I haven't been super on top of the blog, which is a real shame considering that the last week has been full of exciting, enlightening, and completely bizarre occurrences. I feel like this may all be too much for one post, but I will try anyway.
Item 1: The Brewery.
Last Friday we had our final excursion of the semester...to the Okachovo Brewery in the suburbs of Moscow. We have all been anxiously awaiting this excursion (each for our own reasons) and I was quite pleased with the experience. Okachovo is one of the biggest brewing companies in Russia with breweries in at least 4 other locations around the country.
Our guide was probably the best guide we've had on any of our excursions. He spoke very quickly, but clearly and proved more than competent when it came to discussing the ins and outs of beer-making. On top of all this was a set of chops to make the 1973 Oakland Athletics shed a tear. He took us on a brief tour, showing us the main fermentation and holding tanks as well as a display of how beer was made in Russia before the Industrial Revolution.
Russia is not known internationally for its beer, and there is probably a reason for this. The first one that gained any sort of real international attention was Baltika, and that wasn't until around the turn of this century. I didn't catch all the details from the guide's explanations, but the impression I get is that Russian breweries do not follow the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516. This law, recognized and followed by most breweries, though no longer officially in effect, states that beer must only consist of water, hops, and barley. Manipulating the ratio of these four ingredients is the only accepted way to affect taste, colour, etc. While these are, of course, the central ingredients of Russian beer, malt is regularly added. Rye has been known to be included on occasion.
Russia does have two beverages that are similar to beer: kvass and medovukha. Both are fermented and carbonated beverages that contain alcohol, and were created to make use of expired foodstuffs (kvass from rotten bread, and medovukha from bad or expired honey). Though medovukha is still more or less a cottage industry (I rarely see medovukha sold in any stores), kvass has evolved into a mass-produced beverage. According to everyone I have met who is older than me, kvass was, in Soviet times, a tasty and refreshing summer drink usually dispensed from a barrell or, in the cities, off the back of a truck. Since the early 1990s, producers of kvass have attempted to turn it into something akin to a Russian cola, available in bottles. I tried kvass from a bottle when I lived in Petersburg and I could care less if I never try it again.
But I digress. Having completed the tour, we were led into the tasting hall, where we were treated to free samples of the Ochakovo brews. Six beers were available on tap as well as a kvass (with a few other kvass varieties in bottles). All the beers were varieties of lagers (I have yet to see a Russian ale). The red lager was supposed to be modeled on a British beer, but had a very weak taste. The dark lager was not bad (at one point I thought it smelled like hot dogs), bitter like a stout, but not heavy. There was also a green lager (I don't remember what fruit was added, but it was tasty), a regular light lager, and an unfiltered honey lager, which they referred to as a "living beer" for some reason. I built up my courage and decided to try the kvass on tap and was very pleasantly surprised. By scent it is very herbal, almost mediciney, but once it hits your tongue it is surprisingly sweet (but not too sweet) and refreshing. From what I have been told by others since, kvass in draught form is always good. Of the kvass in bottle form, I tried a kvass with horseradish, which tasted like....well, I'd rather not think about it.
On the whole I was pleased with the excursion and, obviously, enjoyed the experience. I can't say that I would rate Russian beer very high on my scale. The very fact that the varieties available are limited puts it at a severe disadvantage to the heavyweights like England, Germany, and even Canada or the US. All the same, cheers to you, Russia! Thanks for the lovely afternoon!
Item 2: The Concert.
Saturday night, my tutor/friend Tania and I went to Club B1 to see Leningrad. Leningrad is a St. Petersburg-based group who are most commonly referred to as a ska/punk band. I don't know that that moniker is entirely deserved. As far as instrumentation goes, they could definitely be classified as a ska band, but their sound is more akin to Gogol Bordello than to The Toasters. According to some research I did after the gig, Leningrad is known for their blatant use of mat. It's hard to explain what mat is. Basically, take George Carlin's 10 Things You Can't Say on TV, reduce it to four words, and make them far more offensive. Even the most foul-mouthed Russians have trouble saying these words sometimes, especially in front of women. Leningrad is known to use them a lot. They are also known to sing a lot about vodka and women....so I guess basically like a lot of rock n roll bands. According to wikipedia, the mayor of Moscow hates Leningrad and has tried to have them banned from the city and has had their concerts cancelled on occasion. It is Leningrad's popularity amongst young Russians that makes this difficult.
At any rate, having previously been unaware of this, and liking the few Leningrad songs I had heard, I talked Tania into joining me. We showed up about an hour before the show was supposed to start and the venue slowly began to fill up. What I noticed fairly quickly was that Leningrad's fan-base has developed the tradition of wearing Russian naval undershirts to their shows (a 3/4 sleeve shirt with thin, horizontal, white and navy blue stripes). These shirts are fairly ubiquitous in St. Petersburg, home of the Russian Baltic fleet, but were a rare and odd sight for a Moscow nightclub. The crowd was clearly excited and, as we had to listen to 45 minutes of dj music, they became more agitated and began chanting "Len-in-grad! Len-in-grad!"
Finally, some musicians walked on to the stage and the crowd went nuts....only to be told that this was the opening band, Infektsia. Tania said she had heard one or two of their songs and said they were cool. They began playing what I would consider pretty boring music, with very vulgar and mundane lyrics (from what I could understand). After about 10 minutes Tania changed her mind about the band. So had the crowd. We began to see stuff flying on stage: beer, water, cubs, lighters, anything the crowd could get their hands on. Tania turned to me and simply said, "They don't like the band." If the throwing-things-on-to-the-stage was a little ambiguous, the jeering/booing/pierce-whistling and giving of "the finger" probably got the message through. The crowd even resumed its "Len-in-grad" chant. After enduring the 45-minute set, the lead singer said what amounted to, "We are Infektsia! Piss off!" They walked off-stage to chants of "F--- you!" This was a spectacle to which I had never been privy before. We don't heckle that much in the States anymore. The only person I know who consistently heckles is my dad. When you're dad is the biggest loudmouth in the bar, or rather, when MY dad is the biggest loudmouth in the bar, that's saying something. I kinda wish we were less ambiguous in showing our feelings about bad bands when we see them. It would at least make it clear to them that they shouldn't quit their day job and thin out the field a bit more.
Leningrad was a whole nother kettle of fish, as they say. The crowd was going bonkers for them the entire set. I have rarely seen a crowd so into a show. Leningrad responded in kind with a great performance. They had 14 people on stage: drummer, percussionist, baritone, trombone, baritone sax, tenor sax, trumpet, keyboard, electric guitar, acoustic guitar/lead singer, female singer, and a 300 lb., bald man in a track suit. This man didn't do anything except dance around and smash unopened beer cans against his head until they exploded and he threw them into the audience. He also tore a bra apart with his teeth....yeah. Anyway, the rest of the band was really great. They put on a fantastic show and clearly look like they enjoy playing together. One would imagine that such a large group fosters a really good cooperative atmosphere. What was probably the neatest thing about the show was when Tania would turn to me and say, "This is a really well-known old Soviet melody!" or "This is an old World-War-II song." I think that, given the atrocious state of Russian pop music, it is nice to see a band, regardless of how vulgar they are, embracing Russian rock's Soviet roots. So yes, I was impressed by Leningrad.
Other bizarre notes from the show:
- the bumber music between sets was the Alvin and the Chipmunks' Christmas album. Kill me now, please.
- there was a big monitor that showed images on stage from a camera at the back of the arena. 80% of the time, the camera was zoomed in on the female singer and, more precisely, her legs. Not the most professional camera operator I've ever seen.
- before the show, they ran a list of all the big musicians who had performed there over the last year. What kind of venue hosts performances by Snoop Dogg, Paul Anka, Liza Minelli, and Avril Lavigne all in the same year? Only in Russia.
An enjoyable, if strange evening if I do say so myself.
Item 3: Strange Things.
This is basically to tie up the loose ends, but it feels like in this last week I've seen and experienced some strange things. Here's the wrap-up.
- A dog almost bit me (B-I-It Me, bit me!) as I was warming down from a run last week.
- I saw two women punch each other on the metro today. One was behind the other and she wanted to get out so she gave an unnecessarily strong shove (shoving is a normal and accepted part of using the metro in Moscow). As she passed, the first woman gave her a thump on the shoulder, the departing woman turned and punched her back on the arm. That was the end of the altercation, but still, when was the last time you saw two women punch each other?
- We set a record high for Moscow in December on Saturday: 46ยบ F. It's like that scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail when "autumn went straight into spring." It definitely does not feel like Christmas time.
- I have finally taken my first steps into comic writing in Russian. I had to write an essay about Dmitri Medvedev for my conversational class. I didn't really feel like thinking super hard on it, so I decided to write the most sarcastic essay I could and even the teacher thought it was funny. Have I taken a new direction? Only time will tell.
Ready yourself for the coming week or so when I assault you with Christmas-related stuff, especially YouTube clips.
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