I'm going to let you guys in on a little secret about me. I am a psychedelic/progressive/garage rock/vintage music nerd. In layman's terms, I love most music made in the 60's along the lines of The Zombies, The Yardbirds, The Castaways and Lou Christie. Well, I thought that the cheese stood alone on this one, especially in Paris, until I met May who has the same a fondness for mini skirts, 'daddy' Dutronc, liquid eyeliner and vinyl. Chouette!
Nothing stopped me short from being excited when May messaged me last week to let me know that 60's electronic band who were light years ahead of their time, Silver Apples were coming to Paris!
The plan was set on this chilly October night, it was Séb, myself, May and her new man, Ben whom she had also met on the French dating site that I had met Séb. Running through the motley crew in my head, it hit me, we were going on a double online date! Ah! Trop mimi! "Stop reminding me, please!!" May pleaded at the obvious cheese factor that we imagined would be curdling over the night. She doesn't realize it but we are success stories and we could be a commercial for the 30-something set trying to find companion on-line. Can't you just see it? No? Yeah, me neither. The truth is marketing would water down the pureness and obscurity of our date where we'd be at a brasserie in the 7th and Séb and Ben would be all wearing black and scarves, chain smoking and saying sleazy things in French where May and I would have highlights, wearing lip gloss and giggling.
The show was at an arts center in Boulogne-Billancourt and to say the crowd was eccentric would be like saying learning French is tricky, an understatement at best. "Where are all these people during the day?" Séb asked when he saw a man in his 60's with short hair except for about 10 strands that were tucked behind his ears and reached his mid-back standing with another man wearing jeans, an old sweatshirt with grey hair twisted up in the most impressive chignon I have seen since last year's Golden Globes red carpet.
We found Ben and May who had the same giddy look of shock on their faces at our surroundings and we walked into what looked like a high school auditorium and took our seats to watch the opening electronic band Zombi. The music was excellent but there was nothing interesting to watch and we couldn't bring our cocktails inside (for real), so the four of us sat in our cushioned seats and watched two guys play around with synthesizers and theremins on a bare stage with its makeshift 'light show' of strands of icicle Christmas lights hanging from a rafter and only twinkling when the music reached intense heights. None of us could help but grimace at the 'spectacular' before our eyes. If we were all teenagers, we would totally be making out, but now being in our 30's we can and/or have to control ourselves. Unfortunately.
May and I couldn't take it and had to sneak away to get a drink at the snack bar that only offered hotdogs and champagne or coke. I fucking love Paris. Before downing our last glass that we were drinking like little girls trying to get drunk, the boys came out to let us know that Silver Apples was going to come out soon and had found us better seats. Silver Apples, a duo from New York City whose 1968 album cover fashions young men with big hair and bangs wearing patterned tops posing in a spaceship. To now, the single living member, Simeon who is well in his 70's was wearing a purple turtleneck with ruched detailing on the sleeves, glasses and was managing his vintage keyboards and equipment as if no time had passed since the release of the classic 'Contact'. He played a fantastic set and I'm glad I got to see this performance. Back when I found the record in my father's house, I never thought I'd actually see it performed live making it a special performance for me.
To add to the festivities, there were groupies who they themselves looked like they had gotten off a spaceship coming from the year 1965 were dancing on the both sides of the stage with their bangs and maxi dresses. One woman took it to the next level and was head banging while ferociously beating a speaker on the stage with her left hand, a large drunk man who kept shouting appreciations in English while the rest of the dancers looked like extras in a party scene on Beavis and Butthead. It was amazing.
Our boyfriends deserve gold stars for taking us out on one of the most eclectic nights I had experienced in Paris. I couldn't help but think what this night would have been like if I was still with Monsieur Flâneur. For starters, he wouldn't have never come and if he did, we'd be 3 hours late, he'd be chain smoking outside and complaining like a little bitch the entire time. Séb and Ben on the other hand, just looked at each other and their happy little American girlfriends who were enjoying themselves, laughing at how off-beat this double date was, shrugged their shoulders and said ' Ça va, Elles sont heureuses!' Indeed, we were very heureuses.
