Lisbon, Portugal (June 13, 2009) -- This gritty city that clings to the Atlantic coast of Europe was the scene on Wednesday night of one of the strangest bands I have ever seen.
The venue was an outdoor ampitheater overlooking the city. A large grill mostly cooking sardines was at the top as was the beer stand.
Comprised of two men in their early twenties with porn mustaches, this was a group that seemed to be on a race to be as cheesy as possible in the least amount of time. They had no fear. I could not stop laughing, but the crowd -- including the group of children who introduced them despite the late hour -- loved it. What were are talking about here is Jim Morrison mixed with Liberache. The musical duites were split between the guy on keyboards who also played the guitar and the lead singer who also played guitar occasionally. Both wore dark black sunglasses during the entire show.
Their outfits and routine began with black leather pants, stange waving motions to the crowd, then a costume change into silk blue shorts and a baggy yellow jackets, then another change into some kind of Arab type costume. My favorite part was when the lead singer took a veil-type scarf and sang through it into the microphone in a lusty manner before tying it around his head.
I could not stop laughing at the absurdity of it all. I was quite alone in not taking them seriously.
I had found this group and this venue thanks to two women from the United Kingdom who live in the apartment building I am staying in this week. My apartment belongs to a friend from England who arrived here yesterday, just as this already hedonistic town really came off the hinges in celebration of, in no particular order, sardines and St. Anthony, who is something like the patron saint of this city.
The strange and entertaining end to Wednesday night had tough competition in terms of being bizzare since the night began with a pub crawl that began at 5 and was led by a five or six person band playing trumpets, clarinets, drums and saxaphones. This kind of behavior is normal this week.
Last night the city exploded in festivities as tables and bars seemed to occupy all the open spaces. We saw wild dancing and frantic fights. The group suffered no casulties, save for headaches.
Otherwise, the city is cheap, the people do not speak much English (I have been throwing around various phrases in all sorts of languages just for fun), I went to an amazing castle in the city of Sintra, I tried to do a panting of the castle on the hill in Lisbon the first day I was here and it was so bad I threw it away, my legs are in shape for real from climbing all the hills, the beach at Cascais is nice and the weather is beautiful.
Take care,
Brett
