Back in August 2004 Keiji Haino was invited to play a festival for Japanese art & design in Stockholm. Our esteemed board member Love aka Bögskäggmannen was very instrumental in making this happen. I ended up being Haino's host ("caretaker") for the duration of his stay, meaning for five days I saw more of Haino than my wife. He was super cool and full of integrity, but also like a helpless child in certain situations. We put a lot of effort into trying to string together a little tour, but being in the middle of summer holiday period it proved hard. We only scored one additional gig at the art museum in Norrköping. I recall some guys in Oslo wanted to bring him over but the logistics just didn't work out.
The first show in Norrköping went well although not being exceptional in any way. Oddly enough none of the city's industrial cognoscenti (IRM, Institut, Nod, Skin Area) came out, the majority of the small audience being jazz/improv oldtimers. The following night at a jam packed Fylkingen in Stockholm was f*cking amazing though. Haino started with some shamanistic piece, hammering the floor with a pair of sticks while chanting, before strapping on his guitar for an hours worth of unfettered frenzy.
Anecdotes... well my greatest memory is taking Haino to buy a nyckelharpa (keyed harp), a traditional instrument somewhere between a fiddle and a hurdy-gurdy. I had tracked down an instrument maker that was willing to sell one so I took Haino to his house. He brought out an instrument, Haino examined it, took it up and plucked the strings, spun around, and in a moment of "feeling" rammed the neck into a magnificent chandelier hanging from the ceiling. A broken prism fell to the floor. Now losing one's face and apologizing wasn't on the table, instead an unfazed Haino said he'd buy the instrument and shelled out most of what he earned from the two concerts. What money he had left was spent on record shopping. At the Mellotronen shop he purchased a stack of psych/prog CDs and impressed the guy at the counter (a member of the Dungen band) by mentioning that he owned a copy of the super rare Mecki Mark Men LP from -67. At another store, Multikulti, he got another stack of CDs with various flavors of ethnic music.
I remember also having good times hanging out with Haino and the lovely ladies of Afrirampo who were playing the same festival. Well it was a fun few days but I was happy when it was over.
