There are some nights in Los Angeles when you would want to be at ten places at the same time, like this last Saturday: Eagle Rock was having its music festival with a ton of bands, Hollywood forever cemetery its annual Johnny Ramone tribute, Fidlar was doing a concert somewhere on a Pep Boys Parking lot, Manhattan Murder Mystery was at the Smell, Portugal.The Man was playing at Avalon, DeVotchKa was opening for Elbow at the Greek,…. And there was Revolver at the Satellite.
The French trio is just starting its North America ‘Voulez-Vous Tour’ with another French band, Chateau Marmont, and they have already done a few concerts in Vancouver, Seattle, Portland and San Francisco.
I saw them a little while ago at Amoeba, and really liked their ‘pop de chambre’ performed with a cello and two guitars, but especially filled by their three-voice harmonies. They are obviously not hiding it (i.e. their band name, and they sing in English), their main influences are English and American bands, from The Beatles and the Kinks, to the Velvet underground and have admitted during a French interview that Elliott Smith was their American elder brother,… so how could I resist? They are classically trained and you can certainly hear it in their close-to-perfection melancholic pop pieces.
Here is the rest of their tour:
oct.03 – San Diego, CA, The Casbah
oct.04 – Phoenix, AZ, Rhythm Room
oct.05 – Albuquerque, NM, Launchpad
oct.06 – Dallas, TX, Prophet Bar
oct.07 – Austin, TX, Mohawk
oct.08 – Houston, TX, Fitzgerald's
oct.10 – Atlanta, GA, The Earl
oct.11 – Nashville, TN, 3rd & Lindsley
oct.12 – St. Louis, MO, Firebird
oct.13 – Chicago, IL, Schubas
oct.14 – Cleveland, OH, Grog Shop
oct.15 – Pittsburgh, PA, Smiling Moose
oct.16 – Toronto, ON, TBA
oct.17 – Montreal, QC, La Sala Rossa
oct.18 – Boston, MA, TT The Bears
oct.19 – New York, NY, CMJ
oct.20 – New York, NY, CMJ
oct.21 – New York, NY, CMJ
oct.22 – New York, NY, CMJ
They are currently playing this cover of M.Ward song’s ‘Chinese Translation’ in concert, filmed here in their room at City Centre Motor Hotel in Vancouver