Le Rock Concert

Last night, I eschewed a traditonal laid-back Sunday to go see three bands play over on Rue Batignole, on the southeast tip of Pere Lachaise cemetary. The reason I went is because my host brother here is a musician and was playing in two of the bands. After taking the 3 line over to Gambetta, we walked in the rain down the length of Pere Lachaise (home of Jim Morrison's grave) to the venue, which was an incredibly cool space, full of french hipsters and the local music scene (looked like a gigantic American Apparel photo shoot). Luckily, the concert was free, so that meant a few more Euros on beer. We showed up just in time to see the end of the first group, with my host brother, Clemens, on the drums (la batterie), just hammering away as the lead singer growled loudly through the last song.

The second group on was actually just two guys, one of Clement's friends on drum and this guy who looked straight out of the movie office space (seriously, he was around 40 years old with a short-sleeved shirt and tie, awful hair and Steven Soderbergh-esque glasses) behind a lot of electronic music gear, including a few keyboards and synthesizers. This group rocked out as well with some semi-experimental electronic music punctuated by some vocals. It avoided the pratfalls of some other electronic "music" though by managing a semblance of a beat every now and then. Was definitely shaking my head along with it.

The third group was another one with Clemens, this time he was onstage with his guitar with a pretty decent-sized band. They also rocked out, forming some pretty interesting and occasionally too loud compositions. There wasn't a lot of vocals, which I would've liked to hear. After that, we made it back just in time for the last metro.

I'm definitely coming back to the venue though, I know Calexico will be playing in April, and I'd love to check out. It's always nice to find a venue with nary a loud american in sight.

For reference, the club, which is called La Fleche d'Or, is on 102 Rue Batignole, just east of the intersection with Rue Pyrenee on the southeast tip, easily accessible from the two (if you're brave) or the three. You can easily see it from the intersection. It seems like they have a pretty solid schedule of local french and bigger acts all the time. The scene was great, lots of civil-war era beards, levis, converses and general hipsterness.