parting in such sweet sorrow

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well, we left kunming. it was a sad day for everyone - big hugs abounded and there was much sentiment from the girls and camaraderie and pretending-not-to-care from the boys. or maybe genuinely not caring - those quebec boys know about travelling, and know that maybe they'll see us again somewhere, and if not, well, it was fantastic while it lasted.
i'm really going to miss the place and the people. the crazy nights of drinking, and embarrassing drunken incidents (which i do not need to elaborate on), the food and cooking (oh, the days of banana masala pancakes and vegan pies), and smoking and dvds and waking too early to the sound of the construction site that obscured our view of the city from the window of the flat. ahhhh, kunming. city of eternal spring. the place where all the expats go, because although it doesn't have fantastically amazing tourist sites or spectacular anything in particular, it's a bloody nice place to call home.

we played two more gigs in kunming, both of which were fantastic, largely due to the group of friends we'd collected during our two months in the city. the first gig was last saturday, at the hump. after a shaky soundcheck and some street food dinner (on the famous "food street", which is a veritable orgy of things-on-sticks-vendors and bubbling vats of goodness knows what), we ventured back to the bar to find the place filling up fast. nicole, who was opening for us (and doing her first solo gig, yeehar!), got there after stressing in a traffic jam, and her boyfriend, jp, also a member of the quebec redneck bluegrass project, helped get the sound right and set up the stage. fried, the german manager of the bar, bustled around, dreadlocks flapping wildly, making sure everything was in order. we had some drinks, i drew on my texta moustache, we went upstairs and chatted to some guys at the hostel and convinced them to come downstairs for the gig, and then it was time.

nicole, for her part, was fantastic. she did a set mostly of covers, which she'd been practising hard for the last couple of weeks. she had one original in there, and we sang along with the kunminghua chorus "ni tsounai, tamada tsounai, tsounai, tsou-fucking-nai!" (you're disgusting, fucking disgusting, disgusting, disgus-fucking-ting", approximately. no idea whether the pinyin for that is correct or not). i got up and sang some harmonies in "these boots are made for walking", "be my baby", and "stand by me", and kt played bass in the first and last of these. it was very well received and i hope she feels confident to go out there and play a lot more after doing that.

we got up to play almost directly afterwards, and launched into an alternately mellow and crankin first set. the people were dancing by halfway through, and the mood was right. it felt fantastic. more beer was drunk and when we finished the first set, we plunged offstage and into the crowd for a bit of a dance to kt's playlist (including go-go bordello, sublime, goran bregovic and mutiny, i think). chuck and didier arrived during our set (their bus was held up in traffic, there's some crazy traffic stuff due to major roadworks in kunming at the moment, they say it's gonna last til july), and along with fried, made up the core of the dancing crew. we also had a group of english and american guys, the guys from the hostel, up and dancing as well. my fanclub for the evening - they were all very interested in the moustache later on (one of them had had to ask whether or not it was real, what the hell?), and tried to get me to come out to chinese clubs with them.

the second set was as good as the first, but with more of everything - more alcohol, more dancing, actually, a few less people (john and james, of the band the tribal moons, and cass, john's wife, had had to go to another party, as there were about three different parties on that night), but even more good vibes. we raced through song after song, even including the very new and slightly shaky "skanky horse", with its chorus of, "you might think we're full of it, but the humble mushroom comes from shit". then of course there was the not-so-secret encore with what seems to have become our traditional final song, "zombie girlfriend". for a joke song that was written for a halloween party at the chengdu loft hostel last year, it's certainly had a long life-span. it was pretty cool to hear people singing along with "eat your brains, eat your brains!", though. whatever gets the crowd going, i reckon!

after we staggered offstage, buggered and sweaty and happy and not drunk enough, we danced some more, drank a lot more, and finally retired to the flat, with arnold (french metal-band friend of the quebec boys), and proceeded to smoke and drink even more, and take ridiculous photos until one by one, we fell asleep or passed out. what a night.

i have to say that the second (and last) official gig in kunming was not quite the same crazy party that the first was, but it was a fantastic night nonetheless, and a fitting way to spend our last night in the city. this time we were at the speakeasy bar, with not only ourselves as fungal horse, but "the people's rhythm section", which was sam (the british owner of the bar), and erhong, two talented percussionists, as well as shao long, who was recruited at the last moment, and had jammed with us during the soundcheck, but that was about it. shao long turned out to be an amazingly talented guitarist who wowed the crowd later with some awesome solos - if he'd known the songs better, it would have been phenomenal, instead of just amazing.

the vibe was great, again, and all our friends turned out to see us - chuck, didier, jp, and nicole, as well as some teachers we'd met; paul, lauryn, and karen, some local chinese crew we'd met through various people, none of whose names i can ever remember (although most of them seem to start with "shao", which means small or little), and some of the american and english guys we'd met the hump, who obviously liked our stuff enough to come and see us again. we had one 12-song set this time, which went far too quickly...... sort of. i was pretty keen to get off stage and just chill the fuck out after it was done. so much partying and so many late nights have been taking their toll, and i was buggered by the end of it. the crowd was wonderful once more, singing along where they knew the words (always a very gratifying experience), and dancing and carrying on like so many pork chops. and of course, we drank. shots, thai buckets, beer. argh.

after we played, the night reverted back to the traditional wednesday night jam night, and we were followed by an older phillipino guy who wanted to know if anyone could play johnny be good. we got off the stage, and let him totally rock out - he was crazy! kind of like the phillipino james brown. kt learned some new hip-thrusting dance moves from him, and we all had a good dance (carlos and marvin know how to dance!) to his stuff, and then jp's stuff when he got up a bit later.

eventually, finally, defeated after all the booze and madness, we decided it was home time. chuck and didier had left quite a bit earlier, and we'd said our final sentimental goodbyes to nicole and jp and sam and erhong and all the rest. it was time to go.


thursday was a confused and hungover mess of sitting around watching dvds and trying to remember if we'd packed everything. both kt and i were sporting extra burdens, after a fruitful trip to the secondhand markets - she bought a mandolin, and i bought a piano accordion. my head probably needs to be examined, buying something so heavy and unwieldy whilst there's still so much travelling left to do on this trip (after all, we're now officially on tour), but my rationale was that i've wanted one for ages and it's only three weeks til i go home. less, now, in fact. oh no!

so we caught the train on thursday night, and mick trundled off to his hard seat, whilst kt and i had relative luxury with our hard sleepers (although fitting myself, the piano accordion, and the baby guitar on one of those tiny beds wasn't my idea of luxury, i can tell you!). 20 bored, somewhat sleep-deprived and travel-weary hours later, we were back in chengdu.
we got in a taxi, and met our friend sascha, who had offered us his couches for the next few nights. he lives a little way out of town, so we sat around in a cafe for a while, (i read my first jackie collins - which was appalling, as expected - whilst the others checked their email and facebook and etc), and then headed out to sascha's place. everyone was exhausted, and sat around uselessly for hours, not doing much except smoking cigarettes, eating sunflower seeds and restringing instruments (in a very rock moment, mick broke a string on his guitar in the last gig. we seem to have a lot of issues with strings, especially since our guitarist is trying to play punk/crazy shit on a classical guitar. the strings don't last long). eventually we all fell asleep.

and that brings me up to today. right about now, we're meant to be at the jah bar, soundchecking (i should probably remind the others), but instead we've been internetting and eating and ordering meals in chinese (woohoo! a small victory for us all. i get excited every time my chinese "works" and people understand that i want to eat eggplant, potato and tofu, or whatever it is i order), and getting our heads around the different accent and the "sichuanhua" (sichuan language - there are different dialects in every province)........
ahh, touring. exhausting, but ultimately worth it i think. not sure where we're headed next. could be chongqing, could be changsha. all that depends on various contacts. but we've got a gig here tonight, and one here tomorrow night too, and for now, that's all i need to know.

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