Tony Sonntag

Monday Monday. Relatively uneventful day at work. The nighttime was a good bit more noteworthy, I suppose. Had a good day with TLK. Fine chat, a return to friendly and collegue-y vibes and the inevitable 'few pints'...well, 5 (including a couple of these incredibly potent Belgian Strawberry beer things-frothy, lovely and a mere snip at £3.90 a go (it's true!!! tho' I didn't notice that 'til after I dwelt on the amount of change I got back!)).. after work. We spoke re many things, mostly stuff relating to the client at the work who is terminally ill. She talked very wonderfully about karma and her views on death. What she said will be forever etched on my mind. It confirmed to me that she is a rather beautiful human being and I realised that to be around that is a great thing. It also helped to remind me I am completely in love with her! - this is obviously a wee bit o' a mixed blessing but hell...I will dwell long on moments sic as this...it may sound very sad and more like the sort of thing an R.Kelly fan would say but we sat in the pub near the window and I felt as if I was entering some kind of cinematic cliche' land. It was just like you see in Kieslowski!- the light from passing cars and streetlights kept shining across her face. I tried to supress my thoughts but it was impossible. I've never seen anything more beautiful in my life. There I said it. She has an extremely interesting and lovely (good lord) face and I felt pretty heady immediately after experiencing that 'moment'. Of course a wee bit later I felt more like an unattractive fat and bald man again but there was something re being with her at that time that I really don't think I will ever forget. Jeez I know I just said something awfy corny and 'common' but I think I felt something I have never felt before. The staus of our friendship seemed safe and sound and I was kinda able to grasp everything I felt about her so easily. Obviously we'll never be owt more than pals but I thank thae few seconds kinda made me feel great about her and about how things are now and I feel now as if things are oddly sorted. Beatific bullshit indeed but hell...the rest of the world does it wi' their 'requited' vibes. Why can't I dae it wi' my brand?! Maybe I should drink fruit beer mair often! Anyway, we went up the road quite tipsy. It dawned on me again and again that I have never felt this way re anyone else in my life. Intense-ish moments I suppose but I just continued to feel so great that I knew her as a person. There wasn't any despair at all!! Jeez...enough of this...went up the road and into the legendary Henry's Cellar Bar to see the fantastic Jack Rose. Was a mite tiddly by this time and ignored 'mystery phone calls' which turned oot to be from SJ and D re the gig. Got very very sheepish about this and felt like a bit o' a drunken fool. The combo of TLK, strawberry beer and the reveries therein had removed my judgement somewhat! SJ and D are neebors that I met through CH and the land of the Interweb. I can't say much else about them other than the fact they are lovely folk and I like bein aroond them. Anyway, met them in the pub up the stairs and also bumped into a coupla folk from my old band days. Had a brief chat, felt a tad too tiddly to properly converse and headed into the gig. It was weird seeing the band folk again. H & S were in a group who we played wi' a few times and AF and ISH frae 'my' band had stints in theirs tae. I started thinking hard re many nights in the late 90's when I would have those few seconds of thinking that folk liked what we were doing! These wee moments were brief and mostly I got down and anxious re the 'quality of my work' and other bloated concerns. I am not anything approaching a quality artiste tho' I felt at times as if I was prone to believing the hype (not that any hype was made about us of course!) that emanated from within my head! I'm sure I'll tell you how I feel about the band days mair at one point but probably not for some time! I don't find it easy to talk that rationally about them!!...anyway..went doon to H'sCB. It's a funny wee room which is oddly appropriate for quiet, acousticy stuff. When we arrived there was a guy on stage who it dawned on me I had seen before. In the summer I saw him playing at The Subway supporting A Hawk and A Hacksaw. I think he calls himself Kappa something or other. He's a wonderfully fragile performer who plays meandering, intricate acoustic tunes with minimal whispery vocals. The guy has a really nice natural presence about him and he is extremely unreconstructed in his stagecraft-taking ages to tune, saying 'fuck's sake' to himself when he can't tune properly and generally seeming awkward and real and..just right. I've seen a lot of people do shambolic and it's obviously an act but this guy is the real deal! Something about him is just top quality- achy poignant, wide open songs, lovely lyrical guitar playing etc etc. In true fashion he had forgotten to bring CD's but he asked folk to come and see him and get his email address if they wanted one. I meant to but then started to talk at length with AM, another o' ma Fife pals, and also to drink MORE beer so I didn't get round to speaking with him. I really want to hear more of him. I shall track this guy down goddamnit. Aye, the evening continued wi' a set of total dullness from an act called Eagle something or other. I saw them at the same gig as the Kappa guy. They consist of one fey bloke with a medieval haircut and a bouzouki and one Craig and Charlie Reid lookalike wi' an awfy strained and unnatural way o' singing. Tonight they had an ineffectual double bass on show too. They're really no that guid- nae presence or substance, nae tunes, nae atmosphere and as for dynamics? Well there aren't any o' thirr either! Chris Corsano was up next tho'. Oddly I felt that the time was right for a set from a solo drummer. He can play to a pretty amazing standard. He does all sort o weird things wi bows and strings and saxophone mouthpieces and somehow creates quite a warm and wonderful vibe out of nowt but a few things which he hits with sticks! You can tell he's a drummer's drummer too. The legendary Alex Neilson stood in front of me and seemingly was awestruck. Given his ability I reckon that's a pretty good testimony for CC. Not that he was just 'a good drummer' tho'. I got the feeling that he'd worked a bit on what he played too. He played a short set but it had some lovely highs and lows therein moving from lightning fast wigging to bowed, lurchy, scrapy bits and back again. Top class. As for Jack Rose. Well he was fantastic. AM pointed out that in the old days they would call this stuff 'folk'! Now of course it is 'drone folk', 'psych folk', 'drone' , 'improv folk' etc. Whatever it is it does it for me big time. For the first coupla 'pieces'(!) I was quite near the back but I moved forward later on and got a lot more into it. A wee group of fan-atics had formed near the front and there was a far more initimate vibe available up close to him. The last 2 things he did were lengthy pieces with the guitar on his lap and loads of slide action. It was beautiful, elegant and magic! If you manage to really concentrate on what he's doing and go with the vibe this is absolutely mesmerising music. Some folk were a bit lost I think. He started off very suddenly and quietly and it took a long time for the chatter to die down to a respectable level. There was a table of metally people near to me who just seemed to have lost the will to live! At least 2 of them were asleep after a wee while and the others talked all the way through the set. The fact that JR is a tubby balding bloke made me feel good too!! Had a further guid chat wi' AM (he's another o' thae folk who made Fife slightly less so when I lived there and I can't think o' a better intero to the guy than that), bought a coupla CD's that I couldn't afford and staggered up the road rather happy! I wasn't so happy at 8.15 AM this morning however but then I didn't expect to be! Stumbled into work- another busy day. Spent mair time wi' TLK. I'm still in love with her! Got awfy tired later on. Ended up in the land of the Interweb Caff again- excerpts from the 'Greensleeves' catalogue playing today- complete with a total skagger at the PC along frae me who has just had a conversation wi his 'berd' re how he got 'some of the big white ones, a couple of the wee blue ones and a couple of the 'V' ones'! Life's rich pageant indeed...