Winter cool

Winter Cool

Zzzzzz... Dreaming of green meadows, spring conquests bathed in warm sunlight... Blasted winter! Here are a few musical events in Kraków’s clubs – sure to wake you up. A lively concert will do far more than any amount of coffee.

Don’t count sheep – go to a concert at Studio instead. You’ll get an awakening from Coma on 4 February. The band recently released its fourth album, known as red; it soon topped album charts to become gold. The charismatic vocalist Piotr Rogucki and friends will get the audience going with the new material and the group’s greatest hits. Let’s stick with livestock for now. Do androids dream of electric sheep? Even if you don’t know Philip K. Dick’s story, you’re bound to have seen the film it inspired, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. So, do they or not? You’ll be able to search for an answer during a concert by the British duo Lamb, revealing a softer, more romantic side to electronic music. The charming vocalist and lyricist Lou Rhodes and the producer and multi-instrumentalist Andy Barlow have created a unique style combining beautiful vocals with ambient, trip-hoppy, jazzy sounds. They were formed in Manchester in 1994, and have since split up (2004) and reformed (2009). Meek they are not. Let’s keep going, Hey! Their concerts have been filling concert halls across Poland since the early 1990s. How do they do it? By keeping up a top standard, of course! Fortunately Studio is large enough to fit all fans keen to hear Katarzyna Nosowska and band on 10 February.

At Rotunda they’re also dreaming of spring – they’re serving up quite an exciting mix. Magda Navarrete, the pioneer of electro-bolero, appears on 8 February. Next, on 12 February, we’ll reach musical peaks. Things will get precipitous, thanks to the German-American Get Infected tour. The headliners will be the German metalcore Caliban. Or, what do you think about Stevie Wonder’s music arranged by Leszek Nowotarski and performed by Afera Band on 16 February?

On 23 February, the concert by Agnostic Front at Kwadrat is open to believers, atheists and everyone in between; they are legendary on the New York hardcore scene.

There’s also going to be a hip-hop feast at Fabryka, where the British band Foreign Beggars comes to pasture on 10 February. They play around 100 concerts each year, and they are reported to be able to mash their blend of hip-hop, grime and dubstep right into the ground. Just as long as it’s not frozen solid!

Alternatively there’s an atmospheric concert at Magazyn Kultury on the same evening. We’ll be treated to musical delights by the Icelandic songwriter Myrra Rós. One of her reviews describes “listening to the artist is like immersing yourself in a hot bath on a cold winter’s night”. To warm up before the journey to the land of ice and geysers, you’ll get an introduction to Owls of the Swamp & Phia. The Australians use minimal artistic means to create fascinating folk landscapes with extraordinary ease. Set both your hemispheres for good reception!

On 13 February, Żaczek will host one of the best songwriters from this corner of Europe. Czech Vaclav Havelka III, AKA SelFbrush, has played in Poland over 50 times already – and he’s as popular as ever! We’ll stick with Slavic circles until 18 February, thanks to the musical adaptation of Moscow-Petushki. Piotr Sieklucki from Nowy Theatre and the musical team directed by Paweł Szarek have created an intoxicating spectacle. Compositions by Igor Talkov, Grigory Leps and Vladimir Vysotsky will be performed in reggae, hardcore and pop versions. All this, and Lenin (played by Karol Śmiałek), stirring the crowds accompanied by Rammstein… Na zdorovye!