard case at the carousel a cute little boy kept talking to me in French about how cool the carousel was and all the funny bags coming out. I eventually found my keyboard in the oversized baggage pile.
Arriving around the same time (and sharing a shuttle to the venue) were Trey, Fernanda, Timba, Thierry (from Art Zoyd) and his partner. As well Udi was there arriving 12 hours later than planned due to flight cancellations, so he crammed in the van with us. Kind of a tight squeeze with all our gear. My legs went numb during the 70 minute ride to Albi. I distracted myself staring at the French countryside as autumn approaches. Clouds and weather.
And there I was, back at Cap Découverte - a small wonderland for arts and recreation in the Carmaux countryside. Seems like only yesterday when I played here with miRthkon (actually two years earlier). Dumped all our gear in a rehearsal space set up for us, checked into our rooms at the hostel. The festival starts tomorrow, but for all us early birds they served dinner in a big tent behind the performance hall. Pasta, meat sauce, salad, wine. Perfect. The rain kicked in and a giant leak in the roof of the tent suddenly dumped water on another table. Crashed back at the hostel, waking up briefly to say hello to Toby and Kenny arriving during the wee hours.
Caught up with Toby over petit dejeuner in the hostel cafeteria the next morning. Then we walked to the hall to find the festival doesn't start until this evening so everything was still closed. But we ran into handler Gael who gave us the code for the wifi (pronounced "wiffy") and we kept occupied until the others gathered and we headed to our rehearsal room. The guy managing this space was super helpful. He already set up most of our stuff, including my keyboard and a loaner second keyboard. Then he set forth to procure an adaptor we forgot to bring and returned quickly with said item.
We started running tunes starting with some Ishraqiyun basics, which of course are all in Bb, and the Bb just above middle C went kaput on the borrowed keyboard. Fuck. The helpful dude appeared again to check in and I pointed out the issue, and the rest of the band took a break while we quickly dealt with it. He fixed it by transplanting the highest Bb on the keyboard (which I don't need). Sweet. So back in business. More pasta and salad for lunch in the tent.
Continued to cram tunes until the masses arrived and I caught up with many of the familiar faces from RIO related shows and festivals past. Ian, Yehuda, Manu, Alec, Debi, Helaine, Steve, Dave, Keith, Marcello.. Killing time in the vendor hall as everybody hawked their wares or nerded out about avant prog. Into the tent yet again for dinner. Sausages, cauliflower mash, chocolate desserts. The music started. Aquaserge, then Ukandanz, and ultimately Present. During the last tune of the night some drunk ladies got on stage and flailed around, urging the crowd to dance. They failed. One stayed on stage to the very end and then attempted to yammer into the microphone while the band took their bows. Udi, soundperson extraordinaire, smartly shut the microphone off before she could say anything. Then back to the hostel for sleep.
The following day involved more of the same. Food in the tent, marathon rehearsals, performances in the Maison de la Musique, hanging out with like minded musicians and fans, or milling about the outskirts of this whole complex. I caught most of the Art Zoyd set, all of the Mats/Morgan set, and bits of many others.
Of course jet lag finally hit me and I didn't sleep at all the night before our show. Toby and I once again hit the cafeteria for breakfast together. Morgan Agren came over to say hello and apologize for missing our set tonight as they are on tour and leaving shortly to play elsewhere, but it was nice to meet and greet. He and the others actually came over to the rehearsal room yesterday to hang, but we were all out to lunch. Bummer. It would have been fun to jam or at least give them their own, free, personal show.
Eventually we all gathered backstage and figured out the schedule and game plan for the day. Turns out I had time to take an essential nap. Afterward I learned that airport shuttles were rearranged to be more agreeable given flight schedules. Except for me. Since the number of vans was finite I got stuck in the 4am shuttle tomorrow morning even though my flight is much later. Fine. I can deal with yet more sleeplessness and bumming around airports for the greater good.
At 3:15pm we were instructed to load our backline onto the stage and dial in. But the Toubifri Orchestra (with 30 people) were doing their soundcheck unexpectedly early, and this ate into pretty much all of our allotted time to get our own soundcheck. Fine. We're used to the crunch. Besides this delay gave me the chance to go see a huge chunk of the Happy Family set on the second stage. One of the highlights of the weekend.
Quickly changed into our robes and suddenly we're doing our thing. Pretty good set despite the rough mix on stage. And another key broke on my borrowed keyboard during the show - the D one octave above middle C started a new behavior where it would infinitely ring out when depressed. I always keep gaff tape nearby and applied it to keep myself from accidentally playing it for the rest of the set.
We did it! Changed into our street clothes, high fived, and then met up in the mezzanine above the vendor hall to do a group interview. When miRthkon played here Wally and I managed this ourselves, but this time all five members of SC3 were asked to go up there but Trey naturally did all the talking. The rest of us were briefly asked about other projects. Timba answered in French, which impressed the small audience.
Just so happens a.P.A.t.T. were on tour and en route to Nice, so they came to hang out as well as grab Timba to join them for the rest of their journey across mainland Europe. During all the above activity the past few days Timba was cramming in their material on guitar. Great to catch up with them, albeit all too briefly, before they disappeared into the night aiming for the Formula 1 two hours down the road. The party waned. People in various states of inebriation staggered toward the hostel.
I set my alarm for 3:30am. Toby, Kenny, and I woke up at that time after what was basically a short nap. Got ready in the dark and the three of us met the shuttle downstairs already waiting for us. After a silent ride to the airport the driver insisted all our flights were at this one terminal. But once he split Toby and Kenny learned they had a bunch of walking to do to a different terminal. Not me. My British Airways flight was right there, but I had six hours to kill. I had to wait like four hours by the desks before I could check in my keyboard. Boring. But that's basically it. Long flight home, I ate some tacos, went to bed, was back at work the very next morning.
Yes, we crossed the ocean to do a single gig in France. Seems crazy, but this is the second time we did exactly that. Also I still have that "Underground" hoodie and wear it often. It's comfy
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