Mytrip & Conjecture Tour - Days 1-3 - Sofia, Subotica, Budapest

10/04 Sofia (and a bunch of baby kittens freshly born)

Not really a tour if you sleep in your own bed, but since Vassilis and Philip have just arrived from Greece for this one I guess it counts as touring already. So, first show in Sofia went pretty smooth. Kind of half the audience we expected showed up, but still they were the right people. This time no tech problems and delays, mostly because Philip had our backs on the mixing desk (make sure you check his band Septuagint as well – occult black metal from the depths of Greece). At 20:00 (almost sharp) I start the show with Fingah’s visuals already kicking in. My set’s not really different from what I did before Lamb so yeah, it does the job, especially for a bunch of friends who came to see me play for the first time. After that we hear evitceles for the first time. And he does a great job – broken beats, sliced vocals,  catchy melodies – he has it all and I think it makes a great debut. Then Conjecture’s on, he’s playing a really short, but an intense set and I’m sure it did leave some people hoping for more. Maybe they’ll catch up in Plovdiv’s Kino Kosmos on April 24^th. Next and last on stage is Hypnos. Stanislav does a very atmospheric techno set that’s throws us in a perfect darkness. Huge ups for him since he was invited to this show 3 days before it and he did a rad job preparing this live set as I’m pretty sure he hasn’t done anything like that before. And here we are – with our first show finished, heading for a quick bite and then home.

And at home, on my very bed, I find two freshly born, white baby kittens. So yeah, it really is a new beginning. A pretty cool one. I only hope in the morning I’ll have the strength to leave them and their mother alone and not bring them in the car.

11/04 Subotica (meeting Carlito – my main mate)

It’s Saturday and 600 kms to Subotica are ahead of us. The baby cats are hard to leave behind, but anyhow, we’re on the road at around 11. We spend the next 8 hours in the car, but after a few stops we reach Subotica. It’s been 3 years since the last time I was there and this time we actually going around the city and it’s awesome. All people look fresh and chilled, even if those people we meet at the venue later tell us it’s not really the best city to live in, since there are not too many job opportunities. Still, it’s great to see a city the size of my hometown of Sliven, with an actual scene, supporting touring acts.

The Family sculpture set in Studio 11

So it’s 19:30 and we’re in Studio 11, one of Subotica’s cult places. It’s always decorated with great cyber-punk art pieces by local artists. We see ‘The Family’, a set of sculptures by a local artist, which has just come back from a H.R. Giger tribute exhibition in Berlin. I remember some of his older works – a red sculpture called ‘Toy doll’, which is now to be found in another venue in Subotica. After a quick pizza, we sound check. We set up our gear at the heart of Studio 11, which is actually a recording studio and a rehearsal space. At around 23:00 I start playing, not sure if my stuff is the people at the place’s thing, but… yeah. Then it’s Conjecture, he plays a longer set and almost does a second one.

And now it’s the best moment to mention my main Subotica mate Carlito. He’s the best buddy you can ever meet, a mascot of the venue and the first tour dog of this trip. I secretly want to bring him in Sofia, but I leave it to guard the studio, because if he doesn’t… who else would?

Carlito, my main dawg.

Big ups going to Damir and all of his friends, who made this event possible. Hope to be back there soon, even if I also secretly hope Serbian folks will cut a bit the smoking, especially on public places hahah. Good thing I’m not ‘singing’ on this tour.

12/04 Budapest

We get up and hit a neat bakery near Studio 11, which is just around the corner. After a few croissants we’re ready for the road. Budapest is quite close to Subotica, however, we spend an extra hour and half on the Hungarian border. Good thing is this is actually the last one for the next 7, 8 shows. After a bit of wandering around the streets of the relentlessly busy Budapest we reach Csaba’s place, where we’re sleeping tonight. It’s an awesome flat, which he got to rent from a friend of his, who’s booking punk / noise rock shows. And so it’s full of screen-printed gig posters and photographs. I especially like Csaba’s collection of old movies on tape, which he’s using for visuals on the shows of his band pozvakoski. We don’t really have time to hang out around the city center so few mugs of coffee accompanied by some classic industrial & experimental music and some Greek post-punk gems we’re heading to Golya for our third show of the tour. Oh yes, and my first Mytrip gig in the city after playing Hungary so many times with Expectations.

Pulpo live

Despite being located in something looking as a pretty shady area, Golya is a quite cool place. Something between a bar, a small kitchen and an event location with a social center feeling. People tell us there’s a strong community there and a lot of stuff happening. We finally get to meet Imre, our promoter and his lady Laura. We’re warned it’s Sunday so not too many people are expected. But a small show is better than no show so we’re in. Despite the place is far from full we enjoy a nice PA. Tamas from Pulpo starts the evening with calm guitar-dominated and chill electronics. All live with conceptual visuals screened. He’s working in the fields of documentary cinema and film in general, so I suppose that side is also as important as his music. After him it’s my turn. I go for a way harsher set, with tracks I haven’t done probably since Bristol last April and it feels way better than yesterday. The Conjecture set somehow also feels tighter so I guess that all makes for a good night.

The only puzzling thing is that none of the other acts, who were supposed to perform with us showed up. One is supposedly having technical problems, which seem to be keeping him from even hanging out with us. The second one (whom we’ve booked in Sofia with Amek maybe 4-5 years ago) wasn’t even reachable. Weird way to treat a gig arrangement, but yeah, whatevs. Hopefully nothing bad happened and it was only lack of respect for your own music. As I’m writing this everybody’s already sleeping and you can hear that so I better join the snoring choir. Heading to Vienna tomorrow for another first-timer.