The Journey Itself Is Home

We had a fine show yesterday. At least, I had a bloody great time!

Nothing much to say about it though. Some of us went to another stage right after our own performance, to listen to LCD Sound Systems. I have never heard them before, but I was really impressed with their raw power.

It has been hot today, but I have mostly stayed indoors. How nice to occasionally spend a day in bed, just reading…

We arrived in Melbourne yesterday, sharing a plane with Rage Against the Machine and Arcade Fire. I have never seen the Rage before, but I studied them when we were waiting for our luggage on Melbourne Airport. They look intense.

Sydney was really lovely. I wasn’t much of a tourist, but I did take a number of long walks around the city.

On the last night a few of us went to the Joanna Newsom concert in the opera house. It was amazing, one of the best concerts I have been to. Such incredible music and poetry! She started with two guys playing a lute and drums, as well as the Sidney Symphony Orchestra. In the second half she had only the two guys accompanying her, and the final song she performed just herself. I am not familiar with her songs so I can’t name any of them, but her music really transcended me to another world.

There was a party backstage, but I didn’t stay for long. Arcade Fire was there, markedly in a more festive mood than us. Björk only stayed for a few minutes for obvious reasons, she has to take good care of her voice.

I took this one today, while walking in the botannical garden near the Opera House. These are no fruit, they are bats taking a siesta! I was planning to sit under the tree and listen to an audiobook about vampires I’m currently enjoying (I Am Legend), but it was too hot and the bats were too creepy. Also, Damian has told me scary stories of snakes dropping on people from trees here. I remember him saying to me very seriously a while ago: “Don’t EVER walk under a tree in Australia!”

I just saw the first review of our concert tonight. It is quoted in the Live & Media section of the 4um of www.bjork.com. I totally agree with the following, which is brilliantly put:

“Apparently Bjork was booed by Rage Against the Machine fans when she appeared on the same bill as the American rockers at the Gold Coast leg of the Big Day Out on Sunday. Perhaps they thought she wasn’t political enough. They’ve got it all wrong, of course. Rage are pantomime anarchists - Bjork is the revolution.”

I have just come back to my hotel after a very successful concert on the square in front of the Sydney Opera House. It was fabulous! The Moon was full - and bats hovered above us. I have never seen live bats before, except once in the London Zoo. Seeing them in their natural habitat was very different.

The audience was great and the good vibes were powerful. And the weather was perfect. How different from the festivals! Here, people were really enjoying the music. It was marvellous to take part in it.

Joanna Newsom was in the party afterwards. I was really taken by her music in Red Rock, Denver last spring. Would love to hear her CDs some day.

We have just returned from the stage in Gold Coast, Australia. This time the concert was excellent. We had a very enthusiastic audience and I loved playing in front of it. The same can be said of my band mates, and Björk was absolutely brilliant.

Right now I’m sitting in the dressing room. Chris Corsano is in front of me, doing something on his laptop. The rest of the gang, with the very charming members of Arcade Fire, is dancing in the dining hall. Occasionally I hear Damian scream: “MARK BELL!” Yes, Mark is DJ-ing. As usual the music IS TOO LOUD! Unfortunately I forgot my specially designed earplugs in Iceland. So I have fled - with Chris - into the dressing room, with the doors firmly closed. I guess we have too sensitive ears for this RACKET!

It must be said, though, that Mark is a very inventive DJ. He isn’t just playing some songs, but mixing them together in often a surprising manner. Not everyone has the technical know-how, let alone the imagination, to do that well.

Anyway, it is great being in Australia. But it is very hot, much hotter than in New Zealand. I look forward to get into the huge bathtub in my hotel room…

Bonjour.

The tour has begun once again. So has the blog, it seems. We are now in New Zealand, Auckland to be exact, but will go to Australia today. We performed at the Big Day Out festival yesterday, in front of some 48000 people. I think we played decently, though festivals are always a bit strange. There are so many people and not everyone comes to hear Björk. I think yesterday was OK, but not that great.

I left Iceland last Monday, with Mark Bell, Rosemary Lllagostera and the Wonderbrass. We had an awful time getting here, the weather was so bad in Iceland our plane got delayed by some two hours and when we finally arrived in London, our plane to Auckland via LA had already left. So we had to wait for several hours for the next available flight, which took us to Hong Kong, and then to Auckland. The entire trip lasted more than 40 hours. It was disgusting.

But the past few days here have been delightful. It is summer and it is really nice to get out of the snow in Iceland. Everything is so green in New Zealand, it is no wonder The Shire as seen in the film Lord of the Rings is quite close to Auckland.

I’m a Tolkien fan and would have liked to see the movie set for The Shire, which apparently still exists. But we had only one day for that and most of us were so jet lagged that we decided to just take it easy.

The time difference between Iceland and Auckland is thirteen hours. Right now it is Saturday, but still Friday in Iceland. When I spoke first to my nine year old daughter after arriving, I pointed out to her, much to her amusement, that she was now speaking to a man from the future.

That’s kind of cool, eh?