As all the Toronto fans know, Timpuri Noi will perform for one night only tonight, Thursday at 7-8pm. I have a bunch of tickets to give away as my English-speaking friends could not make it.

I’ve written about them in the past, first, when the organizers were “testing the waters” regarding a possible concert, then when they appeared in a festival of East-European diss(id)ent music.

Growing up behind the “iron curtain” had certain disadvantages. Strangely, as a kid, you do not understand them, as that is the only normality that you know. Though I got to travel “outside” as a kid, and thus I had a frame of reference, my memories growing up are generally positive, and so are my friends’. These positive memories are imbued in my brain on the soundtrack of those times. And in that soundtrack (or “column of sound”, as we literally say in Romanian), very close near the top stand, agitated, these unlikely musical heroes.

Apart from their amazing artistry, their music is also symbolic for a certain “refusal to be afraid”, that more and more people had started to display. The late Eastern-European regimes of the 80’s were based on fear of reprisals more so than on the reprisals themselves and thus, speaking truth to power carried censorship consequences more so than actual jail time.

For instance, the anthem dedicated to the lightbulb “becule, stai aprins, becule – noi te iubim!”, makes little sense to a Western listener, even if translated: “lightbulb, stay lit up, we love you!”. Without knowing the background, one could presume that it's a dimwit's attempt to replace Viagra or Cialis with a prey prayer. However, in the context of life plagued by managed blackouts that the general population had to endure in order to feed energy to the wasteful industries that provided full employment, it was a statement of Resistance expressed in MegaOhms. Similarly, most of their political songs need long-winded explanations in order for their message to be understood by the uninitiated, precisely because the message had to be disguised. Unfortunately, I don’t have that luxury now.

I bought several tickets for their concert with the intention to invite several non-Romanian friends to attend, but they could not make it. So I’ll be giving them away. I’ll post a message on my Facebook account (the one with my real photo) so please respond to that one or leave a message here.

The Romanian band Timpuri Noi, known for their politically engaged songwriting, will perform in Toronto for one night only at Hollywood on the Queensway, 1184 The Queensway (map)

Toronto - Thursday November 12, 2009 Purchase tickets here

c ya @ the concert!

Sources / More info: wiki-Timpuri-Noi, rockmania-timpuri-noi, official-site, album-review, yt