Rock en Seine

Although I missed out on a lot of the summer festival season due to various vacations and such (yes, life in France is tough), I did manage to catch one of the final big outdoor musical events of the season the other night, Rock en Seine. It was fantastic.

First, let me get my semi-sarcastic commentary out of the way. The #1 fashion item on display was not super-super-almost-painted-on-skinny jeans or a bold-colored keffiyeh, as one might have expected, but rather a “I♥NY” logo. It was plastered on T-shirts, hoodies, and tote bags. Apparently, it is what Parisians like. Because the French may be conflicted about Americans, but New York? New York, they love. Aw. On the contrary, something baffling was discovered at one of the food vendors, which sold “Specialités Libanaises” yet boasted an image on its stallfront of a large cactus sporting a sombrero and shaking maracas. Huh? Who did their marketing? Something else of note was the festival campgrounds, which were divided into two sections: Camping and Rock Camping. How cool do you, like, have to be to get into Rock Camping? Is there a guest list I can get on? Heh. OK, time for me to stop with the sarcasm and compliment the festival for its remarkably low drink prices, compared to at U.S. events (if you don’t factor in the exchange rate, natch). Glasses of wine for 3 euros and pints of beer for 5? Not bad.

And now, the music. We unfortunately couldn’t get to the all-day festival early enough to catch The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and The Roots, but we did see some greats. The Raconteurs played a ripping show. It was the perfect summertime rock-n-roll soundtrack. Plus, Jack White! Justice came on 45 minutes late, but then pumped out a tight set. I danced, danced, danced. I didn’t notice too many people around me dancing, which I thought was odd given Justice are FRENCH DJ’S, but maybe things were different closer up to the stage—you know, where all the hardcore fans are.

The big disappointment of the night was that Amy Winehouse canceled at the very last minute. The non-irony was that this was not unexpected. In fact, everyone I was with was joking about the probability throughout the evening. Apparently she pulled the same thing at Rock en Seine last year. Guess who’s not going to be invited back in ’09? Jeez, pull it together, woman. She is one very talented train wreck and I would’ve liked to see her perform, but alas. I wasn’t anywhere nearly as upset as the many people who had driven from all over the country to see her play at her only scheduled gig in France this year.

The Streets made up for it, though. They were purely fun and put on a surprisingly great live show. I used to find their frontman Mike Skinner annoying, but the band has grown on me and now I’m re-sold. Skinner was a bit humorous, making little Amy Winehouse cracks that got the entire audience laughing (he is British and spoke only English, so this is how I know people understood what he was saying). However, I kind of felt bad for him when he tried to get some audience participation going mid-show and failed miserably. First, he said (I’m paraphrasing), “I’m gonna count to 5 and when I say 5, I want you to turn toward someone you don’t know, look them in the eye, and say, ‘I love you!’” The crowd started tittering nervously. When he reached 5, I turned to a gaggle of French girls and threw an Iloveyou in their direction and they just continued to titter nervously. I tried. A few minutes later, Skinner tried for #2 (paraphrasing again): “Now when I say ‘go low,’ I want you to put your arm around the person you said ‘I love you’ to’s shoulders and go low [translation: crouch down to the ground].” Judging from the lack of reciprocity earlier, N and I opted to do this one together. Well, when the big moment to go low finally came, I think N and I were among only a handful of people who actually went for it. Let’s analyze the situation. Yes, it was cheesey as hell, and yes, I’m sure some people in the crowd had no idea what he was talking about due to language issues. But come on, what’s wrong with a little cheesey audience interaction? To me, it spoke to the French’s aversion to engaging with strangers and acting a little silly just for the hell of it. Where I come from, these are not barriers to entry. Skinner saw the audience’s reaction and said in a mock-defeated tone, “OK, OK, I get it. I won’t ask you do anything else.” It was an odd-yet-amusing little blip in the midst of a really upbeat performance.

Overall it was a great time. I need more outdoor music!