Day 15: Paris
Nau mai
Yesterday we played in Paris, France.
It was a better day. Before we hopped in the van I had a hotel breakfast of buttered brown bread, and a biscotte with marmalade.
Teddy had driven to Brussels and back the previous evening and thanks to his efforts we had an intact van and a new rental backline, as well as a couple of rented instruments. The middle of the day was filled by the drive south to Paris, mostly on the smooth, straight highways that soar through France’s countryside, but finishing with a nice hour of wading through the Paris traffic that welcomed us into the city.
We arrived at Trabendo, a venue set in the arts complex that is scattered through the green, leafy acres of La Vilette Park. The sun was out but there was a cool breeze that brought the afternoon to a very comfortable temperature as we heaved everything from the van and began to roll our cases across the parking space. Inside we found a brightly painted interior, wide and low and acoustically treated, a purpose built space for hearing and watching live music. The floor of the audience area gradually stepped its way up towards the back wall and great viewing angles could be found from any point in the room.
There was a lot to do before the show. Tristan tuned the new drums he had been issued while Liz and Jon experimented with various guitars. I tried out my new rented bass, a replica of the Ibanez but with the addition of an E string extender that would enable a rapid transition in and out of drop D.
After soundcheck we were feeling good. While there were elements of detail that would be missing from the set we could put together a show that would be close to what we had been delivering.
Paris was extremely charming yesterday evening. Jon and I enjoyed a walk through the park after dinner and found an intricate network of paths and walkways, as well as a very fine system of canals. We saw many mysterious red buildings that were inscrutable as to their purpose, and we saw the great silver orb that is called La Géode, that serves to reflect the sky and house an iMax movie theatre.
The show was delightful. This was an expert crowd of hecklers and many of the comments and observations we made were met with a joyful derision. They were also warm and appreciative, and we felt welcomed by this enthusiastic Parisian audience.