Absinthe Minded ruminations on film screenings and tricky, brittle, snapping guitar strings from Paris, France…. Oct 12-14 2009

This will largely be a rambling blog. When squeezing this much activity in the span of just one week, excited, tangental sputterings are about all I can manage. Bear with me. Or as our tour bus GPS is fond of saying: “Bear Right”.

Nick Stubbs flew in From London with his fiancee Deborah. This would be our first time playing together as a duo. Nick “The Big Stick” on Drums and yours truly doing the old guitar/bass/electronics/vocals routine.

I had played with him at Jordan’s (Three Black Eyes) wedding in Enfield, London a couple of months back and was impressed with his knowledge of our music.

I, on the other hand, was completely indecisive as to what to play for this string of gigs. I had the new material: Lowest of the Low , The River, Three Merry Boys etc… but right before leaving Berlin I had uncovered a whole portal of other new work I had been churning out in the last year, plus up to the moment fiddlelings I wanted to fiddle with some more…..

Realizing that Nick didn’t need that kind of bumble-mindedness I decided to stick with the game plan. Got into Studio Bleu in the bustling, African market vibe Chateau D’eau district and we were off. Suffice to say Nick’s a lovely boy, he really is….

THE SCREENING OF  ” Between The Bridges” : A documentary about NERVOUS CABARET (that’s my band in NYC) came up next; the day before the Paris gig.  It was going to be screened at INTERNATIONAL, a great two floor venue in Menilmontant.  The very idea of having to attend this the day before our Point FMR Paris gig was a bit much for me.  Revisiting a document of the last time we played together as NERVOUS CABARET, my moving house from Brooklyn, my marriage to Melissa etc… in front of an audience was a tad emotionally daunting: I’m a sensitive fella y’all!

Accompanied by my wife Melissa and old chum Nadja, we meandered through the golden, dusky houred Rue Oberkampf in Menilmontant; past my favorite cilantro, ginger and galanga scented Korean rice shop overflowing with after work customers, past Nouveau Casino getting ready for their evening concert and straight into my worst scenario: having sit through a film where I have the most lines:  embarrassingly self scripted impromptu dialogue; the things one says, appalling in retrospect.

The place was packed, another surprise because in-fact, the other worse thing would be to sit through the premiere of such a film,  a film in a sense honoring the achievements of our happy enterprise, with no one in attendance. Thankfully that didn’t happen. Our director Guillaume Dero was outside the murmuring venue smoking. Devilishly handsome and shy, a Saint of a  man, all the more so because he had a book of drink tickets which I eagerly clutched from his paw. He was nervous. They wanted me to make an appearance before the film. I did so but sheepishly. I just wanted to get upstairs and down some more of the house red.

There were great whoops of applause after it was all done. Many pats on the back as the audience climbed back upstairs and saw me wobbling on my stool, elbow on the bar, drink tickets at the ready for “all my friends”  who were brave enough to show up.

I missed my band. Those boys had taught me so much. I missed New York. I was proud and getting a little nectar sappy with Melissa about it all. She reminded me that I’d be back in NYC soon enough and just to enjoy what was happening now.

Well, ok then, “I’m off to the Absinthe bar two doors down. Anybody care to join!”  A boozy caravan organized itself clumsily on the narrow sidewalk and chugged along after me. The shattered glass from  a vandalized car poured out in front of us like a starry carpet that lead to the door of the bar.

Secretly now, I was only thinking about the next day, the order of the songs and how shitty my voice was sounding. I was sick. Had been for a week and it was getting worse. Flemmy, shredded tones pushing through a snotty nose and thick head. Some people like that kind of thing I’m told and I was doing all I could, in my revery, to make sure the people, God bless ‘em, got what they wanted…..

The next evening at the sweaty, fog filled Point Ephemere, on the banks of the lovely Canal Du Saint Martin, excited and rearing to get on with this gig, my D string snapped at the very top of the show; without any provocation, before I had even uttered a raspy breath! With no back up instrument I tuned up and went for it. Nick was looking a bit worried but also mysteriously calm and pounded through the set with great aplomb. The Thermals had a nice set but we were over the moon at having pulled this one off. The intensity intact and in full force.

Next up was Reims, the birthplace of champagne; Dijon, Mustard land and Strasbourg, aah…more French food. We were ready

Elyas Khan’s Three Merry Boys, featuring Nick Stubbs on drums. Recorded for Dijon Campus Radio 92.2, October 2009.