ROUND EYE SHANGHAI
ROUND EYE
SAWAK
Krakow, July 21, 2016
Round Eye from Shanghai, China are currently touring Europe and yesterday played in Krakow. That's good news! But the problem is I almost missed the gig as it was so poorly advertised. If not for Wyrak, a local DIY activist and organizer who knows practically everything about what's going on on the underground scene here, I would never have made it to the event. Luckily, he let me know and so I was in an extremely tiny club waiting for the show.
Well, I must say the club called Pub Pod Ziemią (The Under the Ground Pub) is a little nice place, the managing girl and the soundman were nice as well. But still I must express some criticism. Except for insufficient advertising (to put it mildly) the gig was criminally delayed - over two hours and had I not urged them to begin, the delay would have increased much more.
The thing is that in Krakow lots of people have to rely on the public transport and have to leave a club in the middle of a cool gig because their last tram/bus is just going. The club owners ususally do not give a you-know-what. I have been fighting this sickness for years but the results are still not satisfactory.
Well, the supporting band failed to appear, so the first on the bill was a replacement, a local band called Sawak. They played a short set in order to enable the headliners to also perform that night. Sawak are what seems to be an experimental, guitar oriented group that sound quite convincing. Did not see enough to say more. Hope to see their proper gig one day.
Then Round Eye came on the bandstand. Announced as an experimental punk band with a saxophone, they actually turned out to be a very tight and energetic hardcore punk band with some lttle touches of jazz, ska and rock and roll at its finest like The Stooges for example. In fact, on their latest CD they are supported by Steve Mackay of The Stooges fame. The set that Round Eye delivered took the criminally small audience by storm. The band's playing was usually fast and always robust and happy. They absolutely liked what they were doing and they were doing it very well. I managed to stay almost till the end of the gig, but the ruthless city transport timetables made me leave the exploding cellar, though extremely reluctantly. I hope they will come back and next time will start on time. Their show is definitely worth witnessing in its entirety! I do swear I will be there again! So help me Iggy!
Look for this cool band on their ongoing European Tour right now.
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