Nights in Moscow- the vodkas begin to add up as we steal the
last metro into town- heading for Kitini Gorad (Китай-город) our
dutch courage gains us an invite from 3 female students doing a photoshoot for
their course in what turns out to be a throw back rock bar perhaps more at home
in Tennessee. A few more vodkas, faux glamour photos and 80s hits later the
locals are dancing on the bar while the pole in the corner is made full use of,
eventually we leave and end up wandering through the global cool style bars in a
more established ‘club’; the Tuesday crowd is small and we dispense some half
cut socio-politio-russo-anglo babble for the barman to politely nod to,
hopefully more amused than tried. On other nights we visit basement clubs that
would aptly fulfil that role in any good drinking city, one has aeroplane seats
and Moscovite divas with mutual inquisitiveness after a few euro lagers and парламенты. DJs mix reinvented and
revamped sounds from 90s childhoods dominated by tenacious American sitcoms.
Sprawling through rooms are drunk internationals offering cigarettes to
indifferent Muscovites whilst the bar staff mop spilt shots with cloths that
were sodden hours ago. Outside again the expansive streets shrink our reference
points and the journey home is a long one. Sleep. The next time is a free
festival, an impressive colourful production that along with a Soviet space
craft dominates Gorky Park. The polished bands mockow English accents are convincing
and their perfomances put the Gollum like cool-seekers of north London to
shame. Serendipity calls as original English experience gets us back stage
where we drink brandy and red wine in a camper van that seems to have done most
of its travelling standing still. We discuss lyrics and pronouciation before
strolling through the park and into ‘gypsie cabs’ to a flat that soon becomes another
window on excess, open all night. On the balcony the red lights of the city’s
tallest buildings pepper the skyline that backdrops to the giant soviet
exclamation marks of Stalin’s seven sisters. Vodka does more for comradeship than
ideology.
The bands I heard were
‘Beat Off Silence’
‘Tesla Bay’
‘Eclectic Sound Project’
