Apples, honey and the alternative music scene make for a great start to Tishrei 5773. I wasn’t in on the full 12 hours, but I was there among the wall-to-wall people at the Block Club on September 17th, for the marathon that was the TCM music festival on the 4th floor of the Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv.
A cohort of creative young people put together a DIY festival (partially funded through a headstart campaign) with an amazing line-up of musicians – no wonder the place was packed! The silver disco balls of the Block hovered silently in the labyrinthine darkness as the club moved to different rhythms. It’s easy to be enthusiastic about the music, the bands were terrific. The logistics, less so. The original plan was to hold the festival on the roof of the Central Bus Station, and the move to the Block was a last-minute save when that did not work out. The vision of three stages on the roof, with plenty of space and sunlight, did not translate quite so well into the confines of the club. The popularity of the event meant that there was literally no floor space in the performance areas, making it hard to move from one stage to another. For me, this meant that I spent most of my time at one stage, which was fine, as the music was incredible on every stage.
This time of year I feel the rush of new beginnings, I look back and I look around and wonder how the present is going to turn into the future; hoping to find hope. Each set sent my thoughts and feelings in a different direction – spinning in electro-cyber-space wanderings, lyric acoustic dreams, feel-good beats and sometimes straight into the heart of everything that matters most.
There in the Tel Aviv central bus station, listening to the Angelcy sing “My Baby Boy” – “My baby boy is in the army… tossing and turning in his bed/guessing his own end…we are a natural disaster/shake mama, shake your head/lost all hope to ever understand/ the powers in command/ pray pray” – it was about as far from traditional Rosh Hashana celebrations as you can get, and yet for me, it felt right.
Enjoy photos from the event by Victor MuperPHOTO.
See more photos from the festival by Victor MuperPHOTO on the festival facebook page.
