For the 23rd Parisian Fête de la Musique, I decided to go on a magical-mystery, around-the-world musical tour. First up was Taiwan with the “Legends of the Mountain”, aboriginal music and dance. The Centre Culturel de Taïwan was perfect for the occasion, with great acoustics in a lovely open courtyard. The musicians were all students dressed up in traditional garb (quite similar to the Spanish matadors, I thought) playing the traditional bamboo percussion instruments. The only disappointment was the lack of the promised “nasal tube traditional instrument” but all in all was vibrant and entrancing music.
Next stop was the garden of the Foreign Affairs ministry. The concert was MC’d by the French international radio presenter (RFI), Claudy Siar. First up was India, with the dancer Raghunath Manet; he offered a masculine approach to Indian dance, which is rarely exposed. Then onto the African continent with the group Macase, who offered a selection of songs that mixed traditional Cameroon tales of tribal disagreements with jazz and guitar music. The sound system was not great, so when we could not hear much, we were entranced by the one female singer’s fantastically muscled thighs! The group I was looking forward to most was Mangu, a mixture of American latino hip hop and Dominican Republic meringue sounds. However, despite the dancy beats, the singer was more gangster hip hop than Latin American and the whole thing lacked spice.
We left before the last band and went on to find the “Silent Disco,” the concept of which is to give a set of headphones to all participants and to mix live, so that only those with headphones would hear anything. This I fancied but was disappointed to come upon a very loud brass band rather than a silent disco.
We managed to cram in to the metro to go up to Gare de Lyon for a steel drum band concert. However, the heavens had opened and the concert was nowhere to be seen; does steel rust? No matter, we carried along the quai de la Rapée to see what we could find. That turned out to be the more “underground” side of the Fête de la Musique—a line of tents, each offering a selection of your best old school speed garage, hardcore happy house and techno. Not my cup of tea.
Instead, we decided to go to our regular stomping ground, the Châtelet and Saint Denis area. Now, if you could not be bothered to go to specific concerts, Châtelet, with its numerous pubs and bars, had a big variety of live music on offer. The Cruiscin Lan, a tiny Irish pub on Rue des Halles, had their regular live group singing a selection of funk and soul songs (with a bit of Shakira thrown in); at Place Saint Opportune it was thrash metal; on the Place du Châtelet there was an Amerindian Sioux dancing singing band. Further up the Rue Saint Denis, just before the Frog and Rosbif pub, the 2nd arrondissement had taken over the street with some “Rocktherapy,” an excellent rock-and-roll bonanza for the parents. In front of the Panache and Frog and Rosbif was an interesting French hip hop band that generated a lot of shouting but not too much sound.
To finish off the night, we danced to some old-school techno in front of the Lézard Café in the 2nd. A collection of Louis Vuiton and Von Dutch caps were sported, the tans could not have been real, given the weather we have been having, and generally it was a bit of a show. All the beautiful (young and old) Diesel-wearing folks were there with their Smirnoff Ices and cigarettes in hand. The atmosphere was buzzing and there was a real free party feel in the air.
I didn’t get home too late; things seem to become more drunken than musical by about one in the morning. This year seems to have been better organised with more musical selections than previous years. Let’s see what June 21st next year holds in store.
For the 23rd Parisian Fête de la Musique, I decided to go on a magical-mystery, around-the-world musical tour. First up was Taiwan with the “Legends of the Mountain”, aboriginal music and dance. The Centre Culturel de Taïwan was perfect for the occasion, with great acoustics in a lovely open courtyard. The musicians were all students dressed up in traditional garb (quite similar to the Spanish matadors, I thought) playing the traditional bamboo percussion instruments. The only disappointment was the lack of the promised “nasal tube traditional instrument” but all in all was vibrant and entrancing music.
Next stop was the garden of the Foreign Affairs ministry. The concert was MC’d by the French international radio presenter (RFI), Claudy Siar. First up was India, with the dancer Raghunath Manet; he offered a masculine approach to Indian dance, which is rarely exposed. Then onto the African continent with the group Macase, who offered a selection of songs that mixed traditional Cameroon tales of tribal disagreements with jazz and guitar music. The sound system was not great, so when we could not hear much, we were entranced by the one female singer’s fantastically muscled thighs! The group I was looking forward to most was Mangu, a mixture of American latino hip hop and Dominican Republic meringue sounds. However, despite the dancy beats, the singer was more gangster hip hop than Latin American and the whole thing lacked spice.
We left before the last band and went on to find the “Silent Disco,” the concept of which is to give a set of headphones to all participants and to mix live, so that only those with headphones would hear anything. This I fancied but was disappointed to come upon a very loud brass band rather than a silent disco.
We managed to cram in to the metro to go up to Gare de Lyon for a steel drum band concert. However, the heavens had opened and the concert was nowhere to be seen; does steel rust? No matter, we carried along the quai de la Rapée to see what we could find. That turned out to be the more “underground” side of the Fête de la Musique—a line of tents, each offering a selection of your best old school speed garage, hardcore happy house and techno. Not my cup of tea.
Instead, we decided to go to our regular stomping ground, the Châtelet and Saint Denis area. Now, if you could not be bothered to go to specific concerts, Châtelet, with its numerous pubs and bars, had a big variety of live music on offer. The Cruiscin Lan, a tiny Irish pub on Rue des Halles, had their regular live group singing a selection of funk and soul songs (with a bit of Shakira thrown in); at Place Saint Opportune it was thrash metal; on the Place du Châtelet there was an Amerindian Sioux dancing singing band. Further up the Rue Saint Denis, just before the Frog and Rosbif pub, the 2nd arrondissement had taken over the street with some “Rocktherapy,” an excellent rock-and-roll bonanza for the parents. In front of the Panache and Frog and Rosbif was an interesting French hip hop band that generated a lot of shouting but not too much sound.
To finish off the night, we danced to some old-school techno in front of the Lézard Café in the 2nd. A collection of Louis Vuiton and Von Dutch caps were sported, the tans could not have been real, given the weather we have been having, and generally it was a bit of a show. All the beautiful (young and old) Diesel-wearing folks were there with their Smirnoff Ices and cigarettes in hand. The atmosphere was buzzing and there was a real free party feel in the air.
I didn’t get home too late; things seem to become more drunken than musical by about one in the morning. This year seems to have been better organised with more musical selections than previous years. Let’s see what June 21st next year holds in store.
