Joshua Santospirito Art

So the story goes like this – I had a gig in Basel, Switzerland – at this great little artist-run place called Schqrzwaldallee which was in an old train repair-yard. I met all the people who ran it who were very nice hipster artists – very nice people. I was setting up, and a few people had arrived, I had bare feet on concrete, I was holding my guitar – and there was this nice little lamp on the ground with a shade on it – it was on, I reched down to move from one side of my guitar pedals to the other – as my hands closed around the base of it (made of metal)- I had this vibrating sensation throughout my upper body – I knew in my mind that I was being electrified but I couldn’t open my hand to release the lamp. An involuntary noise came from my throat and I could see the people at the door looking at – it all happened very much in slow-motion – I noticed a lot of things in what was probably a short space of about 3-4 seconds of the current passing through me – I fell over on my knees, which must have knocked the lamp out of my hand. I was very shaken up … everyone rushed in – I think everyone was in shock (no pun intended). I had a lot of adrenaline pulsing through my veins and was apparently as white as a sheet. The artists fussed around and couldn’t believe it was the lamp … they thought it might’ve been my guitar … I didn’t know which it was … could’ve been both … I could’ve bridged the electricity between the lamp and the guitar or the lamp and the concrete … I was certain it was the lamp. I got a little cranky at them suggesting it was the guitar when it clearly happened when I picked up the lamp – their safety switches didn’t switch off either which was also concerning. Anyway – Nadine was adamant that she didn’t want me to play. Nadine’s Dad came in a started giving the artists grief, making suggestions in a commanding voice. It was quite a scene. Anyway, I decided to continue playing – they got a different lamp out. I walked over to pick up my guitar and the lights went out … I panicked and ran away from the setup. They fixed it again … and I decided to man-up and play the gig.

I thought I played pretty well … Nadine recorded some of it … ages later I listened to it again – I played terribly.
The next day Nadine convinced me to go to local doctor to get checked out – he did and ECG … or an EKG in German. There was a slight change on my EKG which indicated that a part of my myocardium had suffered a small amount of oxygen loss – he told me to come back in a week for another EKG and a stress test – he expected it to be fine again. I came back in a week – it was fine. Phew!!

Tags: Australian comics, Drive West Today, Experimental music, Santospirito, zines