Artificial Paradise

I'm working on a full post about last night but while you're waiting here are the lyrics from one of the songs Sylvan played.

In a vaporous world - an appearance so bright
where the people are blurred and hard to visualise
In inscrutable lands with asynchronous time
we are living alone and still dehumanised

In invisible realms just sporadically clear
see us huddled in peace so inconspicuously
In a region of mind where comparisons fail
we are leading our lives ...

Different faces on the other side in our artificial paradise
In a world full of fates and illusions - do you see them?

Through emotional states - with a mask made of ice
Where the bridges yet fade and where the tears have dried
Here the values have changed with the light, actually pale
Here we're leading our life ...

Different faces on the other side in our artificial paradise
In a world full of fates and illusions do we see them?

Here – you can believe me! – yeah, here the world is made of gold with
promises so bright Here it is so easy and here we just forget ourselves
that´s why we feel alright ... Here – we can´t deny it! – yeah, here we
close our eyes and keep the distance day and night Here – why should we
hide it? – yes, here we can enjoy the time and rather feel alright ...
Here we`ll keep our secrets – yeah, here`s the land of milk and honey
where the spirits fly Here – without a regret – yes here we drink our
souls and though we flee we feel alright ...

Suddenly for a short glimpse of time – did you realise?
Full of life – so sincere!
Suddenly from the glance and the warmth in those eyes
And the answer was so clear
Faces within a cold, they rise - Breaking the envelopes of ice
See how the silhouettes of life finally fade ...

Evacuate identities until we leave us incognito
Without pain but gradually we vanish in insensitivity
Naturalised narcotic dreams they supersede us numb and restless
Paralysed cosmetic queens within a surgical and stiff parade

Like jigsaw pieces try in vain to release our face, but we hide the
trace to please - with an apathy - the wish to increase isolation
in an irritating clean and an oh so gracious anonymity!
So there are no surprises in a space full of lies too cold - just erase
the hope to fight hypocritical ideas, to release the feelings we need
to escape our fucking precious anonymity!

What do we keep in our heads? What do we need in our minds?
Will we succeed and regret or will we become dumb and blind?

Emphasise eventually our superficial generation
Affluent society may - without doubts - tend to neglect their force
Decadence, mistrust and pride begin to drown our civilisation
But human on the other side and rather individual, indeed

Like jigsaw pieces try in vain to release our face, but we hide the
trace to please - with an apathy - the wish to increase isolation
in an irritating clean and an oh so gracious anonymity!
So there are no surprises in a space full of lies too cold -
just erase the hope to fight hypocritical ideas, to release the feelings
we need to escape our fucking precious anonymity!

What do we keep in our heads? What do we need in our minds?
Will we succeed and regret or will we become dumb and blind?

Do we see them? Do we see the other side?
Do we see them? Do we know what we deny?

Sylvan

Last night was a great night for me. Here is my poor attempt at capturing the events of the evening before it fades from my memory too much. I’m certain several key things will be in my head forever, but I want to capture the small things too.

I left work at 3:30 so I had time to drop the car off at home and take a cab to El Corazon. On the way I called the cab company and asked them to pick me up at 4:15. I had a few moments at home so I was chatting with a few friends online while waiting for the cab. I apologize for abandoning them while we were chatting because the cab arrived at 4:10 and I had to rush out of the house suddenly. The driver asked if I minded a bit of AC/DC, which I didn’t, and we started talking about music. I told him about the show and The Rogues’ Gallery on The Dividing Line. I think I created a new listener. :)

I arrived at the venue right on time at 4:30 and was wondering how I would get in as it was hours before the doors were supposed to open. That wasn’t an issue because the door was wide open. As I walked in I was approached and asked if I was Brendan. I had never seen his face but I recognized the voice of Frans the DJ for The Rogues’ Gallery. After our quick introduction Frans took me to meet the members of Sylvan: Jan (guitar), Sebastian (bass), Marco (vocals), Volker (keyboards) and Matthias (drums). Then the band went back to their sound check and I enjoyed a personal concert.

Dinner was supposed to start at 5:30 but at 5:15 the sound check was still underway as there was a problem with some of the equipment. I was getting a bit nervous but decided I would just relax and go with the flow. At 5:30 I called another dinner guest and asked him to pass on the message that we were running late and would join them at the restaurant as soon as we could. Sylvan finished setting up at about 5:45 and we made it to 13 Coins at 6pm. Only 30 minutes late but with plenty of time for dinner. The other guests had already found each other and had ordered, so we joined them and had dinner.

During dinner I kept my eye on the entire table, but everyone looked like they were having a good time and talking. I sat at one end next to cambler and had a good conversation with him and a couple of the other guests. I had been wanting to meet Chris for a while because I’ve followed him here on LJ and I listen to The Gates of Delirium, his show on The Dividing Line. We talked about his show, music, programming and a few other things. He posed an interesting programming problem and I’m going to think about this a bit and see if I can figure out the answer. (Which will be in a separate post.)

The only problems with my planning and dinner was one of the guests didn’t understand that we were covering the band’s dinner and I mixed up two credit cards and the wrong amounts were charged to them. Both people were understanding as I explained the situation so it wasn’t a big problem. Still I should have kept better track of the cards so that didn’t happen.

Next we all walked from the restaurant back to the venue. I noticed that there was a full moon last night which is a good omen for completing projects. At the venue I met up with esurient1 and omg_teh_funnay who were enjoying the opening act. The name on the poster was “Still Water,” but I was told that’s just a temporary name. I had heard that the guitarist, who used to be in Lyranthe, was excellent and what I did hear rocked the house. I’ll have to pay attention to them in the future.

While Sylvan was setting up esurient1 was ill and had to leave. omg_tey_funnay, being a gentleman, escorted her home. I guess there were about 50 people in the venue who had bought tickets. The sign by the door said the capacity was 807, which I can’t imagine, so there was tons of room for everyone. Some people held back or sat on the few benches. I was right up front just to the left of center. The entire show I had an unobstructed view of the entire band and wasn’t crowded. The extra time taken during the sound check was worth every second as the sound was awesome. I was told it was fuzzy in the back but right by the stage was a sweet spot. I only owned one Sylvan album so there were quite a few new songs. You’ll have to find someone who knows more about the band to say if it was a great performance for them, but I can’t see how it was anything else.

After the show I bought the CD and DVD that was for sale. There was a bit of CF because everyone wanted to get their CDs autographed and there weren’t enough pens. In the end we all got our autographs and I think everyone who loaned out a pen got them back. As the crowd thinned I went to each band member and told them I hoped they had a good dinner. Each one thanked my for the dinner and for taking the time to organizing it. Mattias wanted to give everyone who helped organize the show a CD but I had already bought the one he had with them. He offered to give me back my money but I wouldn’t accept it. I enjoyed planning the dinner and wanted to support the band by buying the CD and DVD. He kept asking me what they could give me and eventually I agreed to give him my address so he could mail me something when they got back to Germany. I’m floored and flattered that he wanted to do this, but really it was no trouble and I enjoyed myself. (As you all might have noticed.)

I had brought a few of my calling cards to hand out but I don’t look like the picture on them anymore. So I talked to cambler about getting a few head shots to make new cards and I’ll be getting with him as soon as we both have time available. (Damn, I look good now!) I also talked with Frans about helping out with events like this in the future. Sylvan was the first concert that Frans is planning and I volunteered to help out with them all. Planning dinner, ferrying band members, promotions… I have a new project which I’ll talk about more once it becomes more solid.

Far too soon it was time to take the band back to the hotel and as it was way down in Kent I decided to head home. Called up a cab and chatted with everyone for a few minutes. I was able to use my small amount of German to talk to Sebastian and tell him that I only spoke a little German. Before I was ready to leave the cab showed up and I took off. Everyone in the band waved as I rode away to head home.

At home I was much too wound up to sleep. I read email and ripped the new CD so that I could listen to it today. At 2AM I finally forced myself to lay down and before I knew it the thing what makes the noise was blaring at me. Here I am at Noon and I’m still buzzed about last night. Damn that was a lot of fun.

Notes for the future: Bring post-it notes to write amounts on cards as I collect them to keep from mixing up how much to put on each. Bring plenty of current calling cards to hand out. Include all my contact information on them so I can get stuff by mail as well as phone. Bring a few Sharpies to get autographs from band members. Instead of people trying to find pens give them to the band to use while signing.

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