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So after the tour Liam went home, and on Monday I met up with Meg and Marieke to hang out. After some baguettes and tarts they asked me if I knew of any gigs happening, which was a great opportunity to propose finding Société de Curiosités, a venue that seems to be a vehicle for musicians to showcase new music in the forms of rehearsals, improvisations, etc. I found it through a gig listing that seemed to have good taste, with a singer-songwriter called Flop playing. It was equally interesting and intimidating… the location was relatively secret (you had to email for the address), and those who attend pay 5 euro to become a member, which I believe is permanent. I probably wasn’t going to go alone, but with some friends who were also keen it sounded like a great idea – a chance to see some emerging local music, and what I read on the website (via Google Translate) reminded me a lot of the warehouse spaces in Sydney.
So we got the address and headed along, and it could’ve been awkward… there were only a few people when we got there, and the most it swelled to around performance time was about 15-20 people. But instead it was wonderful! We had some wine, and watched Flop perform a set of compositions that he had written for street performance. It was really interesting music, tailored well to the art of busking… chant-like and percussion driven with minimal instruments such as a mini drum kit, tamborine and saxophone. He also translated parts of his songs to English us, which while making us particularly conspicuous in a small room of French music geeks, was really nice of him and helped us greatly.
After the show we got talking to some of the folks there, one of them being Etienne who had played the sax for Flop. He was such a nice guy, and after a while talking about music and Paris he invited us to visit him in his studio the next day to hang out.
So we went the next day, to a fantastic complex called Point Ephemere. The place is amazing, and i’d love to see it in Sydney – On the edge of the water, it is a biggish building that has a live venue (i was so jealous to see that The Pastels and The Tenniscoats are double-headlining soon), a bar, dance studios, art displays and more. After a drink at the bar, we checked out Etienne’s studio where he showed us his array of vintage synths, and played us some of his (really good) music and some of his favourite French music from throughout the years. It was great to see this whole side of the musical spectrum that I’ve never seen, and Etienne was so much fun to hang out with… it’s one of my favourite times of this trip so far. We left as the sun started going down, and finished the night with some chinese cusine (the dumplings were unreal!).
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Adventures and Dinosaurs 