Eddie Van Halen, Eat Your Heart Out.

Greg and I went out on the town for some music gratuite last night. We saw an amazing performance in St. Brieuc, Brittany by Maya Barsony. I highly recommend finding their album. Music Description: Electro-funk-French-reggae-rock ????

Okay ladies, I am reporting on how ultra cool this French woman is. There’s a difference I noticed, to an American cool chick, and a French cool chick. They’ve got their sexy DOWN. And their sexy is different from our sexy. It’s chic. Conjure up all the thoughts you have of a sexy French woman, as this chica had it! The interesting thing is that, had an American woman been wearing the same exact outfit on stage, it would have come across as a bit sleazy. In fact she’s topless on the album cover, but it’s not considered crude, it’s considered artistic – there’s reverence for the beauty of a woman’s body, and it’s not considered pornographic here. The difference is in a woman’s energy here. There’s a bit of mystery, even though they’re not shy about showing some skin. Clearly she’s hot, but there’s mystery in just HOW hot she is. Simply she’s chic hot.

Here’s what she was wearing: (Ooooh la la I LOVE the women’s clothing here!) White satin button up top (no bra)
White hot-pants
Black satin cumberbund-type belt
Black heeled lace up ankle boots
Red lipstick




The rest of the band, three guys, were wearing white and black tuxedo-type T-shirts. Cute, they had costumes. What I noticed is that they were definitely “performing.” They had these little dances that they all would do in unison – clearly rehearsed and on target. The funny thing is that when we went to THE CHAP gig, (my sis and bro-in-law) in England they did a little routine and I think it was the first time that they introduced it as part of their performance. THE CHAP is quite popular in France so I’m wondering if they picked up the trend in France and if several bands here treat their audiences to such performances. (It’s pretty fun) I have serious reason to believe it’s a French thing which I will get to later.



Sidenote: While I’m blowing THE CHAPS horn, they just won the song of the week contest on BBC radio 2 so “Proper Rock” is being played everyday for a week, which is SOOO awesome. Congrats CHAP!

Back to France:
Although the practiced choreography is appreciated, I do wonder if it inhibits free dance expression among the French fans. I noticed that no one really dances. Not like we do, anyway. In fact only drunk men were dancing. Yes, people were staring at me, but what do I care? People ought to loosen up, for crying out loud, it’s not like we were at the symphony. THEN after the band stopped playing people started doing all this soiree dance stuff. Which I found really interesting because at Claire and Panos’s wedding (bro and sis in-law) that’s the only way the entire French family danced. And mind you, THE CHAP performed and it ain’t soiree music. I figure they all need a summer of San Francisco free concerts, that’ll satisfy their stares, eh? Wow. It just dawned on me, am I part of a subculture??? Okay, so this is why I think that the drill team dance moves are a trend in France:
After Maya was finished we rushed to the car and drove to this other town where there was a blues festival. An American band was playing for free.
Description: I wanted to bang my head, play air guitar and do the of K.K. Downing of Judas Priest swing. Okay, not really that rocky but certainly it was not blues. The name of the band, General Store, says it all.



Anyhow, it was so funny because they were totally American, dressed up nicely (this IS France) but busting out serious American sounds. But the best part was that they tried to do this little leg kick thing in unison which they totally fubbed up and that is why I think the synchronized dance bit is honored solely by the French. BECAUSE if you are playing hard rock music in cowboy boots and you start toe tappin’ like you’re in a high school musical in America – you are a true NERD with a capital N!!

After we got the photos real quick of General Store for y’all, we found the REAL blues festival and I stood on a rock and watched it from the street. ( I couldn’t help but think that my little brother would’ve figured out how to sneak in, in fact he probably would’ve already been in by the time I even thought of it!) We got to see the last act of Joe Louie Walker !! He rocked, I tell you. Dad you would’ve loved it and Greg got some video footage on our camera. The best cultural bit was at the end when he said Merci Beaucoup like only a true bluesman can say.



And just to reiterate to you ladies out there that it’s time to get your “chic” on. This Maya Barsony chick – in her little sexy catsuit number, finalied the show with a true Eddie Van Halen jump-kick. Yep, even the French practice that hoopla in the mirror! (and don’t pretend you didn’t!) Now that’s cool.

Cheers & Ciao for Now, Gina