The Blue Bird Festival is an Austrian festival that has been taking place at Porgy & Bess – a Viennese Jazz Club – for the past 6 years. It’s organised by the Vienna Songwriting Association , who are a great bunch of music enthusiasts. Since November was a busy busy month for gigs, I sadly didn’t manage to make it to the first festival day, though it had a promisingly fine line-up with Scout Niblett, Sweet Sweet Moon, Grant Hart and Vincent McMorrow">James Vincent McMorrow. On the Friday night however, I am fit for battle early, ready to tackle a long night with my camera. 6pm, Porgy and Bess. I push hesitantly the door, balancing Chris Garneau’s surprise birthday cake on my left hand and an open, polka-dotted umbrella in my right. The cake gets taken care of right away; I’m told to wait a minute in the hallway and don’t fail to notice how quiet everything is. “It’s probably buzzing downstairs, where the stage is”, I think to myself. A couple of seconds later, the door to the backstage area opens and there he is, Chris G also known as coconut, in a black and white hoodie and a funny, furry hat. After updating each other here and there, taking a look at the Go Find sound-checking while Chris checks his ...
The 405
17 December 2010