Friday 25th July @ Abracadabar, Paris
In the morning we went to the Pantheon to check out the JR exhibition (having read about it in the Eurostar magazine) and then went for lunch at the Institute De Monde Arabe, which is in the same area of town. The view from the rooftop of the Institute is amazing!
Rooftop view of Paris
Feeling excited about the show tonight, we went back to the apartment to collect the instruments and then made our way to AbracadaBar. We met AsOne outside and instantly knew we were all going to get on well. They are a 6-piece band (2 guitar, bass, drums, keys & vocals) and arrived with a van full of equipment. We decided they would play 1st as the other act that was meant to be supporting us this evening pulled out at the last minute (the guitarist is in Greece apparently). Like many venues in Paris, AbracadaBar has a limiter so I was a little worried that this space might be a little too small for them, but the sound engineer was great & everyone sounded amazing! I really love their ‘trip-hop’ sound! They have a classic, dirty sounding stomp (helped by the synths / keys), an amazing bass player, a drummer that used to be a Drum ‘n’ Bass DJ and a vocalist who oozes Jazz. Both guitarists played between lead & rhythm and there was even a bit of instrument swapping going on. To top it all off they have a friend (Robert) who records all the spoken word sample parts for them, which are so good I thought they were film samples when listening online.
AsOne at AbracadaBar
There set was great! Each member of the band is strong & confident within their role and together the chemistry is obvious. I’m so glad we discovered them and hopefully we’ll be able to arrange some shows together in the UK soon.
We received a great response from the audience and again were signing CDs at the end of the night. Amongst the crowd we met a fellow Scot (who was on holiday from Kuala Lumpur) with a bunch of his friends and a few locals who all seemed keen to see us playing again. Perhaps Kuala Lumpur is a little far for us to go, but we’ll definitely be back in Paris again soon.
We stayed for a few hours after the concert chatting with AsOne & our new friends / fans as the Metro runs til 2am, so no need to rush off. Along with all the compliments we received, I also managed to attract a red rose & a hat by the end of the evening and only had one minor (major) drama RE: a lost iPod which turned out to just be a ‘Carrie’ moment and we went home feeling very pleased with ourselves.
gifts from fans
NEXT SHOW
Summer Tour 2014: Gig 7 Saturday 26th July @ Au Chat Noir (Paris)
sacrenoir 