music to my ears

Principle photography of the European portion is done. Awww yeah.

My new Duisburg friend Dirk showed me an awesome old steel factory that’s been converted into some sort of adventure park- the huge stonewalls are used for rock climbing classes, the giant cooling tanks have been converted into diving wells (15m deep), and the towering smokestacks give just about the perfect view of the industrial landscape. While photographing the smokestack skyline, we got caught in a downpour. No problem. I’m at the point where I can afford an extra day or so to wait out the rain.

Christoph returned from his holiday in Holland, and I moved my things to Dirk’s. (His place is bigger… and no joke, Christoph’s got an entire band scheduled to sleep on his couch. He said I’m welcome to stay too, but Christ, he’s got a one bedroom place and one couch… the band is 4 dudes plus two girlfriends).

Anyway… Dirk and I were hanging out on the balcony when I mentioned my fading guitar calluses. It’s a shame; as a beginner, it took me months to build those up, and now they’re almost all gone. That’s when Dirk said four magic words: ‘I have a guitar.’

Hallelujah

There isn’t anything I love more than playing music.

…But don’t worry- I wasn’t that duchebag who just starts strumming in the living room while everyone’s forced to listen.

The Duisburg library has a music room …with a grand piano. So the next day, we took the guitar. And the day after that, we did the same thing. Nothing fancy. In fact, Dirk didn’t even know how to play piano; I just showed him a couple chords (which he picked up surprisingly fast), and we played. ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane,’ ‘Sloop John B,’… all the hits.

The Duisburg rain passed, and when the sun came out, I rode around town one last time to get some pictures in the blue sky.

Movie- check.

On my last night in town, Christoph and I went to see that French band that was sleeping on his couch. They were playing at a bar down the street near the University of Duisburg-Essen. And, small world, we met up with a Pakistani guy who went to Michigan State. Crazy. He graduated a couple years ago and he’s here in Duisburg doing some post-grad work. Reminiscing about East Lansing is always a good time.

But back to the music…

I’m not going to talk it up too much, but ho-ly shit. These boys brought it. Experimental sounds, catchy riffs, and an energy like… shit, I don’t know what it was, but it was awesome- it’s like they steam-rolled the audience with a freight train of tribal percussion and driving synth. But as I walked away with the CD in my pocket, I was already anticipating the disappointment; there’s no way a producer at their level could capture even an ounce of that on an album.

And I was right. Oh well. Here’s a link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICKLMJCfLOY

Keep an eye out in the future. Those boys are going places.

So am I. I’m off to Paris today.