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Hip Mumy Troll comes home to rock Vlad Independence Day musings
Hip Mumy Troll comes home to rock Vlad
In Vladivostok, the elements trick and tease. One moment the city is a shining seaport, the next, a smog-shrouded citadel. Put the interplay of sea breeze, ocean fog and city streets to music, and you have Mumy Troll, a Moscow-based rock group with Vladivostok roots.
Moody, restless and charged with the frenetic energy of lead singer Ilya Lagutenko, Mumy Troll set crowds jumping and swaying June 2 at a concert at the Pacific Fleet Aquatic Station celebrating Vladivostok’s 138th birthday.
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For 29-year-old Vladivostok native Lagutenko and 18-year-old back-up singer Olesya Lyashenko of Nahodka, the concert was homecoming and hero’s welcome rolled into one. Since playing here a year ago, the band has gone big time, winning the Russian Grammy award — the Ovatsia — for best rock group in 1997 and scattering the seeds of Mumy Troll mania with tours of European Russia and Siberia. “People say this is a Vladivostok group,” said back-up singer Lyashenko. “That’s why our group gets special attention. Our image is different.” Mumy Troll’s trippy lyrics — hallucinatory images of ocean, city and the occasional extraterrestrial — are set to forceful guitar rifts, powerful percussion, and groovy synthesizer tunes. Lagutenko’s forays into falsetto offer a surreal edge. Vladivostok’s physical environment of sea, waves, wind, and hills is reflected in the band’s three albums — Morskaya, Ikra and Shamora — which are populated with sailors, captains, and seagulls. There’s an Asian twist, too. Lagutenko, who lived in China for two years, performs in Kung Fu T-shirts and Cultural Revolution-era jackets. Growing up, Lagutenko listened to short-wave radio for rock-and-roll transmitted from Okinawa to American soldiers in Japan. By 15, he was writing music for his band, named after the Finnish fairy tale character Moomin Troll. Their first song, about the Cosmos and Martians, was inspired by fantasy writer Jules Verne. The far-out is still an element in songs like “Flow Away.” There’s a cataclysmic, end-of-the-millennium feel to “Vladivostok 2000,” in which a man walks the streets “grenade in pocket, pin in hand.” Mumy Troll is not for everyone. Marina Pinchuk, a television art critic based in Khabarovsk, said the band is a trend, “a butterfly that lives for one day.” At a press conference, prior to the concert, Lagutenko used a cocoon of evasion and wise-cracks to deflect journalists’ questions about his 10-year-old son, wife Yelena and future plans. “Ten years ago, all I knew was that July 2, I’d be swimming,” said Lagutenko. “The future holds more swimming and sunbathing: Our yacht will be bigger, the sun brighter, and the water bluer.”
By Mike Eckel
Another Fourth of July come and gone. Another Independence Day holiday past. Another round of reflecting on self-evident truths and unalienable rights fades into the din of recent memory. Tra la la.
The recent holiday weekend was my fourth such holiday celebrated on this side of the world, far from the clamor of pursuing happiness and searching for life and liberty. I tried to celebrate in grand style as the holiday dictates: picnicking on rooftops, swing dancing in public places, oohing and ahhing at shore-side fireworks and singing along to our musically-dull-but-inspiring-nonetheless national anthem with fellow countrymen.
To be sure, the presence of the American sailors bedecked in pristine white dress uniforms added to the air of festivity here. And kudos to the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet band who, despite performing the theme song to a supremely overrated movie, provided excellent rhythm and groove to mark the occasion.
Throughout the weekend, though, the question nagged at me, as it has each previous Fourth of July holiday I’ve celebrated in Russia:
So what is this holiday, anyway?
The answer is one which comes from marking the holiday in lands distant from Amber Waves of Grain; a perspective afforded by living in this country, witnessing the tumult of confused identity, maddening contradictions, limitless potential and depth of national character.
For Americans, the Independence Holiday is a celebration of optimism, a celebration in the belief that shortcomings are to be overcome with dogged persistence. For many Americans, that process is fueled by unyielding optimism.
The Russian Constitution tries for optimistic tone, espousing in its preamble a “belief in good and justice,” a “striving to ensure the well-being and prosperity of Russia,” and a quest for “human rights and freedoms, civic peace and accord....” Now, more than ever, perhaps, it’s a matter of inspiring faith in the day to come in the Ivan Ivanovichs and Maria Ivanovnas from here to Kaliningrad.
At one holiday concert, I watched an older woman listen to the music, her shock of electric red hair capped by a blue Naval baseball hat, her hands clapping, her smile bouncing to swing and big band rhythms. That may have been sheer exuberance, rather than unbridled optimism, but nevertheless, perhaps it’s a start?
Gorky Drama Theater49 Svetlanskaya St.Tel: 26-05-20.
Thick-Soled Shoes, (“Botinky Na Tolstoi Podoshve”), a new comedy by Anatoly Gladilin. A wife employs unusual means to keep her husband from leaving. Presented by a Moscow troupe. Starring: Tatiana Vasilieva, Valery Garkalin and Alexander Feklistov.
The Fair Miller’s Wife (“Prekrasnaya Melnichikha”), an opera by an Italian composer of the 18th century. Presented by Zurab Sotkilava and other soloists from Moscow. Music performed by the Pacific Symphony Orchestra.
Vocal concert by Zurab Sotkilava and other Moscow soloists. Artetazh Gallery22 Svetlanskaya St.Tel: 22-98-18.
Photos and computer graphics, a one-man exhibition by Mikhail Pavin. Over 50 works. Arseniev Museum20 Svetlanskaya St.Tel: 41-39-51.
Honorary Citizens of Vladivostok, a display dedicated to the city’s anniversary in July.
June 26 through end of July.
With Love for Russia, an exhibition of 109 pictures by the photo-journalist V. Izraztsov of Lake Baikal and Siberia. Shows a film at request. Chamber Drama Theater15a Svetlanskaya St.Tel: 22-52-16.
Mumu, a play for children by Ivan Turgenev.
African Fairy-Tales, a play for children. Arseniev Museum Branch6 Petra Velikovo St.Tel: 22-50-77.
Urban Landscapes. The City and People. Pictures of Vladivostok by the city’s painters.
The Sports Glory of Primorye, an exhibition of photos, papers, awards and other items describing the history of sport in Primorye from the pre-Revolutionary times to the present day. Primorye Picture Gallery.12 Aleutskaya St.Tel: 41-11-62.
Concert by Yelena Kiriy. Songs and romances. Seamen’s Palace of Culture38 Verkhneportovaya St.Tel: 41-48-51.
Concert by Valery Leontyev from Moscow.
Concert by Vladimir Kuzmin from Moscow. Primorye Puppet Theater8 Petra Velikovo St.Tel: 22-13-44.
The Ugly Duckling (“Gadky Utyonok”).
The Rogue Fox (“Lisyonok-Plut”).
Once Upon a Time There Was a Wolf (“Zhil-Byl Volk”).
The Little Chamber House (“Terem-Teremok”). Show Room of Russian Artists’ Union’s Primorye Branch14a Aleutskaya St.
Wax Figures from St. Petersburg. Features 16 figures and collection of curiosities.
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