For those of you wondering where the heck they could find a few more pictures from our India performance tour, i can highly recommend to go to Ronni Shendar’s Photo Blog. Amazing pictures, some of them horribly sad.
After a quite demanding weekend with performances in Mumbai and New Delhi, we are now taking a break in a small hotel in New Delhi.
The shows in Mumbai and New Delhi could not have been more different- Mumbai took place in an upscale venue in a warehouse area, the Blue Frog, and we had a bit of a difficult time since it seems to be common that clubs here also cater as restaurants. So, we played our shows, while people were seated at tables and were having dinner- it was a little odd. The Glitterbug & Ronni Shendar live show also took place under special conditions, since we were not allowed to use the back screen for the projection because of the logos of the sponsors of the event… ouch.
Performing here is a totally different experience anyways. Especially in Mumbai, since the city is absolutely mixed, having poverty and wealth just centimeters away from each other. If you walk in the city at night, one literally has to climb over sleeping people in the streets everywhere. It feels like there is no separation between the extreme ends in this society, at least not as far as the public space goes. You can have fancy apartment buildings and 5 star hotels directly neighboring slums, and since there are millions of people living in the streets, you find beggars and homeless people everywhere. And at the same time, segregation between rich and poor is absolute and merciless (and confronts us all with our own privileges, coming from the wealthy west and trying to somehow deal with our strange position here).
The show in New Delhi was a totally different (and absolutely wonderful) experience, since the local Goethe Institute invited us to perform in their Garden. We had a few hundred very diverse people in front of us, and even though it took a while to warm them up- after a bit, the whole thing actually turned into a wild and amazing party, that sadly was over at 11p.m., due to the fact that it was open air and also because New Delhi (and India in general) has very harsh rules considering closing times etc. But we all were so glad to have had this experience and we’re all so thankful to have met all the amazing people at the Goethe Institute New Delhi!
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The day after, we met a Berlin based artist who was invited for a project in the Goethe New Delhi also downstairs in our hotel for breakfast, and he invited us to join him for a picnic which was the closing event of the annual Queerfest here in New Delhi (thanks Ins!!!). Much can be written about issues of gay rights here, but it should be noted that basically homosexuality has been illegal until this summer, so this was certainly a very special event for the scene here.
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The park where the picnic took place also caters as one of the main cruising areas in New Delhi, and this is how the place sounds like during day time.
Over the course of the afternoon, something like 50 people arrived, and the queer scene seems to be quite mixed and diverse. Here is a little snippet of the picnic ambience…
After the picnic, we went back to the hotel. The only form of public transportation here is rickshaws and taxis, while one can’t just stop a cab in the street. So, if you are not in a place where you can just order one by phone, you are more or less stuck with the little motorized rickshaws, and here is the sound of one of the rides. It might sound a little muffled; that is due to the fact that i had to record from inside my back to avoid wind noise in the microphones.
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Sadly, I did not feel well this morning, i caught myself some strange fever that hit me out of the blue. So i did not join the bunch for the daily trip… so this is how my day sounded like. Basically, when indoors, the sound of the air-conditioning is everywhere… and one can’t leave the windows open due to the mosquitos that seem to be even more harmful during daytime because here in the north of India, they carry Dengue Fever. For sure somthing that i would be very happy to miss out on…
We will have two more days here, and after that we will be off to Calcutta and Bangalore for the weekend.
Yes, we reached India. After a really crazy last weekend, packed with all together five flights and endless car and cab transfers in 60 hours and two shows in very opposite places in Europe, we jumped on a plane to Mumbai early Monday morning and arrived in Mumbai late at night. We grabbed a cab and left to the hotel someplace in a city I have never been to (I have never been to India in the first place).
The first thing that hit us was the unimaginable poverty in every corner. As we later learned, one passes endless slums before reaching the more central areas of the city (which, for the most parts, has at least as many people living in the streets). It is unknown how many people actually live in Mumbai, since there are is an estimate of a few million people far far below the poverty line, unregistered, living in some corners in the streets, sleeping on nothing or a piece of cardboard.
I knew that the situation for the vast majority of the population here is bad. But it’s always a huge difference to witness and experience something like this with your own eyes.
To see all of this, this dilapidated infrastructure of a city which falls apart in every corner, yet still has so much beauty, is hard to bare. I am aware of the endless privilege I have as somebody that can live out his dream, gets to travel and perform in all these places, can make music and art and even release/ show it (while people even take interest in it), but all of this is put in a very different context when seeing millions of people living in conditions like this (and I am aware, there are much worse places on this planet). This trip will leave quite a dent in my reception of reality, that much I can already say after less than 48 hours in this place.
But enough talking. Besides many many other things, this city also has an unmatched sound and a noise level that is hard to take for somebody that is used to, well, calmer environments, and also as somebody that is quite sensitive to his auditive environment.
The first day, we just walked around in the city and the surrounding of our hotel, which is close to the Victoria Central Station. The building is beautiful, and the amount of people passing through it incredible. There are endless fans dangling off the ceiling, which create a permanent hum, which is static and not static at the same time. Also, they create so much wind that they actually create interferences with the microphones (which sounds like recording in stormy weather).
The streets are crazy loud and busy. This is a little bit what they sound like. If you want to emulate the experience, play it really really loud…
The next day we were passing through the Mumbai Art Academy, which is actually right across the street from our hotel.
The old and very rotten buildings are located inside a very beaten up park which is mostly inhabited by crows and lots of other birds. It certainly has a very uniques sound to it…
Here is the sound clipping from the gardens
Amidst all of this, we found a little building with the name “Canteen” on it, and it even looked like it was still used as one. There was one painting on the wall that i really loved:
And this is how the canteen sounded like…
On Friday, we will play here in Mumbai in a club called “Blue Frog”, and on Saturday we are off to New Delhi, where we will give a concert in the gardens of the New Delhi Goethe Institute, where we will also give a lecture and workshop on Monday.
Before our show at the amazing Insomnia Festival, we went out for a long hike to the edge of the island that the city of Tromso is build on.
We ended up at an amazing “beach” with a stunning view in the middle of nowhere- this place just feels like one finally reached the edge of the world:
Here is the snippet of serenity this place had in stock for us…
On our way back we had to stop at a random intersection- all the cars have spikes on their wheels which make a beautiful sound, at least in my opinion.
This is how the tires look like:
And this is me recording in the intersection:
I will miss all the amazing people we met in Tromsø and also the amazing, so beautiful, indescribably peaceful landscape. If you ever go on a performance tour- I highly recommend to start it in the Arctic. It’s such a calming experience that it actually lasts for quite some time…
With all this amazing nature we were exposed to we never forgot what the original purpose of our trip up here was: our show at the fabolous Insomnia Festival which had its opening last night.
When it got dark and cold outside, we were rehearsing in a little recording studio around the corner from our hotel (everything on the white table is our live setup):
Also, there was a huge picture in the local newspaper:
We can’t wait for tonight!!!!!!!!!!
Last night we saw something that I dreamed of seeing for all of my life: Northern Lights, or Aurea Borealis in their scientific name. I can’t quite write too much about it; other than the fact that was crying because i have barely seen anything so beautiful and touching in my life.
Berit Bendiksen, our wonderful tour guide (and wonderful person in general) was so kind to pick us and some other artists up and drove us out of the city so the view would not be disturbed by the city lights.
I forgot my recorder, so there is no sound to it. Imagine absolute silence and just the sound of small streams of water gushing down from the mountains.
I am so thankful to all the wonderful people at the Insomnia Festival that made all these efforts to bring us here. Thank you all!!!!!!!!
The pictures were taken by Ronni Shendar.
I played at the really super mega nice Dancity Festival in Foligno/ Italy this Summer, met amazing people and had a wonderful time. (My previous post regarding the festival can be found here). Yesterday, i found this sweet video in my inbox. Thank you so much everybody at Dancity!!!
Thanks everyone for having us! We had such a great time!
glitterbug & Ronni Shendar – live @ Melkweg #03 from c.sides festival on Vimeo.
glitterbug & Ronni Shendar – live @ Melkweg #02 from c.sides festival on Vimeo.
glitterbug & Ronni Shendar – live @ Melkweg Amsterdam from c.sides festival on Vimeo.
Glitterbug & Ronni Shendar live in Amsterdam / Photo by Rene Passet
We played our last show before the album break in Amsterdam last weekend. Rene Passet, legendary persona in the BeNeLux music world, and among many other things, a great supporter of my last album, came to the show and wrote this amazing little review:
“Ever since his strong debut album Supershelter I wanted to see and hear Glitterbug live.
I must say it was everything I hoped for and more. Techno so fluid, so emotional and so deep, it restores your faith in electronic dance music. The visuals were done by the charming Ronni Shendar, with whom Glitterbug is involved in the C.Sides Festival.
Next year he will release a new album, he told me. A double this time. Can’t wait!”
I am speechless. Thank you so so much Rene!!!
You can find his photo album of that night here.
