I went to watch Transylvanian black metal band “Negura Bunget” play on Friday night in a small venue called Cameo in Fuckface Town (previously called Williamsburg, and now the zombie epicenter of Brooklyn and NYC in general).
It was their first time playing in NYC, which made it all the more worthwhile to endure Fuckface Town (a living hell) on a Friday night.
When foreign metal bands come to play NYC for the first time, it’s special. For them and for me. The last time this happened for me was when the legendary Greek black metal band Rotting Christ came to NYC for the first time after more than 20 years of playing small gigs around Europe. Extremely memorable. When bands like Negura Bunget or Rotting Christ finally make NYC happen, you want to hoist them up. You want celebrate their devotion and their work. They will never be wealthy because of their art. Few people will ever buy their music. At the Negura show, the venue was just about at capacity, maybe 200 people.
Twenty years of playing together is close to an entire career, an entire professional life. One of sacrifice and exhaustion with almost no monetary reward at all. Why do they do it?
Because they have to. They chose their art. That’s how it is and we need to do all we can to keep it possible.
Despite significant sound issues, their performance was excellent. Negura is a large band and they have different sounds requiring different and surprising instruments, such as traditional Romanian flutes and bells. The vocals were very polished, ranging from traditional black metal harsh to smooth and operatic. They arrived late because of airport problems and could only play for an hour. I was home by about 12, ears slightly ringing and very, very happy.
Saturday I relaxed all morning and afternoon and worked on a paper most of the evening. Sunday was another working day and it was perfect: cold and raining outside, coffee and eggs inside, good background music all afternoon and three books open at once.
If I could do Sunday-type work full-time, I would. As long as I was contributing something, and not just consuming things.
Twenty minutes of creative work per day gets you a project finished every week. Fuck laziness and excuses. You’re creators. Don’t waste it. 99.999% of all other life on earth would kill to be a creator. Don’t let the entire world down.
