October 3, 2011
Last night did mostly ironing and listening to the Chorus DVD as I prepared to go tomorrow on my two-week trip to Asia for the next step in the open mic adventure around the world. But I did do a little update on my Thumbnail Guide of Open Mics, Jam Sessions and Live Music in Paris, adding a few jazz clubs at the end of the list.
July 8, 2011
As I write these words I am in rainy England, on another racing and open mic mission. Yesterday I made the mistake of taking the Eurostar instead of an airplane, so I lost so much time in my day that I could not post anything of the concert I did the night before in Paris.
(The Eurostar was fine, but the car rental operation was a failure as I ended up spending too much time driving from London to the Midlands, where the race is – in Silverstone – and my lodgings are, in Oxford.)
The concert was great fun, as I got to play along with my favorite lead guitarist, Felix Beguin, and even sang some songs with Vanessa, including our by now standard, “Mad World.” The concert was organized for me by Calvin McEnron, who also performed, and also had Felix accompany him on two or three songs. Felix really changes the texture of things, really gives drive and movement to the songs. Love it!
Oh, yes, and the concert took place at the Green Room bar in Paris, not too far from the Bastille. It is a very cool venue, a long room with a stage at the end and a not bad sound system – although in listening to the videos made of my stuff, I wish there had been more volume on the vocals (for the videos)…. 🙁
From there, it was right off to England the next day, and what turned out to be TWO open mics. I managed to do the Catweazle Club open mic at the Oxford Community Center AND the Half Moon pub open mic down the street. That was two completely different experiences. Catweazle is one of the most amazing open mics in the world, with a massively respectful audience that sits on the floor, on chairs, couches, and standing by the bar, and you can hear the proverbial pin drop. No joking.
The acts at Catweazle are often very original as well, and the open mic is done entirely in acoustic mode. Last night there were microphones, in fact, but they were there for a sound recording that was being done of the show. I was nervous as hell because this audience is so attentive, and because it is so rare for me to play without a mic that I feel less in control and aware of what I’m doing. But I got through my two songs, “Borderline” and “Except Her Heart,” and afterwards I received several compliments. So I felt I did okay.
I then went down the street and saw the Half Moon open mic in full swing and went inside and did a duet of two songs with Vanessa, “Mad World” and “What’s Up.” The Half Moon open mic is without mics too, and before we played, I said to Vanessa, “Listen, don’t worry and don’t pay any mind but no one will listen, and they will talk and make noise throughout. So just don’t take it personally.” I really felt it could be painful for her, as it is for me in those circumstances. Boy were we surprised when everyone shut up and listened and then began to sing along and clap and encourage and demand an encore after Mad World. They went through the same thing with What’s Up. And we were in bliss.
It just showed that there is always a right song and spirit for no matter what crowd, and we left there feeling like we had had the time of our lives thanks to the crowd at the Half Moon.
PS. I just realized that this year’s activity was almost a carbon copy of last’s year’s activity in terms of the concert and Catweazle for me and … Vanessa.
PPS. Unfortunately as often happens on these missions, my internet connection is slow as hell. So I may not get many – or any – videos up until late tonight or tomorrow. Please bear with me….
June 15, 2011
I decided that for a change I would go back to Le Baroc for its open mic last night, as Tuesday in Paris there are so many choices of where to go and I almost invariably choose the P’tit Bonheur la Chance, no doubt the best open mic in town at the moment.
But I did not regret the change. First, on the metro ride to the Baroc I heard a couple of wonderful African musicians, playing some kind of African harp and singing. Then, arriving at the Baroc, the first act was an incredibly fantastic young classical guitarist who barely hit a bad note. I’ve never heard an unknown player play classical stuff this well in an open mic. I took his name and email address, but lost it! Will try to find it for future reference, but give him a listen – it reminded me a little of the Lenny Breau recordings from when Breau was 20 years old and recorded with Levon Helm and Rick Danko.
The Japanese man who calls himself “monkey guitarist” was also there. I had heard him play at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance, so he obviously chose to change too. And there were other interesting acts as well. I played four songs, and had the MC, Rejean, play drums with me, and the classical guitarist did some lead. That worked best on “Mad World” and “Borderline,” which were the only two songs in which I more or less kept the same rhythm from beginning to end. :-()
May 14, 2011
That headline sounds like a tongue twister. But I can assure you that the way David Broad plays guitar, it’s a finger-twister. This man from Leeds, England, is one of the best finger pickers I’ve seen live, and he fits firmly in the tradition of Davey Graham.
Unfortunately he will be returning to England at the end of the month after several months in Paris. Last night, though, I had a last chance to see him again and a first chance to see him in a full band situation, with a bass player, drummer and violinist. He tore the Piston Pelican bar apart.
By the end of the evening it was about people dancing around the limited floor space, and calling for an encore. A completely fabulous show and a very cool bar I had never heard of before.
March 12, 2011
I had heard about the jam session at the Duc des Lombards bar in Paris near Chatelet for some time. I had never ended up in the neighborhood on the Friday or Saturday of the jam – which starts at midnight – but last night on the suggestion of a friend with whom I’d just had a drink at the Café de la Paix, we went to check out the jam at the Duc des Lombards.
I am really glad I did. It told me two things: First, the quality was much higher than I expected, second, I would never find my place playing guitar or singing in the jam session of the Duc des Lombards. I had been told it was somewhat jazzy, and that was more than what it was. It was pure jazz. And it was fun, laid back, no cover charge great. The woman I went with told me that the last time she had gone it had not been quite the same level and it seemed just about anyone and everyone could and did go up. So maybe I just happened on a good night.
The bar, nicely and recently redesigned, has a very New York jazz bar kind of feel to it. But it was simplicity itself to walk in, find a place and listen, or talk. Sax players, trumpet players, guitarists, pianists, singers, drummers, upright bass players – all the elements were there. Even a young drunk or two in the audience of otherwise fairly respectful jazz lovers.
I highly recommend checking it out at least once.
Its location is kind of interesting too, as it is beside one of the Hideout bars and across the street from the Guinness Tavern, which I had also never been to and which we also checked out after the Duc des Lombards. But we stayed just long enough to listen to about half of a song of the rock band before we decided – mutually – to clear out. In any case, it was already 3 AM….
November 29, 2010
The weekend was SOOO busy that I have had to do a roundup, instead of a day-to-day report as usual. It started with a chess tournament at my club on Friday night, which it would be far better not to talk about. End of that report.
Saturday I had three things planned: A concert with Neimo, an open mic at an art space known as 0XII and an after show thing at Le Tigre, for the Neimo show. Now listen to this!!:
The concert with Neimo was fabulous. I first heard of Neimo while performing at Earle’s open mic for the second time two years ago. One of the regular performers at the open mic was Bruno Dallesandro, the lead singer from Neimo. Over the next year at Earle’s open mic, there would barely be a week without Bruno showing up with his friends to sing and pay their dues back to Earle and his open mic, since they had developed their act in important ways at Earle’s first bar, Le Shebeen, which had spawned all sorts of French groups.
Saturday night Neimo was the lead act at the cool venue known as La Flèche d’Or, which is a concert hall made out of an old train station. This was the first time I had seen Neimo in action as a complete band, playing their songs, electronically. And man was it cool. Even the fact that they played a vast amount of new material did not put me off – I had listened mostly to their last album, Modern Incidental, released by theShangri-La label in the United States. But the new material was really good, and I don’t know if it was just the location of the concert or seeing them for the first time live, but I felt it came across as much more of a “progressive” kind of rock than the previous stuff. I may be wrong.
In any case, Bruno was wonderfully charismatic, a little Bowie-like, including the makeup and furs…. But just take a look at some of the videos I did to see what I mean.
Next up was the 0XIII art space. I mentioned this place before on this blog, maybe even twice. What made me really desperate not to miss it on Saturday night – despite the two Neimo events – was that I learned there would be an open mic on the second floor. So I HAD to get there. I knew of no other open mics on Saturday night, and this one would go on all night. Yes, in fact, it was also announced as the last night of the 0XIII. This, I did not realize before, was because the building was in fact a squat!
Anyway, I was with a fellow Formula One journalist friend, and I told him about the 0XIII and said that I really wanted to show him the place, adding, “I guarantee you will not be let down.” I felt I had to push a little, since he was keen on going to the Tigre after party and then he was going on to another place after that. But he was very amenable to the OXIII, and he had faith in my assurance that he would not be let down.
So we took a cab over to the Rue d’Enghien from the Fleche. The cab driver got a little frustrated when two streets before our destination he found the roads all blocked up. So we got off to walk the rest of the way. We rounded the corner and found the roads blocked because there were cop cars all over the place at the end of the street of the 0XIII.
“Hmm,” I said, “I wonder if they are there for the 0XIII.”
We rounded the next corner and found that indeed, the street was blocked off by the cops and they were there for the OXIII. There were about 200 people of the squat standing out in the street drinking and talking and it sounded like a mob scene, with people bending out from the windows of the art space as well, and talking to people in the street, with loud music, and general mayhem. At least, that would be how the neighbors interpreted it. And how the cops would interpret it.
We continued to approach and I decided to stop and ask some cops what was going on.
“It’s got out of hand,” said one. “Don’t go there.”
“Thanks for telling us,” I said. “Because that is where we had intended to go.”
“Don’t,” he repeated. “In any case, it’s a squat.”
That’s when I learned that fact.
I thought I recognized some friends in the crowd in front so I did approach closer with my journalist friend. We saw it was a madhouse and impossible to get in the front door without a battle, and I said, “Anyway, there’s not going to be any open mic in that place….”
So we decided to leave and go to Le Tigre. As we walked back up the street to leave we found ourselves crossing through several armed and riot police known as CRS, and my friend noted the guns with rubber bullets. They had shields and other various anti-riot gear – including tear gas – and they were coming right at us like as if we were in a battlefield, slow, cautious pace, a march, a readiness for action.
We got through them no problem and went on our way. The next thing I heard was via a few friends on Facebook that the CRS stormed the place, threw teargas, and generally broke up the group in a rather violent manner. I checked the Internet and found that the Parisien newspaper had reported that the cops had been forced to use violence because the crowd had got violent and begun to throw things at them. The article also said that 10 people had been arrested. The raid had begun around 1:30 AM, and I think the place was cleared out by 3.
I doubted the violence by the crowd, but I later also heard that one cop started getting violent with a young woman and so some people in the crowd attacked him. There may also have been some beer cans thrown at the cops. Well, that, in any case, is the end of the OXIII on Rue d’Enghien. Too bad. I really wanted to play in that open mic, and it was a cool place. On the other hand, my promise to my friend that he would not be let down by going to the place was indeed honored….
So we went off to the Tigre and spend a couple of hours there, and it was all very cool and controlled….
On Sunday, it was time for my brunch, and at least one of my friends who had said she would see me and play some music on Sunday did not show up. As I knew that she had also intended to go to the OXIII the night before, I got worried. But it turned out to be only a sore throat. The afternoon was nice and relaxing at the Mecano for my brunch, and I had my friend James Cordoba Jr. from Colombia play a few songs. That made for a very nice change to the usual stuff – not that there really is a fixed theme on my brunch….except for fun and good music….
Oh, yeah, and finally, just to give a complete different turn to the musical weekend, I went on Sunday night after the brunch to attend a set by Sarah Savoy and the Francadians at the Corcoran pub on blvd de Clichy. This American woman from Louisiana and her at least half-American band play the coolest Cajun music you can imagine, and they live in France. I was presented to them by one of my regular listeners at the Mecano brunch. It was a real eye-opener of the kind of musical diversity Paris has to offer – thanks to Irish pubs and expats….
October 7, 2010
It suddenly occurred to me a few minutes ago that I should put up a page on this site with addresses to open mics, jams and other music venues in Paris. The idea came to me because I have over the last couple of years given such a list to people I meet in open mics in Paris when they’re looking for a place. Today I sent it to another person I met last night at The Highlander, and I thought, why not put it up on this site.
The only problem is that the list is CONSTANTLY changing. The one I have just put up is up to date as of today, however. But watch out, it DOES change fast. It is a bit of a mess in style, but the information is there and in future I will add links to this Brad’s Guide of Paris Open Mics, Jam Sessions and other Live Music Venues, when I have more time,
In the meantime, I played at the Highlander again last night, and the delightful discovery of the evening I think surely had to be David Broad, from Leeds, England. You have to listen his mixture of country, trad, ragtime and who knows what all else. I’ve put three videos in below from last night at The Highlander:
October 4, 2010
mecano bar paris
I started playing at 3 PM, and did a first set of probably 45 minutes, and then I did another set at around 5, I think. My friend Rafa Ellan came to listen to me, but I wanted other people to hear him too, because he has a very cool voice and writes some nice songs. He looks and sounds like the young Bob Dylan.
It was a fabulous atmosphere on a nice Sunday in Paris, with the front window doors of the bar open to the street, and passersby dropping in to listen to the music. I brought along my SE Electronics tube mic so I felt the set up looked little vintage, but above all the sound was great. I ran through less than half my songs, my own and cover songs, and was delighted to have a lot left over for next week, when Earle has invited me (and Rafa), to repeat the experience.
September 18, 2010
Thanks to Norman Spinrad’s generosity, I have the most enormous hangover I’ve had for years. I never usually drink enough to get a hangover, but last night at a Creole restaurant in Paris near Montparnasse where Norman Spinrad, one of the world’s greatest science fiction writers had invited me to join in to celebrate his 70th birthday, I started out on Rhum and Vanilla and soon hit the harder stuff…. I had so much fun that it was not until I got into the cab at 2 AM that I noticed my head was just spinning, and Paris was turning over on itself.
But to jump back a step before I return to Spinrad’s 70th.
I had so much to do yesterday that I did not get a chance to mention the opening of the new art space in Paris that I visited the previous night. And I will, in fact, tie together these two evenings with a musical theme, in keeping with most of what’s on this blog. My musical adventure goes not only around the world with the Formula One circus and the open mics and jams I find at each race. It also extends into my daily life in Paris. And on Thursday I could not find an open mic so I decided to attend the opening of this new art space, which I had been invited to via Facebook.
The space of the Collectif OXIII on the rue d’Enghien actually opened up at the end of July, but Thursday it held its official opening. Now, before I left I said to myself, “All right, do I bring my guitar with me?” I always like to be ready with the guitar just in case I pass a bar or other place with music where it might appear I could play.
I decided for the worst of reasons not to bring the guitar. I did not want to look pretentious, or have something encumbering me at the OXIII. I never usually care how pretentious or idiotic I look. But this time for some reason, that’s how I felt and I left without the guitar. Getting the art space, I found a fabulous building of several floors with gallery space, performance space, a room they call the world’s smallest concert hall since it fits only four audience members, and in the basement there was a music rehearsal space with a couple of guitar players playing, oh, and upstairs, more musicians played and some sat around on the floor with guitars and jammed. And I did not have my guitar!!
I would have been able to play had I brought the guitar, and I would have been in heaven. So I failed, made a bad decision. That’s life. Had a great time anyway, meeting up with some friends, members of a band called the Burnin’ Jacks, the lead guitar player of which – Félix – plays on two of the tracks on my songs on my Ephemere Recordings from July.
So how do I tie this in with Spinrad’s 70th birthday party the next night? Well, first, who cares about tying it in? The important thing was that one of the great science fiction writers turned 70 and celebrated it in Paris in a Creole restaurant. I first met Spinrad in 1997 when I wrote a story about him for the International Herald Tribune, when I was writing a lot of stuff about technology, and the American author had put up for sale on the Internet for $1 the rights to his novel, “He Walked Among Us” to the American publisher who would do the best job of publishing it.
Spinrad, to quote my own article, was “part of the “new wave” of the late 1960s when he wrote “Bug Jack Barron,” a novel that anticipated the days when presidential elections would be decided entirely by television.” We kept in touch and saw each other again and he invited me to his 60th birthday party in Paris in 2000 when he lived in the 5th Arrondissement. A very cool man, I recall that at his 60th birthday party he had invited people like his local wine story seller and probably even his butcher – although I cannot remember precisely that fact – along with publishers, writers, artists, etc.
So it was with great anticipation that I returned to his 70th birthday last night, and was not let down. This time it was in the cellar room of a Creole restaurant, and the atmosphere was wonderful. Among those who showed up were the science fiction writer Michael Moorcock and his wife Linda Moorcock, Spinrad’s editor at his French publishing house, Fayard (which, by the way, is publishing “He Walked Among Us”!), and I found out only after everyone had left that the woman sitting across the table from me at one point who looked like the French actress Josiane Balasko, was in fact, the French actress, scenarist and film director, Josiane Balasko. And of course, there were some of his friends of “the common people” as well, which included an RATP (Paris métro) repairman….
Norman Spinrad Celebrating his 70th birthday in Paris
Well, I decided that having drunk so much at that point, that I would ask the DJ if he would put on a track – Since You Left Me – from my Ephemere Recordings on the sound system. I wanted to see how well my music blended in with Bob Marley and the other pop songs that were being played. I wanted to do it without anyone knowing that it was my music, just to see how it blended in – you know, would people stop short, raise their eyebrows and go, “What the hell is this?”
In fact, the DJ decided he wanted to announce to everyone that I was the guy making the music that was piping in through the sound system, so I had to take a little bow, and then behave naturally somehow. But the great news was that people continued dancing to my music as they had to ther music, and they appeared to enjoy it immensely. But then again, I suspect that I was not the only one who had by then drunk so much that anything that was piped in would have sounded wonderful….
By the way, this is not the first time I have mentioned Spinrad on this blog, as I mentioned him just a few weeks ago when I wrote about meeting a French punk musician named Eric Debris, and it turned out that Spinrad had made a record with another writer I know and who is a friend of Debris, Maurice Dantec. And as with the Debris evening, this evening at Spinrad’s birthday was one of those where I felt several of my worlds coming together, and that provides such a feeling of satisfaction and the fullness of life, which has outweighed the pain of the hangover. Next time, of course, however, I will have to take my guitar even when in doubt – even if I did get to put my song on the sound system and have my music heard….
July 3, 2010
A crazy night last night at the Bus Palladium with Nicolas Ullmann’s well known Paris show called the Kararocké. It is just what it sounds like – more or less: A rock ‘n roll karaoke but with a live band. This reminded me very much of a crazy phenomenon in Barcelona run by an American woman named Rachel Arieff and called the Anti-Karaoké.
I plan to write more about both of these things and my night at the kararocké, where my song offering was not pulled from the hat so I never made it to the stage. But first, I want to put up a few videos about this event that I took last night, while it’s still fresh. No more time, gotta run! More later: