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November 23rd, 2008
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Out of the mainstream

Alternative fests that smell like post-communist teen spirit
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By Marika Ley
For The Prague Post
July 16th, 2008 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Here's something you don't see in Prague every day: Italian electronic band Babylonia playing the Cross Club.
COURTESY PHOTO
Ska star Dorreen Shaffer headlines at Mighty Sounds.

Mighty Sounds
When: July 18-20
Where: Olší u Tábora
Tickets: 430-680 Kč, available through Ticketpro and Ticketstream

Electro Prague Festival
When: Saturday, July 19, at 8
Where: Cross Club (Plynární 23, Prague 7)
Tickets: 150 Kč in advance, 200 Kč at the door, available at the venue
What was originally a wacky idea a few friends had to throw a big party with bands they knew (and others they wanted to meet) has turned into a multigenre fest that rivals bigger names for variety, accessibility and tapping into the local glocal community. Mushrooming into a three-day, three-stage extravaganza — that’s not a bomb you hear in the distance this weekend, it’s the Mighty Sounds ska-punk-reggae explosion.
Over four years ago, Mighty Sounds founder Jakub Sinor wrangled his friends and family to put together a festival that caters to the many varied subgenres of rock, punk and ska without booking any mainstream headliners, Czech or otherwise.
“We were kind of dissatisfied with the festival scene,” says Přemysl Černík, co-producer of Mighty Sounds. “We had a kind of punk attitude, like we were going to be the first festival without [popular Czech rockers] Divokej Bill. I think these kinds of festivals are improving, but they still have these Czech headliners that play every stage in the country through the summer.”
“What really makes me happy about our festival,” says Mighty Sounds production team member Filip Vondrášek, “is that it’s not based on some popular bands, but a lot of good bands.”
This year that includes ska stars The Toasters, who are the Sunday night headliners. Guitarist Robert Hingley says the group is glad to see the diversity and growth in the Central European festival scene. “It’s gone from not having any bands that were playing ska and reggae to a bunch of bands bubbling up,” he says from his home near Valencia, Spain. “I think that’s really great, drawing people’s attention to the fact that something’s going on there. Prague is an ideal place to have a thriving music scene, and that seems to be happening at the moment.”
Mighty Sounds has grown at a mighty pace, with 10,000 people gathering in the fields of Olší u Tábora last year. This year, there’s an enlarged site that includes a total of six stages and a camping area. Confirmed acts at press time included Doreen Shaffer and the Moon Invaders, Dennis Alcapone, the Mad Caddies, Citizen Fish, the Subhumans and the Rotterdam Ska Jazz Foundation, with promises of many more. (For an updated lineup, check Mightysounds.cz.)
If you’re stuck in Prague, then the hot time Saturday night is at the Cross Club, for the ninth edition of the Electro Prague Festival. The one-night blowout is the creation of Mirek Jindřišek, who started hosting electro music-themed events in 2003.
“I was organizing Depeche Mode parties only, but then I discovered plenty of good Czech electro bands,” he says. “So I started to organize monthly ‘Live Electronic Tuesday Evenings in Matrix,’ with two Czech bands playing various electronic styles like synth-pop, EBM, industrial and electro-clash.”
After 10 of those LETEM nights, which were drawing a steady crowd of 80 to 100 people, Jindřišek decided to combine all the evenings into two Electro Prague Fest events a year, each featuring five or six bands.
The owner of a Web-hosting company as well as an electro-Goth enthusiast who regularly travels to Germany and Poland in search of short, sharp, dark electric shocks, Jindřišek says the Czech Republic has some catching up to do. “[Other countries] have better clubs with better equipment, bigger promotion, money from funds or sponsors, and it all means more people,” he says.
But Jindřišek is working hard to close the gap. Previous Electro Prague Fests have featured foreign and far-flung bands along with East European glower groups like Moimir Papalescu & the Nihilists, Datwerk, Banana Zeros, Depressive Disorder, Tear and Tabor radosti. This one, he says, features the most alien lineup yet.
“This year will be a first, with more foreign bands than local ones,” Jindřišek beams. “Czech bands you can see many times during the year, but we have bands from Japan (Psydoll), the UK (Novus), Italy (Babylonia) and Germany (Amnistia) that you will see probably only once in Prague.”
The styles of the bands range from synth-pop and electro-clash through EBM and J-electro. After they’re done, the party goes on until dawn with Mord=X= Fabrik, a DJ trio from Poland.
“It will be a great place to meet new people from around the world,” Jindřišek says, “and discover great music that you cannot buy in music stores.”

Marika Ley can be reached at features@praguepost.com


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