Once again, I spent almost the entire day at home. My brother went with me this time for Pain Quotidian, and despite my general self prohibition against drinking milk, ordered a latte.
Between lunch and dinner, we made a phone call or two, listened to some music, and surfed the web. We may have watched part of a CNN program on Mark Ronson.
For dinner, we met up with my brother's friend Matthew, at Ristorante Italia. Very good Italian food, had a plate of spaghetti worthy of Italy, and we shared a big plate of sliced meat, cheese and olives and an exceptionally good bottle of red wine. This was followed by a lively debate as to whether the American system of low wages combined with variable tips or the European system of increased food prices, higher wages but no required tip is better for ensuring the best interests of restaurants, servers and customers.
Matt was kind enough to drive us in his very nice car (I was stuffed into the very, very small back seat) to the town of Aurau, and a music club called Kiff to see the Halifax band Wintersleep. I had only heard the band's album once or twice, but had a good feeling about the performance, but my expectations were far exceeded. Sounding roughly like Built to Spill, Midlake and even vaguely like Sigur Ros, but with frequent time changes, and furious drumming, the show was extremely energetic, the playing tight and professional, and the setlist engaging. But how strange to be in this small town, far outside of Zurich, in a club whose interior reminded me much of my favorite Los Angeles venues, watching a Canadian band, surrounded by Swiss hipsters.
After the show, we walked around to the backstage to meet the band, and spoke to the keyboardist for a while about the tour. The most surprising piece of information we learned was that, despite the fairly complex time changes in the music, most of the band didn't really know what time signatures were being used, and simply learned "how the songs go."
Matt drove home, and my brother and I took the train back to Zurich. We went to a club called Zukunft, stood in the bar area for a while and then moved to the dance area, where the music was exceptionally good -- and I usually don't much enjoy that sort of music, so that says a lot.
Grabbed a doner kebab afterwards, and took a taxi home.
A.C. Newman -- Battle For Straight Time
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