And Yesterday I was Back in Texas...

I have recently made friends with my tailor and have gone out for drinks with her and her boyfriend a few times. Her boyfriend just happens to be part of a band, Die Wilden Kaiser, and they were playing at a Dorffest, essentially a village party, on Sunday. Manuela invited me to come along so I really couldn't pass up the opportunity. We got there relatively late, around 4:00pm - the party started at 10:00 - and everywhere I looked there were brown leather pants and dresses with aprons like The Sound of Music. And beer. Lots of beer.

We made our way down the main street (uh, the only street in the village? Quite possibly.) until we caught sight of her boyfriend. They were set to go on stage in about ten minutes, so we grabbed a drink and found a table near the stage and waited. There were plenty of people milling about, but when Die Wilden Kaiser started playing I looked behind me to see that people had flocked over. Although I think I understood about 3% of the words (I have a lot of trouble understanding German music), apparently they take traditional Austrian folk music, the songs everyone grew up hearing their grandparents sing, and give it a bit of a rock twist. However, the best part was that within a song or two everyone started dancing. And, what kind of dancing? A slight variation on square dancing and two stepping! Seriously, I could have been back at a dance hall after a rodeo - guys in button-up shirts, hats that had a strong resemblance to cowboy hats except that they were a little floppy, and tight brown leather pants instead of jeans (but really, it was almost like they were just still wearing their chaps), spinning girls in country skirts and pigtail braids around to some good ol' 'country' music, or girls getting together in groups of four and doing a sort of square dance, surreptitiously looking over their shoulders to see which guys were watching. And of course everyone was drinking beer.

Even the kids were dressed up in traditional wear. There was an especially cute kid that just loved the band and kept sneaking over to watch after every time his dad pulled him away. He even had a bandana around his neck! Come on, does it get any more country?

Unfortunately I didn't get to stay long because the Wake group was putting on a "Schubertiade" that evening - essentially a final mini-concert. I got to hear a fabulous performance by Nick of Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 28, among other things. A bit of a change from the rock folk music, but it was all really entertaining and everyone did a fantastic job. I'm glad that I got to attend both events!