How To Cure a Sinus Infection With Music and Beer

Well it finally happened. I woke up this morning with my throat nearly swollen shut and flashes of pain in my inner ears. I always seem to get sick on vacation. :/

But considering I already bought a one day pass for the Picnic music festival in Tel Aviv, I had no choice but to man up and go. The Pixies? Gorillaz Soundsystem? Placebo? The Klaxons? A nice lineup for sure, so I did what I had to do. I stocked up on cough drops and Tylenol cold and drank my weight in hot tea. Too bad all of the aforementioned bands canceled except for Placebo-which to tell you the truth I’m not all that fond of in the first place. Too damn whiny.

Still, I don’t regret going. Cups of beer were two for the price of one, and I got to see some awesome Israeli bands rock out in front of thousands of people. Now that’s my idea of a rockin’ good time.

Almost exactly when we walked through the festival entrance my misery seemed to melt away. It was all thanks to the opening band, Hank N Cupcakes. The band consists of a perfectly average bass player and a badass girl drummer who also happens to be the singer. With a style almost identical to Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, this girl was absolutely magnetic-and so was the music. They threw a few Joy Division covers in the mix to pump up the crowd and then ended the set leaving everyone wanting more. For a two-man band with a silly name they sure knew how to work a crowd. Well done Hank! You too cupcakes…

But dare I say it, the second band was better than the first. Known as J-Views, this mish mash of jazz, reggae, blues and techno really blew me away. Especially the singer, with a voice that resembles Billie Holiday, I felt as though I was being serenaded throughout their entire performance. Especially when she busted out a cover of a classic American Folk tune, “See Line Woman.” (This song has been covered a million times over since it was written around the 1940s. That just put me over the edge. And with nearly ten band members who all played different instruments, their versatility was astonishing.

Rami Fortis, the singer that followed was great as well. Though to be honest I enjoyed it less because he sang in Hebrew. It’s a lot harder to feel the musical vibes when you don’t understand what they’re singing about. But I liked the music a lot. The music reminded me a lot of Gogol Bordello, and maybe a little Fiddler On the Roof sprinkled on top.

By the time Placebo took the stage my Tylenol cold was long out of my system and the strenuous task of wedging myself in between hundreds of sweaty bodies in order to get as close as possible was feeling far too ominous to put myself through. However, Ronen insisted we stay so I tried to make the best of it.

Unfortunately my strength lasted only about five minutes and ended abruptly when someone poured their entire cup of beer down the back of my dress. So we moved about 50ft back to a spot that wasn’t so crowded, and I attempted to ignore my ailments by taking as many pictures of the band as possible. All the members of Placebo look incredibly sinister, or maybe just plain old depressed. Either way, they weren’t capturing my attention very well because at this point in the night all I wanted to do was go home to my bed. Following a swift encore, I hurried Ronen and his sister Noam through the festival exit and onto a bus back to town.

It really is a shame. Perhaps if The Pixies closed tonight’s show my sickness would actually be cured. Damn them for being afraid of getting on a plane to a (gasp!) war-torn country!