TRAVELERT: Krakow Concert and Event Alerts

At the Żaczek club on Saturday 24 April catch Polish rap guys Fisz, Emade and their father Wojciech Waglewski who is Voo Voo’s vocalist. Their music can be generally relaxed and jazzy, with pointy electronic bits licking at the edges. And it’s interesting enough musically that even if you can’t appreciate the wordplay and verbal cleverness the music should still be fun. The concert starts at 20.00.

From 30 April to 2 May Kraków will see 3 nights of dancing, 3 days of workshops and 3 master dancing pairs from Buenos Aires. The festival venues are over the city, one of which is on Platform 1 of the main train station. You can check the festival webpage for more information and an event schedule, and also for a list of swanky hotels around the city for Tango enthusiasts who are arriving from all across Europe just to attend the festival.

At 20.00 on Monday, 26 April you can see the fantastic band The Toasters (2-tone ska since 1981!) perform at Imbir Klub on Tomasza. These guys are real good at what they do — they were here last year at about the same time and people who weren’t born when the band formed were bouncing off the walls with excitement, but non-violently. The show this year might grow fur on your knees, or a horn on your head. Something not to miss. What the hell are these guys doing in Kraków in that basement? Find out for 40 Złoty (30 if you buy your ticket in advance).

Delayed by week of national mourning,slightly shattered by volcanic ash the Off plus Camera Festival starts this Monday.The event aims to present the best of independent cinema from the present but also the past. The screenings are accompanied by lectures, meetings with artists, discussion panels and concerts.All is held in small venues far away from multiplex cinemas.

Poland has declared a national week of mourning after the plane crash in Smolensk that killed President Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria, many high-level government officials, the army chief of staff, the navy chief commander and the heads of the Polish air and land forces. They were on their way to Katyn to commemorate the anniversary of the 1940 “Katyn forest massacre,” where Russian secret police executed thousands of Polish prisoners of war (mostly army officers, intellectuals, police and other public servants). Putin was scheduled to attend the ceremony, a step toward acknowledgement or an official apology by the Russian government. The reason for the crash during the attempt to land the aging Tu-154 seems to be the dense fog. Around Kraków you’ll see Polish flags hung at half-mast or with a black stripe throughout the week, Zygmunt was rung on Saturday, and Polish internet portals like Onet, Interia and Wyborcza have turned a respectful grey for the period of mourning. Also on Saturday free suppliments to Gazeta Wyborcza were handed out in the streets listing the names of the 97 dead. Yes, and also the pillow fight was cancelled.

With proud pleasure The Manggha Center presents Sing Sing Penelope (self-described “modern European / Polish jazz”) mixing and collaborating with DJ Strangefruit. Paul “Strangefruit” Nyhus is a Norwegian legend (he is indiesputable! Do not dispute him!) and a veteran of the brutal and tragic Dance Music Wars of the late 90s which claimed so many young talents. He may count Nils Petter Molvaer as an ally and sometimes-collaborator, and also Röyksopp’s Thorbjørn Brundtland. The performers have been carefully prepared for their task, which will be the construction of an evolved dialogue between jazz and dance / electronica music. The musicians will begin their interaction on Tuesday at 20.00 and it’s free, unlike most of the things which happen at Manggha.

I saw these guys last year in some weird basement in Kazimierz. It’s amazing that nobody died from lack of oxygen, there were so many excited people packed into that tiny stone chamber. Dick 4 Dick has lots of crazed fans.  As for the band, I’ve heard that there are only 3 dicks left — which one is gone? Is it Mega Dick, or Wet Dick Junior? Also, they might have added additional dicks to replace the missing ones. Like Mitch & Mitch or Herman Düne, this is one of those bands where everyone has a variation on the same name. Dick 4 Dick, as you might expect, has frenzied, danceable music (re-purposed rock anthems from the 80s, largely, with new sexed-up lyrics) which they perform while lunging around the stage. No shirts. Some face paint. Toungues curling suggestively. Sweat shining on their naked torsos. “I’m pretty sure they’re not gay,” my friend said at the show we went to. “Wet Dick Junior was checking me out with the other girls in the front. I think he could have taken home pretty much anyone he wanted to.” Their lyrical content isn’t so much gay as it is agressively omni-sexual. They sing about wanting to penetrate everything. They’re from the north of Poland, but they yell mostly in English. Catch them this Thursday, 8 April at 20:00 at Forty Kleparz. And on Friday, they’ll be DJing (but not playing again) at the same place.

This happened last year about the same time, and there are dim rumours beginning to circulate that it might happen again on the 10th of April at 14.00 on the main square.  Last year it was amazing — people screaming and bashing each other happily, feathers everywhere, and a lot of spectators looking very confused. So bring your pillow to Rynek next Saturday around 2:00 p.m. and join in the fun. If you type “pillow fight” and Kraków or Cracow into Google, you can find more photos and videos from last year’s. There’s nothing like a public pillow fight.