Just five days ago, a best friend of mine and I decided to busk, something we've been contemplating doing for a long, long time. Though busking itself was more of an interest to him, I had had a desire to perform live music before an audience since I've started up playing the guitar again in January. Though more than seven years have passed since I first picked it up, my guitar playing had always been sporadic at best and non-existent at worst. Inspired by a couple of friends in Munich to give it a serious go, I brought my guitar back to Europe with me after visiting the States over Christmas. It's been one of the best decision so far of this new year.
After a short period of re-learning songs I once knew, I quickly regained my guitar fingers and was eager to put my re-discovered skill to good use. Until now, I've only ever practiced alone or played for small groups of friends, never actually performing per se. Thus the desire to play on a stage before strangers appealed to me. Ever since moving back to Germany in September, my stay here has been a thriving period of growth for me, gaining life experience, learning heaps of useful and fun skills, overcoming obstacles, setting and smashing new goals for myself nearly every day. So when I came to Berlin to visit my best friend William, someone who routinely inspires me and encourages me to be as awesome as I can be more than most, busking was an inevitable outcome.
In Berlin, buskers are a city institution. On the streets, in train stations, even on the U-Bahn (subway) trains themselves. Though everyone knows them and some pay them heed (or money), they lack something: creativity. Half of the time you see a group of buskers in this town, chances are they're a a bunch of foreigners dragging around a amplifier blasting the karaoke version of "Hit the Road Jack," accompanied by poor trumpet and sax playing and even worse singing (and only of the chorus at that). Rarely do they seem to enjoy themselves and even rarer do they instill a sense of fun and merriment in those to whom they're playing. It seems too routine, too forced, too boring, too lifeless. Many patrons of the U-Bahn have learned to accept them as just a part of the scenery, something else to ignore like the countless number of eyes with which they neurotically strive to prevent contact.
Hence: opportunity for the Funky Anglo Boys. Since celebrating Karneval in Cologne two weeks ago and buying tiger costumes for that party of parties, Will and I decided to one-up the current breed of buskers. So we donned our tiger suits, gave ourselves a name, and hit the streets. The main mission of our busking is to spread the fun (though getting a few coins here and there is a nice reward). Nothing is more worthwhile and rewarding than inspiring a smile on a stranger's face, particularly in an environment when people want nothing more than to distance themselves as far as possible away from other people. As we step into each train, we instantly focus the energy of all the people on us, rebounding it back to them amplified a thousandfold with kitschy pop and rock songs that everyone knows the words to. After blowing the ice to smithereens from the sheer absurdity of a couple of guys walking onto the U-Bahn playing music in tiger suits, U-Bahn passengers seem to find us refreshing from the norm and even...dare I say...fun. Countless people have already sung along, danced to the music, or even stopped to chat with us, turning a boring, time-wasting train ride into a bona fide party.
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| The Funky Anglo Boys |
After getting a taste for a few hours the first time we went out to busk, we decided to do it again just two days later, this time adding two more songs to our repertoire. And we're going again tomorrow, with yet again two more songs. Since I only have a couple of more weeks here in Berlin before I head back to Munich, and because we're having the time of our lives doing this, we're attempting to busk every couple of days until the two weeks are up. There are few activities that are as rewarding as it: we get to practice the songs we've just learned, we get a boost of confidence when people listen and enjoy, we make other people happy, get plenty of physical exercise, and even get a little monetary compensation to boot! I've just found myself a new hobby!
