Wayback: Iron & Wine

I got on an Iron & Wine youtube kick and came across a set of videos from the show I attended in February. Looks like these were shot from the balcony. I was right in front on the floor.

Freelance Whales Fleche D'or

The problem with my blogging is if I don't write up something immediately there is a good chance that I'll forget it for a week or so. My wife and I caught the Freelance Whales and The Broken Records at Fleche D'or on February 12th.
Fleche d'or is a great venue, super small, great sound and the beer is cold. Pretty much all you could want in a venue plus it's within walking distance of my apartment.

A pretty cool band that I've completely forgotten the name of opened the show. They were a French band but they sang in English. Their English was so good that I was surprised that they were speaking French between songs. I'll try to track down the name.
The Broken Records were in the middle slot. They are a great band, so great that I thought they may have blown the Freelance Whales off the stage. They had an intense sound with a violin that added an amazing amount of texture to the music. It was one of those sounds that just roll over you in waves.
I shouldn't have worried about the Freelance Whales, they put on a kick ass show. The fact that the Freelance Whale music is so different then the Broken Records rock sound really helped. Their album sound translated really well to a live setting. They ran through every song on their album and they actually said at the end of the show that they had played every song they knew. I've said it before, shows are so much more fun when the band is having a good time on stage and the Freelance Whales were having a ball.

Concert Roundup

Lot of shows coming through Paris with more being added all the time.
Peter, Bjorn and John - March 2nd
Reel Big Fish - March 6th
Amos Lee - March 11th
The Black Keys - March 15th
KT Tunstall - March 16th
Cake - March 19th
Jamiroquai - March 23rd
Matt and Kim - March 24th
The Go! Team - March 25th
Slayer - March 26th
The Twilight Singers - March 31st
Nas - April 5th
The Kills - April 6th
Belle & Sebastian - April 11th
Portugal the Man - April 13th
The Dears = April 15th
Deerhoof - April 19th
The Walkmen - May 20th
Queens of the Stoneage - May 23rd
Fleet Foxes - May 3oth
Bright Eyes - June 22nd
Iron Maiden - June 27th 28th

Iron & Wine L'Alhambra Fevrier 17

I was able to catch Iron & Wine here in Paris at l'alhambra on the seventeenth for the last date of this leg of the tour. As I've said here before I really like the new album and they played a nice selection from it including one of my favorites Tree by the River.
Sam is touring with a full on band so he didn't do many of his quieter songs although he came out alone for the encore and did Flightless Bird, American Mouth. The full band allowed him to rework some of his older material, The Sea and the Rhythm was almost unrecognizable, but in a good way, and Lions Mane sounded really good sped up and given a little funk.

Sam mentioned that this was the last show of a longer than usual tour for them and they were feeling tired but it didn't show. It seems like the best live shows are when the band is having fun and the band was having a blast. The horn player and the roadie danced almost the entire time, after his solos the horn guy would be so excited he would dance a little jig, it was great to see. Sam even did a dance during some of the jammed out sections. The Guitarist looked like Gene Ween which counts for bonus awesome points in my book.

A little bit of Boy with a Coin.
All in all it was an amazing show. Iron & Wine have been on my "must see" list for years and the wait was well worth it although now that I've had a fix I want more. They fire uo the tour once again in about a month hitting England before heading back to the states, go out and see them.

Shuffle 4 mardi 8 fevrier 2011

Drinks in fancy glasses

I got the chance to attend a universal music showcase consisting of two known signed acts and a few prospective bands. The event was pretty cool, it was in a nice venue and the drinks were free.

Aude rocking

The line up consisted of Wladimir, Housse De Racket, Marvin, Aude Henneville and Arthur Le Forestier with the headliners Fefe and Coco Royal & Jenifer.

Fefe doing his thing and doing it well.

Fefe is an established act and really stole the show. The difference in his performance and the new bands was pronounced, he owned the stage and worked the crowd very effectively. His Micheal Jackson cover drove the Jackson crazed French crazy.

Fefe had the crowd moving.

I really felt for the new acts in the showcase, they only had two songs to impress a music industry heavy audience. That's a high pressure situation, no warm up for a performance that could potentially kick start a career, so much respect for them.

Housse De Racket

That having been said, there was only one group that I really liked from the crop of newcomers, Housse De Racket(that translates to Tennis bag). They have a big indie rock sound that was pretty cool and they got up to speed within the two song limit. Some of the other bands were ok for what they were doing , singer songwriter, bluesy chick rock, another singer songwriter they just didn't quite have that undefinable something.

Jenifer wearing tight pants

Once again big thanks for my girl at universal.