annie aime les sucettes...

Last week was so busy, intense, crazy and everything in between that i did not get the chance to update once! I actually have a lot to write about, because not only did i attend two great shows, Art Brut and Voxtrot (more on that later), but i was also part of an amazing night. So let's start with Le One Night Stand...

Where do i begin? I guess by saying THANK YOU to everyone who came, and everyone involved in making the show and party the best night we have had so far. Honestly, it was surreal, during the show, we had 625 people in the room!! And everyone came just to hear local bands sing cover of Serge Gainsbourg songs, how awesome is that?

All three bands did such a fantastic job playing the songs. La Laque was the first band to go and they sounded absolutely incredible. They stayed on the dark side of the Serge repertoire, which suited their pristine sound perfectly, and played a lot of my favorites that included Jane B., Ballade de Melody Nelson, Le Poinceonneur des Lilas, Requiem pour un con and a beautiful string rendition of Baby Alone in Babylon, which they opened with. Devery performed the material with a mix of sexiness and innocence that very much reminded me of a young Jane Birkin.
After La Laque finished their set, Die Romantik opened with an original song of theirs. When i booked these bands to play Gainsbourg covers, i insisted that they all played one or two of their own songs so that the audience would get the chance to discover some new music. Die Romantik is such a great band, very tight and very intense. I was so honored to be singing with such a solid group of musicians. I made my stage entrance and started with Les Sucettes. The honest truth is that i was so nervous that my face was twitching like crazy and i thought my jaw would get paralyzed at any moment during the song. Lucky for me, by the end of Les Sucettes, i felt much more relaxed and was able to go into Elisa (my favorite!) with a lot more ease. We then played La Chanson de Slogan. Die Romantik played another original called Hantise D'enfances, during which i played the tambourine. We finished the set with Quoi (Jane Birkin), and Poupee de Cire Poupee de Son (France Gall), which was so much fun to perform! Honestly, i had the best time up there, i hear i was smiling the whole time. I made a point to really enjoy myself, and i sure did. Of course, i hope i sounded ok too...
Nous Non Plus was the last band to come on, and man, did they bring the party with them! They're such great performers who have an innate ability to make everyone dance. I know they left the night with a ton of new fans. They opened with a short intro of Je t'aime, moi non plus... and went into all the fun 60's ye-ye covers: Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Shoo-ba-doo, Laisses Tomber les filles, Harley Davidson (BB), 69 annee erotique, and a few other songs that escape me right now. They came back for two non-Serge encores, i joined them on stage to sing Ca Plane Pour Moi by Plastic Bertrand, and then they ended with their amazing cover of Nena's 99 Red Balloons (in german!). Best part was that in the middle of the song, they broke into Tom Petty's American Girl, it was awesome.

After Nous Non Plus left the stage, we started deejaying our usual mix of 60's/80's french, Japanese and international pop. Hiro Ballroom was packed, people dancing everywhere. I don't think we could have expected or wanted a better show and party, it was simply the best Le One Night Stand we have ever had. Again, thank you so much. Serge would have been proud.

Beautiful Devery of La Laque. Photo from Photo and Gigs.

Always sharply dressed, the boys of Die Romantik. Photo from Photo and Gigs.

Jean-luc Retard and Celine Dijon from Nous Non Plus, this photo is taken from another night... anyone took photos from Hiro?