Creepy Teepee "Behind The Scenes impressions"

Creepy Teepee

"Behind the Scenes"
by Stepan Bolf (Creepy Teepee fest curator)

(A Grave with No Name & Stepan)

Day 1 - July 14th

I don´t have many impressions from the very first day. Sun is shining. I´m arriving to Kutná Hora about 4PM after 3 hours drive, visit the jesuit college yard where the fest stage is build by Fluffwheels crew, talk to these guys a little, pick up hotel keys from the gallery director, check the staff backstage in the gallery building, then go to the hotel (pretty nice room with a window view to St.Barbora church), make some email exchanges with couple of bands coming next days (with one of bands asking us to pay for bringing their instruments, which is not possible as the budget is done). It´s evening now, so i go to have pizza at the restaurant at the same building where the fest afterparty club is. There i meet Jakub, my budde and fest curator, together with his family, have a beer with them in the garden of the same restaurant talking about how much we are into seeing Former Ghosts show on Friday and how sweet Silk Flowers guys are even through email and how shitty is the communication with english corporate booking agents. Then there is an affair with missing hand-made stage sheet from the last years fest edition. The sheet is lost. Jakub and his sister Anežka need to draw a new one next day. Pretty hot phone discussion about this topic with people more or less involved in it´s loss. Then we go to the club upstairs and talk to the bartender/clubowner in one person about PA and equipment for coming days. Then we have more and more beers with Jakub and his girlfriend Nik, watching videos screened on the screen (Scatman and others). Then i go to sleep to the hotel after midnight with impression it will be hard to wake up next day. 

Day 2 - July 15th

Not that hard to wake up as i predicted. It is terribly hot whole night in the hotel room, so i wake up at 5PM thirsty, not able to sleep anymore, and  pretty nervous. I connect to the net and make more email echanges and killing lot of time browsing on facebook. Tired go to have a breakfast, then to the jesuit college meet gallery people and talk to them about things coming. First artists are being picked up at Prague airport, so we are looking forward to meet them at the fest place. Travis Pictureplane shows up first about noon as his slot is today. Im talking to him about fest, the city of Kutná Hora and replies with  a story as he was caught by the police almost immediately as he left the hotel today here. They asked him to pay money for crossing the road on the wrong place, but he refused, so they left him go. I feel shame about this event, but this punk seem to have fun about it. Very nice guy. Then i meet Nikki Terror Bird and Ryan Collapsing Opposites (both from Vancouver, but as they told me lately, they never met before) and nice couple of people from russian drone band Love Cult. I check Jakub as he is fast working on new stage sheet. It looks ghotic and very good. Gate opens, first people arriving. Fest day number one starts with Collapsing Opposites slot, it is funny and rocking and i have on my mind Half Japanese listening to them (Ryan names Talking Heads first as i ask him for his favorites lately). Unfortunatelly they have only 1 CD of their musichere, all their stuff they brought abroad was sold in France.  Then i meet Freddy Former Ghosts and need to tell him he became a mythical person for me during last couple of months of (for me pretty stressfull) fest preparations and how nice is to have him here in person finally. Then those Russians are droning good, unfortunatelly im partly out of their show as i need to do some administration at the staff backstage. Moon Duo arrive in a nice yellow van with a picture of a man with a beard on it. Moon Duo´s Ripley has similar beard too. I watch part of Terror Bird show, no drummer, just singer Nikki, she seems to enjoy the set doing lot of dances and good covers. Couple of hundreds of people at the fest now, nice crowd. Talking to Love Cult in backstage as they are packing home-made CDs of their music and music of their friends, telling them how nice is to know there is living underground scene in Russia. Actually Love Cult are from Carelia, russian region close to Finland. Travis Pictureplane requested to replace the soundguy with playing music between slots. Soundguy played Scorpions, which was pretty obscure and funny at the same time. Pictureplane plays some dance stuff, i can hear 2 Unlimited and some euro pop, which is funny and bit scary for euro ear too. Talking to Freddy Former Ghosts and Tiffany Rainbow Arabia about gypsies and hear the story as Rainbow Arabia were shooting their new video in Serbia at a gypsy place and how sweet these gypsy kids were as Tiffany gave them some pocket money. Moon Duo couple are playing nice set. They play music with very old roots, but you can hear they know very well what is happening today on music scene. Their song about motorcycles is super fun. Then Pictureplane hits the stage, sings some songs, doing party time. Anežka in big mexican hat joins him at the stage  for a song or two dancing. Then Rainbow Arabia playing, Tiffany and Danny seem to enjoy the excited crowd and they get very excited too, in last song they create „creepy teepee“ anthem. Finishing my 4th beer today and go to the club to watch a show of My Dead Cat, czech post-HC band. Playing great set in superhot room packed with people. Travis Pictureplan is playing music at the afterparty, mostly Euro pop again. People dancing. I´m talking to band members and friends in the hall of the club. Conversation with Freddy Former Ghosts about the (i)responsibility of an artist for acts of fans. Sitting on the bar, i think i just have seen guys from Male Bonding walk around drinking beer - they should arrive tonight - but not sure if it´s them, as i never met them before and  yes, i´m drunk.  Better to leave as pretty crazy day is ahead tomorrow. About 2PM – sleep.

Day 3 - July 16th

Meeting Jakub and other friends at the breakfast. Sun shines bright. Go to the fest place. Doing administration. Meeting Ivna from No Conclusion blog, she is DJing next day. She mentions that there is so many hipsters at the fest. I ask her which one she means, and she is pointing to one of guys in the crowd. I tell her the story of the guy – it´s one of the artists who played the fest last year. She´s no more mentioning hipsters to me. Got the info that Air Waves arrived to the airport, but fest car needs to wait there with them for ClapsClap, who are arriving one hour later, as gallery/fest organizer has only one car available today. Freddy Former Ghosts arrives to the fest place to do a soundcheck, he is headlining tonight. Meeting Noah P.S.Hoffman and Dan The Spookfish, drinking beer with them, talking funny stories about Aria Railcars, our common friend. Meeting Male Bonding guys (the same day i heard the story from the driver how strange it was to wait at the airpot for these guys with big paper sign with band´s name). More and more people coming to the fest place. The Spookfish kicks the day, P.S.Hoffman joining them for couple of songs on drum. Pretty chilled set. Freddy Former Ghosts coming to backstage telling me he really likes what these guys are doing. Then Air Waves start their set, they sound great on the fest stage, but i need to run to the main street in the city to navigate Vivian Girls van to get to the fest place. Their new drummer seem excited as she sees Air Waves playing on stage and she joins the crowd dancing in front of the stage. Nice. Toro Y Moi arrives. Im telling Chaz that we invited him to play our fest because we like his music. He looks surprised, and pleased too. Male Bonding go to the stage, mostly guys in the crowd start to dance and one of the metal fans joins the stage headbanging for one song. Toro Y Moi playing full band set (with drums and bass), sounds different from the record. Spending whole Vivian Girls set by the sound guys table. Watching friends stagediving and the band seem to have fun too. Sun is shining on the yard, i never saw so many people here. Freddy Former Ghosts appears on the stage. The best show start i have seen for long time - new song, keyboard and drum, Freddy screaming way out of the microphone. After 3 songs i need to leave and call Matt Ecstatic Sunshine, as his plane is delayed, driver waits for him there, but they are not finding each other. Doing this phone calls in front of the gallery yard, i hear „Hold On“ is being played on the stage. Shit, my favorite song and im not there. The finale of Former Ghosts show is very emotional. Meeting the gallery director, telling him it would be fun to move the timing of lineup from 10pm curfew couple of hours later as he offers now, but maybe next year, as i find fair now to keep the set times as it was announced, with 10PM curfew (we asked the gallery for later curfew before the fest and the answer was „not possible“). Then im leaving for afterparty. Czech noise-industrial acts No Pavarotti and Head In Body are playing, i´ve seen about 30seconds of each set. Than witchhouse project ClapsClap (the dude on the stage wears weird costume of Winnie The Pooh – i  think i will never read this book to my daughter again without thinking about this), than Slovak audio-visual project Bios. Room is full and hot, almost impossible to get a beer at the bar. Im staying outside, talking to friends about some crapy local bands and about if artists should listen to their records as it was once finished or not (my opinion is – not). Talking to Nikki Terror Bird the topic „reasonable fee“. Ryan Collapsing Opposites asks if the czech police will mind if someone brings pack of beer in front of the packed club and sell it to people staying outside. Had a fun word fight with some friends about Former Ghosts show – some loved it, some (mostly guys) hated it. In fact – looks everybody was touched, and that is what im happy about. Last thing at the club is a long talk with my buddy Jakub and the main gallery curator Ondřej (it was him who came with the idea of the fest and us A.M.180 as curators year before) about the pluses and minuses of this kind of event happening under the wing of state instutution. Result is that it is not easy. Leaving not that late, but at the bottom of my social abilities. 

Day 4 - July 17th

Wake up early. Go to a have breakfast, where i meet Béďa, a volunteer tech guy, honest music fan and one of the best people at the fest. Last thing his wife did before they broke up was throwing his New Order LP out of the window. He looks happy as yesterday he did couple of photo shots with his favorites Vivian Girls. There is other guy, the journalist, pretty pissed of becuase one of the artists at the fest is flirting with his ex. I think his review of the fest will be not good, and future shows that im right. At the fest place i got the info from the driver that Chris Garneau has not arrived to the airport in the morning – plane arrived, but no Chris. Trying to get in touch with his agent or him, but no success. I meet A Grave With No Name, pretty good garage trio from London and very nice guys. They made photo with me after 2 minutes we met. They are playing next day. Freddy Former Ghosts is asking where to buy ice cream. I talk to bartender at the beer bar, he telll in his eyes as the one who talks to many people here the fest audience is half czech and half english speaking foreigners. Finally i get the info Chris Garneau is on his way here by train. Noah P.S.Hoffman starts the day, destroying his casio at the end of his set climbig up the stage and throwing the piece down.  As Béďa wants to keep this destroyed piece to remember, Noah takes it away from him. Screamo from Amherst Ampere are playing, but i need to leave to the office for an interview with czech newspapers about the fest. Only see and hear their encore song, they look surprised by excited reactions of mostly-no-vegan-audience. Matt Ecstatic Sunshine enters the stage and plays perfectionist one man performance. During his set Silk Flowers guys arrive, nice to meet Ethan as we met couple of years ago when we were doing Barr show he was a band member. They go to stage after, during the set there is a „happy birthday“ moment for the singer Aviram, who is 30 today. Ethan brings a cake with candles. As Silk Flowers play their synth-gothic stuff  it starts to rain. Chris Garneau enters the backstage. He is sick, having bad cold, but i think we are both happy he made it here. I meet my father in the crowd. He is asking if i can do someting about the big rows for beer. I leave. Chris´s set, just him and pianino, happends in full rain. The atmosphere of the moment is strong. These Are Powers arrive. They go to stage right after Chris – it is still raining, so they invite people to the stage near to the end of the set. Backstage is full of people dancing too. What a party, the better is was not planned. Travis Pictureplane is filming all this. He tells me „This is a legendary moment“.  I meet Pat from These Are Powers after the gig by the beer bar, forgot to tell him how surprised i was about their sound change - it´s very energic dance stuff these days, no more noise stuff, but still good as fuck. Go to the afterparty club, meet Silk Flowers on the way there walking through the city, so i join them talking about place they will not have time to visit because they leave for Italy next morning. Manchester´s psychedelics Gnod are playing, i see last 3 minutes of their heavy-hypnotic-rock set in the full room. Then Terrible Eagle play the set. They asked to play „special afterparty set“ on the night before they play big stage set. Next day i don´t see many differences between these two sets. But both sets are good. Leave as someone wants something from me and im not able to react anymore. That is why I miss the No Conclusion/AllEveryoneUnited sets. Heard it was fine and enjoyed by many dancers. Sleep about 1AM.

Day 5 - July 18th

At night im receiving the info from Memoryhouse that they will not arrive to play the fest, as their singer is sick. Shit. Together with it is still raining outside not a good start of the day. Go to check the fest place. Water everywhere. There as an art camp at second yeard, all the tents seem destroyed by water and wind. Meet Rado, buddy from AMDiscs, have coffee with him and Matt Ecstatic Sunshine at the fest staff office, Travis Pictureplane joins us for a while. Trying to explain to Matt and Travis how boring was the life under communists and telling them stories about how it was to buy music illegaly on black markets during communist era. They look excited by this. Welcoming Dam Mantle guys, i met them some time ago in their native Glasgow and it is nice to see these guys again. Have first lunch outside the fest place in days, go to restaurant with Rado, Jakub, Nik and some other friend and it´s fine. After noon the sun starts to shine again. First set on the big stage is Terrible Eagle. Not that much people as last two days, but those who are here seem to like them. Then Dam Mantle´s set. It is great fun to watch Tom Dam Mantle doing his sound magic with machines. They don´t want to play encore song, though people would like it. A Grave With No Name enter the stage, they refused a shot before the set as i offered it to them, as they looked pretty nervous. I really like their melancholic neilyoungish-jmascisish-songs with very distorted vocal. Aidan Baker´s Nadja arrive during this, they enter stage right after Graves, no screening because it´s still no dark enough. Captain Ahab travel party is arriving. Guys seem tired after long ride from Hamburg (about 700 kilometers) and  they look surprised their set starts within an hour. Nadja´s instrumental soundscapes sound impressive in the evening, though is not that loud as it should be because there are some problems with wet PA. Than Captain Ahab duo hits the stage. They play disco pop with the funnies and dirtiest lyrics i have ever heard, together with crazy (and very precise done!) screenings and one of the duo attacking the crowd dressed only in bathing slips - it´s a blast! After this party i lead Travis Pictureplane to my room for keeping his things there until next morning, as i will drive him to the airport and he is not sure where will he spent the night tonight. Talking to him i can understand he is a big Captain Ahab fan. I go to the party. Skull Vomit and Sickboy are DJing so loud, that the police comes. Talking to the gallery crew and couple of friends. Talking to Captian Abah boys, they are very nice people. Some of people on the fest think they are gay couple. It´s fun. Go to sleep about 2:30AM as i see the afterparty goes that wild i don´t have energy to be involved. On the way to the hotel i meet A Grave With No Name guys looking for one of the members in the strets of Kutná Hora. Lately i heard he had fun. 

Day 6 - July 19th

At 6:45 i meet Travis Picutreplane by my hotel. It looks he stayed awake whole night. I´m driving him to Prague to catch his plane. Talking about shitty guys who are manipulating weak women, about good hip hop Travis seems to be big fan, about a band we both know which wants to be the biggest rock band in the world, about future which is not clear. Horrible traffic jam from the edge of Prague, im pretty nervous that we will not make it at time to the Prague airport on the other edge of the city. Travis fels to sleep. In the end, we make it to the airport. I lead Travis to to the gate for the flight to New York, but the airportwatch shows us the way from bussines class gate to economy class gate immediately. Saying bye with Travis. It´s about 9AM, im leaving the airport.

The Fest is Over.

Creepy Teepee fest happened in Kutná Hora,

Czech Republic, from 15th to 18th July 2010