Fuck The Bass Player - TIC in Atlanta

FRENCH BASTARDS U.S TOUR
EPISODE 4 : ROCK IN ATLANTA, THIS IS NOT FOR CHILDREN
Date : Nov.2011
Location : U.S.A
Mode : Bastards

Before our week off, we’ve played a last show in Atlanta, in that place that Americans call “the south”: from Nashville to New Orleans via Atlanta. This was the last show of the first part of the tour, and then time was for relaxing and working on the new album, booking the next French tour. The tour is already booked, we’ll announce the 16 new shows when we are back in Europe, only two more confirmation are missing. We decided a long time ago not to play during a week in the middle of our U.S tour, because we knew that we would have a lot of work to do. That’s the other side of the moon, when you decide to take care of your business, you have to work a lot. Many festivals are confirmed for the next summer too, including one of the biggest. We can’t say anything for now, but just a clue, we’ll play with our absolute idols!

For now, we go to Atlanta, Georgia. Nothing to do in town. All American cities are really boring, it’s just always the same shopping places, big malls… after crossing such beautiful landscapes, you’re always disappointed when you arrive in town.

The show is huge! The Star Bar in Atlanta is just a crazy place. Here you can feel the culture of “southern rock music”. A lot of people at the show and a warm welcome, girls with tattoos and high heels who shout “yeaaaaah” after each guitar solo, and crazy music stuff between the shows! You can feel the difference between north and south of the United States, people are much more expansive over here.

We play with a band from San Francisco called Tornado Rider. They’re all crazy, dressed like Robin Hood, the singer also plays an electric cello as if it was an electric guitar and they sing about an imaginary world. They’ve been probably procreated under acid by their parents in the 60’s. Musically, it’s a mix between Les Claypool and Dead Weights, it’s just excellent! We sympathize with them and we appreciate each other, so I guess we’ll stay in touch. We’ve met every night a lot of great bands, always with a big level. Any band from here is better than any of the biggest French bands you can hear on the French radios. We don’t think about any band in particular, it’s just a general thought: the level is higher here, that’s all. We’re trying to learn every night and to give our best for increasing our level…

But if you’re a pop band from Belgium, with strange haircuts, tight jeans and pointy shoes : don’t come here to play, it’s not for you. If you’re trained by Paul-Henri Wauters from the Botanique, you’re supposed to be condescending, nasty and to only imitate brit-pop bands : don’t come over here, it could be very dangerous for you. We feel that here, it’s like between southeast and southwest rugby teams in France : they can’t understand each other, and at the end (not always), they’re slapping each other. As the bands from Belgium are not known for the quality of their slaps, it’s better if they don’t come here. Here, there is no place for fake, you have to be authentic. We try to imagine a Belgium pop band playing at the Star Bar in Atlanta, or wherever in the southern United States in general… and we laugh a lot.

Here, there is not such thing as a “DJ”. Of course, they play some songs between the shows. Often, the producer does it, just for fun, following the atmosphere of the night, without self-proclaiming himself s a “DJ”. They don’t say that they're DJ's only because they have good taste… what does it mean to have good taste, anyway? Their musical culture is huge, so it’s just good things… that night, we’ve heard AC / DC, Buddy Guy, Albert Collins, Curtis Mayfield, James Brown, Johnny Cash, some unknown folk songwriters, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and a lot of amazing local brass-bands. Great! It’s funny how Americans can be in love with country, blues, heavy and death metal in the same time. They’re music lovers, they love truly the music, without any fashion, without any competition between the bands. Long life to music, long life to people and long life to our differences!

In 50 years, it’s going to be shitty… we’ll all speak that “international business language”, we’ll go to the exactly same hotels with plasma screens, whether you are in Barcelona, in Berlin or in Shanghai. That time, we’ll be glad to talk our old dialect : French.

Backstage of the Star Bar: not exactly the same than at “la Cartonnerie”, in Reims

After the show, the same backstage, but conscientiously cleaned by the “Cartonnerie” staff