Bratislava report

Alright, so I’m getting back into shape after last weekends gig with Bjorn Akesson in Bratislava. I don’t do a lot of gigs these days, so this one was really fun. Of course it helps when you get to travel with someone you know (even though I had never met him) as you have company.

So on friday, I went through my CD-case, knew I would have to bring some more banging stuff than usual, and then set sails (hah) for the train station. It takes me about 3,5 - 4 hours by train to get across the border down to Copenhagen and the airport there. It’s still the easiest way for me to get places and it’s usually not as bad as one might think (different on the way home though). A few hours later Bjorn came on board and we socialized for the first time in real life, much fun. We discussed music, gigs and what not and had a brief beer at the airport before heading to Vienna.

We were picked up by the promoter, Milan, a really nice guy and a good DJ as well. We went from Vienna to Bratislava, which is only a few miles in between, and suddenly I had set foot in four countries in less than a day (random sidenote!). Checked-in and then met up with Marcus Schössow and his girlfriend Nifra who both live there. We had dinner, socialized about random facts which remain unknown etc etc. While having a beer later on Marcus was “assaulted” by two fans who seemed to think he was god, which was really fun! Bjorn remarked that “that would never happen in Sweden”, I agreed silently. We said goodbye and moved on to the club.

The club wasn’t too crowded but the setup was nice, and we had some time before our turns to have a few drinks and talk to people, so we did. Random conversations eventually fell through, most of them about music, while the drinks kept pouring. Bjorn eventually played a nice set and tested some of his new material, while I played a fairly banging set, track of the set being “Riff” by Sander Van Doorn - it always works. Bjorn got a “special” back-to-back set up so we dropped a few more tracks and went frenzy, both on the decks and the crowd. The crowd had a really nice time I’d say!

The day after me and Bjorn took the opportunity to see central Bratislava and had a coffee as well as lunch. Bratislava has some of the nicest and friendliest people I have ever meet, I have to say. After a long walk back to the hotel we got out, met up with some of Milans friends and got served dinner by Pizz@dox at his place. Nice. Then we had a good time out in the clublife of Bratislava.

Sunday was a pain though, as I had to sit around for two hours at the airport in Copenhagen to wait for my train. The train back is a killer when you’re tired, weary and you know it’s going to take almost 4 hours. Plus there was a heavily drunken swede on the train, who wasn’t sure of were he was heading, causing everyone on the train to be slightly nervous. I made it back eventually though and went straight to sleep when home, it welcomed me with open arms.

Thanks to  Milan and his friends, and everyone else involved in this, I had a great time!

- Joni