This is part two of a three part series (each part will be published on a weekly basis) about Notes from Vivace’s quest to locate the local music scene in Prague.
Part One can be found here
Classical Music at Dvorak Hall
This is dedicated to the guy wearing the t-shirt and jeans, making me NOT the worst dressed person in the Hall.
In my Internet search of the Prague music scene, I came across a month long event called Prague Spring (held between May 12th and Jun 4th). So on my second day in Prague, it was off to Dvorak Hall to catch the Baborak Ensemble play some Georg Phillip Telemann, Joseph Haydn, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. When buying the ticket (approximately $15), I asked the lady at the counter if I’d be let in wearing jeans. I’d read in a tourist book that the Czech are formal people and I could just imagine that the concert hall would be filled with folks wearing suits. I was told I’d be fine, but it would be wise to wear a button shirt and jacket.
As I walked up towards the doors that led towards my balcony seats, I could have sworn the two female staff members at the doors were saying:
Staff Member #1, laughing: “Look at that guy in the jeans and jacket.”
Staff Member #2, laughing back: “Yes, so under dressed for our event. How uncouth of him.”
Staff Member #1: “He is most definitely a rude American.”
The audience here was no more diverse than at Futurum. Only about 1 percent of the crowd was non-Caucasian. Opposite of Futurum, as might be expected, the crowd was much older with a mean age of around 65 – lowered from 70 by the fact that some grandparents were forcing their grandchildren to experience some culture. And as I suspected, they were mainly well dressed. I was wearing a button down shirt, as advised, which at least put me outside of the 0.1% crowd that was dressed even less formally – a single guy who was in jeans and a t-shirt. He should have known better. I saw him with a sweater that said: 07 Vienna Music Festival. I can only imagine that the Austrians are far more formal than the Czechs. There were perhaps five of us wearing jeans. There was one guy wearing jeans who appeared to be in his 50s. I’ll do the $2 bet that he was a fellow tourist.
Even though 99% of the audience was dressed in a suit and tie, I did start to notice the formalities breaking down just a notch. There was the twenty-something with the tattoo at the nape of her neck. I also noticed a lone guy in his twenties sitting on a bench above/behind the ensemble. He was in a suit and tie. And yet (for practically everyone to see since he was behind the ensemble with the rest of us looking at him) he was well relaxed, legs up on the bench. He was wearing red socks. His arms were folded as he leaned up against the wall. Okay, these last two examples of twenty-somethings reduced the average age from 65 to 64.8.
I like classical music, but I’m not a regular visitor to the various classical venues of Los Angeles. Here are some observations I made while at the Dvorak Hall that may or may not be the same in Los Angeles. The seats were about four inches too narrow. After playing Telemann, the whole ensemble left the stage and came back to great fanfare. We hadn’t even hit intermission and the ensemble was taking a break. There was a whole lot of clapping going on after each piece finished. I’m not sure the same can be said while at the Hollywood Bowl. In fact, there was so much clapping going on I couldn’t help but wonder why they just didn’t give the ensemble a standing ovation at the end of each selection. For Haydn, the French Hornist was cheered wildly and given the chance to perform an encore. There was then a set redesign. Then for the final selection, a Mozart piece, the conductor asked for another redesign – was there some miscommunication regarding where the horn section should be seated because there had just been a redesign? After Mozart the crowds cheered again, but there was still no standing ovation. A large bouquet of flowers was brought on stage. Three brief encores were performed. The conductor then walked around the stage, thanking each member of the ensemble and kissing each of the women. And then finally, there was the standing ovation.
The cheap seats at the Dvorak Hall were $5. And how bad was the view from the $5 seats? If you purchased the $5 seats, you were stuck looking at a pillar over the course of the night. I wasn’t willing to go that cheap. I remember going to a Duke-Carolina game, which was so packed that I could only see ¾ of the court. I shy away from these types of seats due to the traumatizing experience of only getting to watch ¾ of a Duke-Carolina game.-
After the concert, it was off once again in search of the Prague rock music night life. My first target was a place called Lucerna. At this point I was getting rather confident about my ability to read my map and differentiating the street versus district signs posted on the buildings. I got there with some ease. I asked the door girl if any bands were playing. Her English was poor, but a guy standing nearby (flirting with her, no doubt) did some interpreting for me. The answer was no. Great, I walked out and looked at the calendar outside to see what might be going on in the future and noticed a band listed for the night. I decided to believe that they weren’t being rude to a tourist and instead went with the assumption that the band had already finished their set – before 10 p.m.
I then decided to check out another location that was nearby called Rock Café. I walked around inside the venue, but didn’t notice anything other than folks hanging out with each other. I walked back outside and looked at the schedule. Someone had played, but obviously finished before my 10:30 p.m. arrive. The schedule said 7:30. I was getting this suspicious feeling that the music scene in Prague generally ended very early – or at least the live music scene. This corresponded with something I’d read in my tourist book, which said that the night life in Prague ends early as they start work earlier than us Americans.
Food
Dedicated to the lovely, nutty waitress at Lehka Hlava.
I’m a vegetarian so you’re not going to read any great food tips related to the Czech meat cuisine. For vegetarians, there are some nice places to eat. All the places I ate at were within a half mile of the Old Town Square. My first venture out was to Lehka Hlava (per the website’s English translation: Clear Head Restaurant). It was a little after 10 p.m. and the place was still packed. A very cute waitress offered me the lone open table in the restaurant, out in a little courtyard that led to the bathrooms. A seat inside opened up a little later and she asked if I wanted to come inside the restaurant. I got a soup and dinner plate for around $12. I figured that was equivalent to a low priced sit down restaurant in Los Angeles. Not bad. The entertainment of the night was my waitress. By the cash register/bar area, out of sight of most everyone she no doubt assumed, she started to dance like a crazy woman for a few moments. Her co-workers laughed with her and then she came back out to give a couple tables their bills. Lehka Hlava has a sister-based restaurant called Maitrea. I went there, as well. It is much larger than Lehka Hlava with both floor and downstairs levels. Though perhaps twice the size, it was also packed and I barely got a seat. As soon as I was seated, anyone else coming down was told that there was no space. It is highly recommended to get reservations.
Country Life has a self service buffet line. At the cashier, your tray is weighed. I spent about $7 there. It isn’t the best food in town, but if you’re looking for cheap it’ll fill you up. I also checked out Loving Hut (run by followers of someone called Supreme Master Ching Hai) and Dhaba Beas (another pay based on the tray weight). Loving Hut is Chinese, Dhaba Beas is Indian. These two locations were also rather cheap. I have to wonder how Dhaba Beas stays in business and so if you head off to Prague in the future and don’t find it, well it is due to the fact that it is closed. The restaurant is in a small enclosed square and the only way one knows that there is even a restaurant hidden off the side street is a board that they put out on the sidewalk. I ate at Loving Hut and Dhaba Beas for around $5.
What I noticed at these various restaurants was that when the food was ready in the kitchen, the cooks put the food in a two way heating oven. Then an irritating buzz that sounds like it is from a 1950s movie rings and the waitress opens the heating oven door to get your food.
And stupid food choice of my time there. Okay, maybe not so stupid as I did just want to get something quick . . . I went to Subway — and spent the equivalent of $15. What in the world?!
Back to Futurum
To the bartender with the pink Mohawk.
I decided to give the Rock Café another chance. I headed over after eating dinner. I walked in and caught the attention of a pink haired, Mohawked bartender.
Our conversation went like this:
Me.: “Any bands playing tonight?”
Bartender, looking at me like I was in the wrong place: “Yes, punk bands.”
Me: “When do they play?”
Bartender: “Punk bands.”
Me: “When do they go on?”
Bartender turns to a customer.
Customer tells me: “We have Prague punk bands here, but they ended their set 45 minutes ago.”
Seriously, a punk band starts their set at 8 p.m.? What’s going on in this city? Yes, pink haired bartender from Rock Café, I do love your style.
I decided I had two options. I could head to a different venue, which was in a different part of Prague, or I could try Futurum again. I decided to head to Futurum, fearful if I went to the other location the bands would have already stopped playing and I would have wasted a trip out there. I got to Futurum at around 10:30 p.m. A band called Magma Hotel (pictured right) was about ready to start their set. Their sound was very similar to Matahari, screaming rock. There were far fewer folks out on this night versus the Matahari night. (I was able to figure out post-seeing Matahari that it had been their CD release party.) The only folks anywhere near the stage were a couple photographers and me (also taking photos).
After Magma Hotel’s set, I was approached by a young woman who quickly withdrew in a bit of embarrassment upon learning that I was an English-only speaker.
The next band up was Jolly Joker (pictured left- I hope you’re finding it interesting that these band names are in English). This was an older band. The guys looked to be in their 50s, maybe even early 60s. As the band started their hip-hop rock set I noticed the young girl who had approached me. Her friend was trying to push her towards the stage. My interpretation of the conversation:
Friend: “You should go dance up front.”
Embarrassed: “I don’t want to be up front all alone, are you coming with me?”
Friend: “If you start, I’ll join you.”
Embarrassed: “Why am I always the one who has to act first?”
Friend: “Because you always go first and you’re dressed way hot tonight.”
That compliment got Embarrassed out in front of the stage, dancing. She turned to her friend who was still standing in the back. She went to her friend and dragged her forward. From that point on, they danced the whole set.
The band finished their set and then went for two encores – though it looked like one member of the band would have been fine not doing an encore as I noticed him taking a breather before their last song.
Noticed. One encore did not seem to go over well with one member of the audience who gave thumbs down throughout the encore. I noticed he was staring at the drummer so I wasn’t sure if he knew the drummer and was just playing with the guy or was really pissed off. For some reason, based on his facial impression I think he was really pissed off.
Jolly Joker played a cover of the Ghostbusters’ theme song. The crowd loved it.
Random Thoughts.
Dedicated to Bon Aqua. A Coca Cola water product. So good.
Český Krumlov. This is a lovely city outside of Prague with a castle that overlooks the city, but . . . I couldn’t help but get the feeling that every single thing in the castle was a replication and that I was being presented with a Disneyland version of the castle.
I came across a political rally while walking the streets of Prague.
The Czechs seem to love their 80’s/90’s rock music. Nirvana. Sinead O’Conner. Aerosmith. Alphaville (It was “Forever Young” so a possible remark). “We Are the World” (wasn’t sure if this was the original version or the recent remake.) If there is a band from the late 80s/early 90s that needs to make some money, I recommend going to Prague and pulling in some bucks.
I was traveling on the metro line for the first time and a random thought hit me, I wonder how often they do security checks around here? As I was approaching the exits, I saw a trio of Brits (assumption) doing a quick about face and heading back into the metro tunnels. I looked up and there stood the metro police. In English, “Can I have your ticket?” “Sure,” I pulled the ticket from my pocket. “Thank you,” he looked as if he was surprised to find out that I did in fact have a ticket. That was the only time I ever ran into the metro police.
Note. I found the metro tunnel system confusing, driven by the multiple directional options. I swear that one time I made a large circle. At one metro location, I was determined throughout my stay that I would exit at a specific street corner, but I always ended up exiting onto a different street.
I was warned to worry about Gypsies. Before I left for Prague, someone told me to be careful about the Gypsies and to perhaps carry an empty wallet with me in hopes that they’d go after it. On the plane to Heathrow, I happened to get into a brief conversation with a woman who was Czech. Her one warning was to watch out for the Gypsies, because they’d steal me blind. I don’t know if all that advice should be considered stereo-typing, but I decided to take their advice and watch my pockets. And so I was on a metro one afternoon and felt a couple fingers reaching down my pocket. I looked down and there were indeed a couple fingers reaching down my pocket. I looked up and the attempted pickpocket looked me straight in the eye and slowly removed his fingers like there was nothing going on. I wasn’t sure what to do about it so I just let it be. I was considering trying to point him out to the police, but of what good was that. I also thought about following him through the metro, trams and streets of Prague, but I had way too much I wanted to do versus trying to unnerve a pickpocket. I decided it was a nice attempt on his part, but he’d failed and that was that. I don’t think he was a Gypsy.
There are some rather seedy men around Prague who either attempt to get you to go to a local cabaret or to exchange Czech currency for US dollars.
Part III of Notes from Vivace’s adventures in Prague will be published next Wednesday.
