This is the New Art School

Oldenburg-Brühl-Köln, June 19 & 20

A very late post-show night in Oldenburg led to a 2pm departure for Köln. Along the way we had a kernel of an idea to head to Brühl, about 20km or so south of Köln. Why Brühl? Well, that’s where the Max Ernst Museum is. While I know of Ernst, I’m not all that knowledgable about him; the others in the band were keen to go so it sounded like a good idea. And it was. We ended up having a nice off-night in Brühl, a small-town respite from the mostly big city settings on the tour.

From the road we booked a place through air bnb, the top floor of a building owned by a local artist named Günter Wagner. Rain and traffic slowed down the drive, so it wasn’t until about 5:30pm that we got to Brühl, too late to see the Ernst museum, which closes at 6p. After check-in we relaxed for a bit, had a beer, watched the Columbia and Ivory Coast World Cup match, then went to Brühl centrum to find dinner and a place to watch what turned out to be a rather disappointing England v. Uruguay match (disappointing for me, rooting for England). Turned out to be a disappointing dinner as well. In the compromise to find a place showing the game and still serving food at 9pm, we ended up at what seemed to be the TGI Friday’s of Brühl.

The next day would be the drive into Köln, but beforehand while waiting for the Ernst Museum to open we took a walk around the Schloss Augustusburg, worth it for no other reason that to be outside in fresh country air after 5 days in cities.

Except for the Warhol and Rodin Museums, I can’t recall having been to too many museums dedicated to one artists. Special shows, yes, but not entire museums. When well curated, as is the Warhol Museum, you’ll get a perspective on the artist along both chronological and thematic axis.

The Ernst Museum did a good job of combining the two approaches, leaning a bit more on thematic. What I didn’t know about Ernst was how accomplished he was in multiple media - painting, sculpture and illustration, and how instrumental he was in the formation of the surrealist and Dada movements.

One of the more touching sections was the two walls dedicated to the paintings he gave his wife Dorothea Tanning, one per year for more than 20 years.

After Ernst it was on to Köln and more art, this time at the Ludwig Museum and its collection of modern and contemporary, including a fair number of Warhol and Picasso. As you’ve probably guessed by now, art and football have more or less been our top two priorities after music.

When it’s made sense, we’ve made the effort to get to museums and other art spaces. The World Cup groups stage matches have been at 6p, 9p and midnight Central Europe Time; when we’re not setting up or playing, it’s easy to find a spot to watch a match. More on that later.

That evening there was business to take care of, a show at the Tsunami Club. It’s a smallish space with a small stage, but a good vibe. Dennis and Michael, the promoters for the night, treat the bands well, both at the club and after - they each graciously opened their homes to us after the show. My cousin Marius, studying in Köln for a few months, made it out to the show with a couple of friends. It’s good to have friends and family along the route, to seeing familiar faces among all the new people we meet.

The show itself was excellent. We’d now played 4 shows in a week, 5 since the June 8 show in SF, and we can feel the performances getting better each time. It’s becoming less about remembering parts and more about listening to each other, playing well as a unit and starting to stretch the possibilities in the drone parts. This show marked the first of a three-show in three-night stretch. I’m now especially interested to see how that pace will affect performance.

Set list for Köln:
Black and White
Mountain
Wired
Illuminate
Duck and Cover
Day for Night
Slowboat

Next stop…Strasbourg, France.