GASCONY
VALUES
The Inspector Cluzo share the Gascony values of
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Friday
We're leaving Minneapolis to Chicago, and we stop in Hudson, Wisconsin!
It's a long road to Chicago and we arrive at Reggie's Club quite late. There, we met two people from our hometown Mont-de-Marsan, the Deyts family, who were expecting us! Finaly, peope with a normal accent! We had a chat about food in our dialect : e be que pa boun aqo du tout! Pa plan du tout prou minya ! We agree about that : the american food is not good at all.
We
play with two local bands and a tribute band to Guns N'Roses : some guys
dressed like Axl Rose, ,Izzy Stardlin, Slash, Duff McKagan and Steven Adler,
who are only playing songs from Appetite for Destruction!
Great
show, the audience of Chicago is really hot… you can feel you're in
the city of Chicago Blues, the home of Muddy Waters and the big Buddy Guy
! You have to send some guitar solos over here, and play with the balls.
The audience is quite crazy, and you can feel, as in Glasgow or in Hamburg,
that it's a true city of rock. Not just some elitist guys, but a joyful
mix of people listening undergound music, chicks and cougars, students,
truck drivers and business men… when the night come, everybody goes
to to the club, crashing them ears with some high-volume blues-rock guitars!
The guys from the club and the whole team congratulate us, they want us
back in town next year… and we will! Every night, what a fight! Every
night, we have to convince people who really know about rock music and saw
the best of it. It's hard, but quite enjoyable. So we're learning, we close
our mouth and we play pure rock'n'roll (well, we can't help saying some
French jokes). But it's so cool to play a riff and to hear a big "yeaaaah"
from a babe in suits and high heels! Chicago, we love you, you really have
balls, and we will be back here, for sure!
Oh,
and you have to know that we have definitely lost the beret of grandpa Duboscq
and our rugby ball in this club…
Saturday
Tonight, we play in Columbus, Ohio. Everyone is dress in skeleton or in
witch… oh, yeah, it's Halloween! They are all going to see the American
football game (that's the end of the universities championship), it's quite
incredible, they are like 100.000 people supporting the Ohio College Team!
The venue is beautiful, hosted by a German and a Scottish, who are very happy to discuss with Europeans. You can feel how Europe has become a real entity, among people at least, even if it's still not a real political union. Whether you are Scottish, German of French, we share passions, stories, traditions…. And you can feel like a great "European solidarity", actually. Very good show with nice people, and probably the best meal of the tour, because they buy their food with the Amish. This community still rejects modernity, drive old carriages. They are dressed old-fashion and they produce their own milks and eggs… therefore, they have the best food of the United States, and they sell their products to Americans who want to eat good and pesticide-free food. This is full of meaning regarding the alleged advances of our world. 200 years later, it's the Amish who have the best land and the better food, and the people of the "modern world" pay a lot of money for buying them some. Beautiful tale about philosophical themes of money and progress.
Andreas, thank you for you hospitality!
Sunday
We go to Nashville, across the famous state of Kentucky! Well, it's like
in the movies or in Justified : hilly, full of farms, with a lot of rusty
and orange oaks. The fashion here is the hunter's cap, the fisher's jacket
and the green pants. Very pretty. Not to mention the bow and the arrows
behind the truck, because here, we hunt with bows, yeah!
We stop to eat in Verona, where a grandmother make us a real Kentucky fried chicken, with real potatoes and beans, super good. Savannah, we'll be back!
We hit the road again, crossing Louisville and the bridges over the Mississippi. Here comes Nashville, Tennessee!
We're very excited to be there. After Chicago, this is another temple of
music! We'll play in a room called the Exit/In, a legendary place with scary
names on the walls, from the Red Hot to King's X, from BB King to Etta James
or Rory Gallagher… plus, of course, The Dynamites, the band of our
friend Bill, who's waiting for us !
We make a quick sound-check with the guy who does everything here, the welcoming, the sound, the patch for the three bands. It's really different in France, in the subsidized venues, they need to be at least four technicians by night or "it's not easy to do the job". The sound is perfect, and we feel, as in Chicago, that we're surrounded by real music professionals.
In
Nashville, it's all about the music, it's even the first industry in the
area, the one that creates the more employment. There is a street where
all the houses are booking agencies, record labels, publishers, recording
studios… it's huge. All good musicians come to live here for the 100%
music atmosphere. The Black Keys or The White Stripes live here, among other
less-known musicians, but they are equal when they are on stage. Some of
them work well, but it doesn't mean that you're better than the others.
That's what think some people and rock critics, but it's wrong: there are
only good musicians, and some of them have their glorious instant. This
is the game of fashions, and the audience will decide at the end, but even
if you're totally unknown, it doesn't mean you can't be the best country
musician of the world. Here, there is no condescension between the musicians.
Jack White and Dan Auerbach (from the Black Keys) can spend their night
playing with a local rock band, a lonely country musician or a funk band
like the Dynamites. That's what we call the true spirit of music and rugby.
Bill from the Dynamites is friend with Steve Gorman, the drummer of The
Black Crowes, who is living two streets away. So we meet him! We're huge
fans of the Crowes and we're impressed, especially since Steve has a very
good French.
Big show in the evening, great sound and a great band playing with us, the Blackfoot Gypsies, you have to listen to them, it's awesome. Every night, we play with fucking good band that would kill any of high-level French band. Every night, TIC must be better, and it's very instructive! !
Bill
has a 24-tracks recorder, and he has built his own recording studio at home,
like all the musicians of his neighbourhood. In the same street, a big booking
agent, who gives us his professional card: everyone here works in the music,
really. Note that our amp cut off at the end of the show… big stress
for us, but not for them: the guy who is used to repair Jack White's amp
live just here. We go to see him : easy one.
Monday
It's Halloween. We're announced at a secret show organised in a house by
a fan we met at the show, he wants us to play at his Halloween after party.
The basement is incredible, Metallica did a secret show here and they had
so much fun that they have released it! Imagine a kind of super fitted cellar
where you can put a hundred people. Here, we want to play everywhere with
everyone, because it smells true music, without fashion or compartments.
When we'll go back in Europe, we will be more condescending towards the
"fashion" music press : they have never understood what real music
spirit is, and actually, they don't know anything about it.
Finally, we can't make the evening secret show, because the amp must remain
connected for 24 hours, and start already to buzz. So, we'll do Halloween
party with Bill's children!
Trick or treat! It's amazing to see all these people in the streets, pumpkins everywhere, beautiful houses, and everyone waiting outside the house to give candies to disguised children. Even George, Bill's stepfather, is disguise as a Rastafarian. It's great to see the Yanks dropping the mask and letting go in this festive spirit!
And
it's also for them a way to make new social contacts with the neighbours.
The booking agent has made a table and offer pizzas to everybody. We discuss
and he gave us his professional card (no waste of time around here). Then,
hop, we stood in line in front of each house with Bill's daughters. The
drummer of the Black Crowes is sitting outside and give candies to children.
This is really a beautiful holiday, very far away from the commercial version
we have in France. A true party for the children! We talk with Bill about
coming over here with Stephan Kraemer for recording our next LP. It's so
much our vibes here!
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