Monday, October 04, 2004

Bizarre Double Bill

Saturday night found us at the Cultural Center in La Chapelle St Luc (another suburb of Troyes) enjoying a couple of very good musical acts, though very very different indeed.

The first half was a little vocal jazz trio, accompanied by a guy on double bass with the obligatory beret. The girls dressed identically in black strapless tops, short black skirts and black stilettoes and moved around the stage in coordinated patterns while they sang. While their dancing left something to be desired, they sang extremely well. Jazz cords are possibly the hardest style to sing well, and they nailed it. It was mostly old french tunes sped up to a jazz beat (the guy on the double bass was amazing as well) with the occassional english tune thrown in ("Wouldn't It Be Loverley" came out of absolutely nowhere).

After a 15 minute intermission, we welcomed to the stage a Moroccan percussion group (told ya they were different!). These guys were on fire; they had us clapping and singing along and I could tell the french audience was straining in their seats. Some teenagers were standing in the back swaying around and I was doing quite a bit of chair dancing myself. The band was full of so much energy, one guy, after an inspired bit of interpretive dance, actually passed out. He was carried off by his compatriots and the beat never stopped, as if this happened all the time. It was so exciting and invigorating that it took us ages to go to sleep that night; at the bar and on the way home we kept imitiating the drum players and falling all over ourselves. But you know, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

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