Din ciclul 'Did I Mention....?'

... that the Nouvelle Vague gig I shall attend on the 21st of June is free?

Come And Join The Angry Mob

1. Small Town Boys Part 2

Different location this time around (no longer the oh-so-usual Ninkasi, but Transbordeur)... same opening act as for The Rakes gig: Good Shoes (I told you these people ran outta opening acts...) This time, people know the band, danced, sang along and yelled... however, the guys from Good Shoes were still rather cold and it shows they're scared and don't know what to do on stage... besides playing, that is.. which they do extremely well... Each time "Small Town Girl" sounded fucking fantabulous.... and, again... I have to give them thumbs up for coming on stage at 20:00 (the time on the ticket...)


2. Na Na Na Na Na

At 21:00, ladies and gentlemen... The Kaisers got on stage.... It was great... Ricky's stage antics are great: the guy jumped around the stage, got down into the crowd (yes, I did, thank you...hehe), did various 'tricks' with his mic... He was unstoppable... Peanut clapped for us... oh, not to forget, Peanut's hat is missed... The drummer made a bit of fun of Peanut... but the bottom line is that Ricky made all the show... naturally, moshpitting was involved, jumping, smell of sweat, lack of water, singing along… For about an hour and 15 minutes, the Chiefs played songs from both of the albums and the ones off the first one were better received by the audience than the newer ones… at the end of the gig, the drummer threw his sticks in the crowd and some lucky guy right in front off me caught one… damn… And, there it went, Kaiser Chiefs and I was on my way back to the dorm, no tram or metro, but walking (20 minutes till my room…go figure)

French and English (and one Romanian, as far I know of….) Danced Together

1. Small Town Boys

It’s almost 8:30 and the sound engineers are done with the sound check…. The lights turn off, the music stops and the four lads from Good Shoes get on stage (yes, I was impressed by this, because 8:30 was the time on the ticket and that’s when they got on stage). They started right away, after a ‘Bonsoir’. Good performance, they sound just as good live as on the record, the drummer is really good, the bassist gave a guy from the public some of his beer (the guy had asked him for a sip), the bassist blushed and smiled shyly when someone from the audience smiled at him, the lead singer said a few ‘merci beaucoup’ and that was it. They were great but they were rather unknown to the audience (we were about 5 people in the crowd dancing) and thus the audience was rather cold with them and they were cold with the audience. Nothing more, nothing less….

2. The World Is A Mess, But Alan’s Dance Moves Are Perfect

At about 9:30, the impatient crowd was satisfied: The Rakes got on stage. And the chaos began: moshpitting…as always. Body heat, the smell of the sweat, me lacking both air and water. But it was great. Wearing a white “Irish Writer’s” tee, dancing maniacally like Curtis, throwing ‘philosophical’ phrases like ‘Slow songs are nice’, Alan Donohoe had a perfect performance and left us all wanting for more. They really interacted with the public, making little jokes like “I’m not gonna do the jukebox for you, if you wanna listen to Beatles buy an album and listen to them in yr bedroom” ( someone was probably requesting a song), constantly giving beer to the audience and doing impersonations of Michael Jackson and Bowie. And hey, they may not be a groundbreaking band, but they have a huge energy and they sound f*cking amazing live. So, after a great last song, “The World Was A Mess, But His Hair Was Perfect”, and one hour and a half of moshpitting, I got meself a huge Cola in order to get some liquid in my body and got on the metro back to The dorm….

Bican: Come d'habb c'est un blog pour les blagues

nancy boyo: i can say i saw Good Shoes twice...
bican: too bad u never wear any

In case you're wondering...Check this out, they ran outta supporting bands (to quote Bican again) and Good Shoes are opening up for both The Rakes (seeing them tomorrow at Ninkasi Lyon) and Kaiser Chiefs ( 13th of May, Transbourdeur Lyon)

Fucking Amazing For 5 Euros

Time: 6:30 pm…I leave home, heading towards Grand Zero (apparently one of the indiest venues in Lyon). 7:30…I finally get there. No one in front of the bar and the doors are closed…hm…around 8:00…people start gathering in front of the venue, all waiting for what was going to be a fucking amazing gig…8 something…the doors open and I prepare the 5 euros I am going to pay for the gig (it was a concert with ‘prix libre’…each person gave how much they wanted/could….)…9:30ish….finally, the opening act, Clara Clara, starts their performance. This noise rock experimental French group…may I say…people jumped around…danced….and the band….they were fantastic….their performance convinced my to buy one of their demos…10:30ish and finally the trio we were all there for got on stage: DEERHOOF….Fucking amazing…Naturally, the crowd moshed, jumped, people flew over the crowd, people were hurt…I moshed a bit, but it seems I have this strange repulsion towards moshpits ever since the Klaxons gig…I particularly adored the drums…The drummer has got lots of energy…and the three band members did really seemed impressed by the great reaction the crowd had towards their music…They played for an hour (I must say, lucky me...they played ‘Milking’…my favorite song…)….and gave away their best…So, after an hour, I was on my way to metro D, praying I’d catch the last tram…which I did…

How We Were Charmed By Nathanial Fregoso

In case you did not know, Nathanial Fregoso is the lead singer of LA indie-pop outfit The Blood Arm. They played here, in Lyon, last evening. The usual: I got there half an hour before the time on the ticket: 19:30. Inside, this huge crowd of...15 people. I got myself a Blood Arm tshirt, chated a bit with the guy selling the tees...American, told me that they like it to be cold in Europe when they come here (wrong time you picked...30 degrees celsius...oh, dear)...At about 20:45 the music stopped, so I assumed the opening act will grace us with they presence (the opening act on the ticket being this French outfit, Second Sex...). However, one must learn to utterly distrust FNAC (remember, at Klaxons, the opening act according to FNAC was Twisted Charm...). So, instead of French indie, the tee guy told us a story, about how he got arrested by la police because he yelled "Fuck Sarko" (up to date, aren't you?) and then he introduced Blood Arm. The four guys from Blood Arm got on stage and the show took off...and what a show. Nathanial spent most of his time in the crowd, kissing and hugging people (yes, I am not washing for the next four months). During "Angela", he asked us to sit down with him on the filthiest floor he had seen in France and feel the pure emotion. During another song (its name slips my mind right now) he sang from the bathroom and even picked people out of the crowd to be his bathroom singers. And when he was on stage, he jumped around, shook his ass ( at one point he asked us to yell "Vive la fete!"...a fan yelled "Vive la fesse!" instead) and crumbled to the floor like some kind of indie preacher. For the last song, he helped people get on stage, so by the end of the gig, half of the audience was up there. After these 45 minutes feeled with 'pure emotion', I grabbed a setlist off stage and got again on metro B back to the dorm....

Come With Me, We’ll Travel To Infinity

1. Clap, Clap Sound

The ‘end of the world’ finally came, the day I’ve been waiting for…The Klaxons gig. So I did my routine before each gig that takes place on a school day: cut queue at resto, eat fast, grab tram back to dorm, hyperventilate, get dressed for gig, freak out, run out the door, grab tram to concert location. And I found myself waiting in a queue to enter the venue. 20:30 and we’re in (sounds familiar, right? Just like The Rapture gig…20:30 on the ticket, 20:30 ouverture des portes). The opening act was neither Metronomy nor Twisted Charm…but a rather crappy French act named Apple Jelly. Let me put it this way: they were trying to sound Madchester, but we didn’t have the drugs and they didn’t have the Manchester birth certificate. Some people were dancing and singing along, but most just set there, rather unimpressed may I add. The band finished their performance in about half an hour and there came the stage engineers setting up the place for the "dernier avatar en vogue de la géneration MySpace"…

2. The Four Horsemen

And, yes…At about 22:00, our fave ‘prophets’ got on stage. And here’s were I lose it….The first song was “The Bouncer”. And people started bouncing and pushing in all directions, it was a real mosh-pit…if at the beginning of the gig I was about 2 meters from the stage, at the half of the first song I was next to the stage. I somewhat lacked air (all those people....) and I had sweated more than in the last 5 months…but I just couldn’t stop dancing…In fact, no one could. Fluorescent bracelets flew above the crowd, people got up on stage and threw themselves back into the crowd, while the 4 Londoners were providing a great soundtrack (may I say “Blimey! They are brilliant live!”). The crowd did exactly what Klaxons want their listeners to: forget everything and party like there’s no tomorrow, ‘choose life’ only to celebrate the hedonistic spirit of rave. I will also have to admit I am quite unsure when/ where did the concert went…but, hell, it was a fab way to go…And, yes…yet again, I find myself on the subway, so tired I was trembling and humming “tutututututu”…Magick, baby! Pure magick!

The 32 Of December....

Blazare...Ma deprima anumite situatii...si ma obosesc in continuare toti oamenii din jur...care gesticuleaza, vorbesc mult prea tare, rad prea tare...Bref...Maine merg la Klaxons...Twisted Charm opening act....Si pana la urma The Blood Arm canta pe 15...yey...I'm in Lyon....No happy dance...too tired....Vreau sa ascult doar Babyshambles....Ah....revin in seara asta cu un blog scris in timpul cursului de fizica...

Yesterday

Yeah...I did attend a Sean Lennon gig on Monday...I'm just trying to write a decent review for it...Yes, I'm attending a Klaxons+Metronomy/Twisted Charm*i don't really get which one's teh opening act..cause everybody's saying something else* one next thursday...Hey, I've been to so many gigs lately, I find it strange when I go somewhere and there's no tour bus in front...I'm just so tired right now...All the people around me...speaking, moving, laughing...I find them so tiring...I just want to sit in my room and listen to nice music...Just like this song....

Who Said People Don’t Dance No More? a.k.a. Whoa! Alright Yeah…Uh Huh!

1. The Tension

I get there too early. Yes, that was my intention, but it is just far too early…I have to wait for an hour before they let us in. Time: about 20:30, the time the opening act should start playing. Figures, they didn’t. The atmosphere is set by a DJ (whose name I cannot seem to recall) who plays/mixes/meshes-up various tracks. There is this disco vibe I really like, as people are actually dancing and singing along (vintage-like? Studio 54, anyone?). At about 21:00, the opening act gets on stage. Montevideo, if I am not mistaken. This disco-punkish, distort-loving band I must admit I’ve never listened to before. They are good, have a lot of energy and one might be tempted to think they are the headliners. I particularly like their version of Clash’s “London Calling”…Funky. At about 21:40-ish, Montevideo finishes the performance and leaves us waiting for the main act. And we wait, about 40 minutes, if I am not wrong. Of course, the DJ is playing music, for the first 30 minutes, the crowd is dancing. But it is just too much, the crowd gets impatient (do I hear them yelling “Allez!”?)…And where the hell is The Rapture?...

2. The Jam

It’s past 22:00 (oh, dear, two and a half hours of waiting?) and finally the DJ stops playing music. And, yes, one by one, the four New Yorkers get on stage. (I am going to be honest. I’ve been dreaming about this gig for a long time, I love...no, adore The Rapture... *and they are not some arrogant, egomaniac twats*…Of course I thought they were great and they did raise-up to my expectations.) Andruzzi has to be one of the best showmen I’ve seen. The guy has great stage moves and is one hell of a sax player His veins are popping out and his face is all red and he keeps on playing the saxophone and dancing. Roccoforte’s drums are perfect. Safer plays his funky bass and has this “60s-pop-band”-like dance routines. Meantime, Jenner either does some goofy dance moves (in contrast to Andruzzi who is extremely serious through-out the whole show), either balances on the edge of the stage ending each song with a distort (yes, we do love you). Safer thanks everybody (the DJ, the opening act, the crowd) and yells “Now, let’s party”. On “First Gear”, he imitates Andre3000’s ‘shake it like a Polaroid picture” routine (I’ve got to shake, shake…whatever it takes). Needless to say the crowd is dancing and singing along every line. Jenner throws himself in the crowd… (in case you’re wondering, yes, I did…*big grin*). As the show is coming to an end, he jumps again in the crowd (yes, dude, we all love you…). Applause. The Rapture exits the stage. And I find myself again on the subway, heading back to my dorm room. An hour and a half with The Rapture seems to have passed way too fast …But, hey, as they’d say it “I can’t hold you tomorrow, but I hold you in my heart”.

(I wish a could say it….but hell, I’ve got far too little sleep since then…so no “Goodnight” this time…just “Good luck”)