I remember I was in Vienna for a short vacation, it was in the early years of the third millenium. A slightly dreary thursday night in april and I was walking on the Universitätsring at the opposite side of the large, ancient and impressive university main building, with the beautiful aula, that's spread alongside the busy ring.
I don't think the tiny place still exists but I assume it was there - at least in my memory. It was a student bar, a sort of 'keller' or basement also used for little gigs aside drinking. And I was thirsty. Their sloppy A4 gigging bill next to the entrance rapidly took my attention. That evening - as often - there was live music in the 'keller'.
So I jumped in and ordered myself a large beer. I don't really remember if the gig had already started when I entered but I didn't think so. The 'band' - the name I forgot, little chance I wrote it down somewhere - consisted out of two persons. An already what older man, certainly above fifty, with his wife/daughter/girlfriend. It had to be one of the three. Hopefully not the two or three together. Probably she was a bit younger than him and there was something different about her, I think she might've had a handicap and/or walked on crutches or with a stick.
They both sang and as far as I recall he played the acoustic guitar. He could barely play... and very slow. Three chords that was all... (but HEYHO that's enough!) They were not great singers.
Dead Moon
Think of the former American punkrockband Dead Moon with only one acoustic guitar, that's as close as my description comes to the duo. If they'd brought the candle or chandelier with them... hmm... my mind and the scene's recalling of it make it so but really... think of it as such, they were humble romantics. The song they started with or that I heard first and remember well was a Joy Division song: 'New Dawn Fades'. That goes:
"...a change of speed, a change of style. A change of scene, with no regrets..."
The hair on my arms rose. The slow tempo of this song fitted and feeded their stage act perfectly. The brave man wore the original New Model Army shirt, you know the one with the red circle in the midst like the Japanese flag on black.
Being on stage - which in fact wasn't there, they just stood in the farthest corner on the same level of the compressed pub visitors - for them was already a huge step I suppose. But they didn't care. It was indispensable food for their romantic souls. They stood naked in their weakness and it made them strong. In my mind even impressive. I know acknowledge THAT moment THAT two person band singing THAT song for me was the greatest punk experience I've ever had and witnessed. No one ever came close.
Probably you once experienced a similar special musical moment too. Keep it in your heart! It doesn't always have to be the best band in town nor the best performance that touches the deepest. I don't even have photographs or other souvenirs to prove my case. That era had not yet come. That's why I'm telling you this out of my memory. Wasn't that the way they used to tell the great stories? Mine was a little story in a little Vienna student's pub keller. But how they did conquer themselves, me, the music and the world in my remembrance...
☆ University of Vienna, Universitätsring 1, 1010 Vienna
☆ In 1884, Emperor Franz Joseph I opened the main building of the University on the Ringstrasse. The historic building is based on the famous Italian universities of the Renaissance
