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That Friday (October 11th), the author had planned to stay home the next evening since she had to get up early on the Sunday morning to catch a train for Paris at 9:30am. Going out late that day wouldn't be reasonable, she thought. But on the Friday evening, she went to a concert: 3 Punk bands making a hell of a noise in a tiny bar, one band being particularly interesting by the way : Binaire, a duo with guitars and a computer, from Marseille. And there, while chitchatting in between 2 sets, she was told that the next evening show at Le Brise Glace (not another tiny bar: "ze" nice concert room in Annecy) would be a very special one. The "We got cactus tour" was coming to town : several bands from Tucson, Arizona, in Annecy. Such an event doesn't happen quite often, even though 4 American (mostly anti-folk) bands/artists had just played there all together 2 weeks before, and Herman Düne and Julie Doiron had been there on the Thursday… Anyway, it was not so much the amount of American bands that was a special event : it was more precisely the presence of Bob Log III since what he does is something you wouldn't imagine possible, and it's really something to see, she was told. So, not caring about how tired she'd be the next morning (or about how tired she already was), she went to see Bob Log and was definitely not disappointed. Le Brise Glace sits by the lake (Tucson got cactus, Annecy got a lake and mountains and Old Quarters and loads of tourists) and besides other nice things for music freaks and musicians, it has a rather large (to Annecy proportions) show room that can welcome 400 people. It looks a bit like half a theatre: a stage instead of a screen, a large open space before it for those who want to get close to the musicians or just get some action and several rows of sits on top of it for those who'd rather be just comfortable. The evening started with Al Perry and to be totally honest, when you're sitting tired in a comfortable armchair, listening to Al Perry is quite risky : soft mellow country music makes quite good lullabies. It was The Solace Bros. who rescued the author from falling asleep. A great cure to sleepiness! A very electric guitar, drums and a keyboard for some indie/pop rock sort of stuff… An energetic music with a sense of humour. This trio kind of sounds like Schwervon! (garage rock duo from New-York) with one third of Capush added to it. Capush is a local band here in Annecy. The also have a Dan who plays with a keyboard (and other things) and brings quite the same sort of funniness to the band's product, only weirder. Then it was Al Foul's turn to play and… Well… Didn't he grow up listening to just a little bit too much Elvis Presley (and how can he still play after so many drinks? Hum…)? He's probably very appreciated by all Elvis' nostalgic fans who want to get something better than just covers by imitators. Then Bebe and Serge. That was weird. That was extremely eccentric and strange. Those guys grab the American soap operas/musicals culture, squeeze it ruthlessly, shake it and make a big crazy joke out of it. Then, Bob Log III landed. His really tight outfit makes him look like a space man coming straight out of an old 50/60/70's SF movie. You know, those movies with stupid monsters and stupid special effects and stupid aliens and stupid dialogues ad stupid actors. And his helmet makes him look like a giant fly too. He's a one man band. He plays the drums with his feet and the guitar with his hands. He has a mike in his helmet so he can sing as well but all you get to hear is a very distorted voice (you have to search the net to learn what he talks about and then, you may start thinking (especially when you're a girl) it's better not to get the lyrics when he sings, better not for you but for his own sake). He doesn't only look exceptional, for a musician, he sounds quite exceptionally good too, great sort of "punk blues", says his We Got Cactus Tour page. And that guy is so full of energy it's a wonder how he can stay on his sit during his whole set without taking off before the end of it. At some point, he asked for 2 girls to come sit on his laps during a song and well, he got just what he deserved: 2 lovely volunteers with pink tank tops and lots of hairs. Cheers! Then, The Coin… Well, it was really getting too late for someone who has a train to catch on the next morning, sorry. But, however late she got home, the next morning, just out of curiosity, the author managed to find time to get online and check the Solace Bros. website, just in case they'd be in Paris at the same time as her. She didn't check Bob Log's website, nope, since he only cares for sweeties with pink tank tops and lots of hairs. And here they were: The solace Bros in Paris on the next Wednesday! And this is how the author went to see them play once more (paying a bit more than the Saturday to see 3 times less bands… Well, the author knows when to make sacrifices), which was a good thing since they did something they hadn't done in Annecy: a very special acoustic intro, just before the stage. 2 ukuleles (?) and a piece of drums. A very special sweet funny moment, like rockers playing for they're grandmas at tea time. The drummer of the French Cowboy filmed it all… Those guys are very fond of videos: all the shows of this tour have videos of Tucson in the background so you can see how it looks while listening to how it sounds. So, yes, The French Cowboy, ex-Little Rabbits played too, which was a good thing since the author had never heard of them. The singer, after an hilarious video-intro (go ask him to tell you that joke about Toto playing with poo) explained they'd started rehearsing only 4 days before and that's why they had all their songs on paper before them. It's quite amazing how much their music sounds American. A sort of epic, a bit dark sort of folk rock, quite beautiful. It seems they've spent a lot of time in Tucson. What's so special about Tucson, anyway? There must be something. Whatever it is, it makes one feel like going and checking it out. The author stayed until the end that evening: until the end of the Solace Bros' "proper" rock set and that was quite heroic, staying til the end that is, at about midnight, since she had a 45 minutes trip to the apartment she was staying at and since at 7:30 the next morning, that apartment was to be emptied of every single thing it contained, furniture and all, with her help, and that was what she had come to Paris for : packing and packing and packing lots of stuff. And now she should be unpacking and unpacking and unpacking lots of stuff and she's writing concerts chronicles instead. That's really not reasonable. Side note: the advice to go and see Bob Log came from Annecy local one man band, Angelo Spencer, who'll be playing 3 shows in Israel this month (November 2005). He'll open for Kimya Dawson. - The We got Cactus Tour got an article in Libération, a French national newspaper (so it's in French). - An interview of The French Cowboy's drummer, in French too, about the We Got Cactus Tour & Tucson : « Là-bas, les clubs sont réunis sur un périmètre tellement réduit que tu peux quasiment te faire 5 concerts dans la soirée ! En plus, tout le monde joue avec tout le monde. Il n’y a pas de stars. Si tu restes, ne serait-ce qu’une semaine, tu verras forcément Calexico ou Bob Log III. Tu peux même voir Howe Gelb jouer du piano au fond d’un resto ! ». |