VV and the MC sweden

So even as I am wonderfully sheltered in Mexico, the band in Latvia are organizing some gigs and learning how to sing my songs. There is still a show reserved in Stockholm, but we will have to see how things progress. For me, it is an interesting experiment to be so far away from all the excitement. Usually I am coordinating, planning, and wondering if I am pushing everyone too hard to make as many shows as my visits allow for. This time it is everyone else who is making things happen, a truly collectivist action by a group with the joke title of Corporation.

VV and the MC sweden updated their business hours.

Working with our diehard bassist Dante, I'm starting to plan our return to Sweden. Sept. 12th is Kulturnatten in Uppsala, so that is the prime time for us to be there. Once of the nations definitely wants us, and I think we could have another great tour, but with more people this time. Lead Guitar player Gustavs is definitely down, and is Pavel Mer, our drummer. So this could be a real circus. However, circus' cost money, so I am going to have to plan. Luckily we have a spreadsheet master on board. But fundamentally the great adventure is going to be worth it. Of course, I'll appreciate an hints, hostings, or leads on gigs. Thanks, Victor

Many thanks to our many friends, venues, and fans that we met on our tour. We are now safely back in Riga and already thinking of where to return to next year. Playing at Gotlands Nation in Uppsala now makes me want to visit the actual island of Gotland, and there seem to be opportunities at every corner for original music in Sweden. Dante and I had a wonderful time, thanks everyone, and if the wind blows favorably we will see you again in a year for more adventures. Victor CEO

Our tour of Sweden is almost over. The week that we spent in Uppsala was beyond wonderful. Arriving with no expectations and just throwing ourselves into any opprtunity that came our way, we played shows almost every night and entered the wonderful world of the Nations, the student societies that are so socially important there. We played at Kalmar and Gotlands Nations, both of which were glorious. Thanks to their promotion the houses were packed, and both reported that they had had very financially sucessful nights, including a new sales record at one. And the conversations after the shows were very interesting. I have developed a deep appreciation of how we managed to short curcuit the usual planned nature of things in Sweden and how people took risks in being spontaneous enough to let us play on short notice. For a city with 40k students, Uppsala has very little live music and we felt like we were filling a real need for entertaiment. Now we have one show left, at Santa Clara in Stockholm, but we are already thinking about next year. It has been wonderful, thanks everyone for your friendship, support and kind attention.

As far as the room we stayed at last night
“It was a room (or rather two rooms actually) in the old nation house, a villa originally built by Carl Wahlund, a professor of romance languages. After his death he left it to the university, and Kalmar bought it from the university in the 1940's. In the 1980's the old nation house was replaced with the current one, but the interior from two of the rooms were moved to the basement of bortom bullret and preserved there as Wahlundska rummen.”

Last night's show at O'connor's was a good time. Our start was delayed because of a soccer game, which was fine with us, and then we played with only a minor break until after 1am. The students have returned to Uppsala, and there were some happy drunks enjoying our music. Most pub gigs do not allow for original music, but here we were welcome to play what we wanted and it felt good to do only a few covers in the mix. We like Uppsala so much that we are going to try to find a few more gigs here, and perhaps play at the big cultural event that will be happening on Saturday.

Last nights show at Taps started slowly. There were just a few people and they were deep in conversation, so instead of my usual patter between songs, we just went from one to the next. Soon the music was drawing people in which is always a rewarding feeling. A very happy man was joining in with us, imitating a trombone, and he got more and more enthusiastic as we got deeper into the set. Eventually he took us over to O’Connor’s where he is a regular. This venue is one of the few that I had been able to find on the internet, but when I called from Latvia they said the were booked until March. but now we were walking in and with minimal conversation taking over the stage. The crowd was happy to have us, and the manager ended up hiring us to come back tonight, so we a real sense of accomplishment and will stay on one more night. Sadly, we have had to check out of our room right when we could really use a nap, but at 3there will be another one available. We both feel pretty exhausted but also inspired. We have put ourselves out into the world and found traction with the music, which is proof of the faith we had in this venture.

Larry‘s Corner

Found a cozy corner just outside and next to this cafe/bar, played for about an hour.

With Dove

On the Isabella, on our way to Stockholm, dove invited us onto his stage. So we put on a 45 minute set. Great way to start the trip,

VV and the MC sweden updated their website address.

VV and the MC sweden updated their phone number.