What a crazy, crazy weekend. We had three open-air concerts planned, two of which had to be canceled. But we still ended up playing two shows!! :D
Lendwirbel is just the coolest street festival there is in Graz. Every year, tons of artists and people hang out in the streets and participate in a lot of different projects. The atmosphere is a huge inspiration to be active yourself. So this year we planned a whole weekend of Klay music. First we played on an acoustic stage, organized by some local musicians (Feel, g.u.l.i.s., Circus, Chris Magerl, Bender-Musik) in collaboration with a great little Italian restaurant called „Santa Lucia“ on Lendplatz in Graz. We got lucky, cause even though the clouds looked a bit scary and it started to drizzle once, we were able to play our concert (with cajon, no drums) and the crowd was crazy cool! We had so much fun and from the first song on people were dancing and enjoying themselves.
We also had the honor of being on stage together with Chris Magerl, and accompanying him on one of his songs! Chris has been an important part of the music scene in Graz and an inspiration to us for years, and it was great to collaborate with him. Thanks Chris! Even though we never got around to actually rehearsing together, the song turned out fine, as you can see in the video above.
Playing in the pouring rain, just before the power blew out…
Our second open-air concert on Saturday evening got hit by a storm and was the shortest set we've played so far... not even a minute. But in those 45 or so seconds we got so energized that we absolutely HAD TO play that evening. Three bands played inside Club Wakuum that same evening and after they were done at about 2:30 a.m., we got our instruments and hit the stage. With no expectations that anyone would actually stay that late at night, we saw it as a gig for ourselves and anyone who wanted to join. Ben even posted it on Facebook and to our great surprise three people showed up because of the post!!! :D Thank you guys!! —> Alex, this goes out to you and your friends. :)
When we started playing at 3 a.m. there were probably still 50 to 70 people at the club. We started our set in front of some people standing, sitting, and listening, but we ended up dancing with them and even playing an encore, cause the energy was up and all the lovely guys and girls wanted more. And Klara was totally excited to start her 27th birthday with a concert. Happy Birthday, Klara!
We gave our all and it really couldn't have been any better. We were all wet like we had taken a shower, as shown by Martin's soaked shirt in the gallery below. :D
Thanks to Michi, who did our sound and did wonderful job (du bist a wahnsinn!), thanks to Christian, Elias, Nina, Ron, Hubert, Con, Flo, Manu and many more who helped out in one way or another and made it possible for us to play on that stage in such a wonderful atmosphere. :)
On Sunday (Mother's Day and also Klara's birthday) it poured rain all day and the clouds got darker by the hour. So no concert in the park for us. But after playing from 3 to 4 a.m. the night before, we weren’t toooo sad about it. ;) Maybe we can still do the show at the parkhouse some time this summer, or otherwise next year at the very latest.
Since Martin joined the band as our new drummer, we've started working on some new material and it almost feels surreal, because we can’t seem to stop coming up with new jams and ideas that we love and wanna work with. We already have three new songs that we played in our first sets. The most beautiful moments in a concert are when we don’t really know what is gonna happen, and we keep playing and the crowd starts singing what we sing and the energy flows back and forth. :D You really can’t recreate moments like that, and that is the beauty of it. :)
All you can do is play another show and let things happen. To that end, our next concert on Friday, June 13th, is coming up soon! :D See you there and thanks for all your support!
Klara, Ben and Martin