France Tales

I just realized that I had written about planning to go to the Balkan Beat Box show in Toulouse but I never wrote how it was. I even had pictures in last Sunday’s photo dump from the show but no review. Well we have not gone to see much live music and we love to do this. So this past week with Saturday night and then Tuesday night feels like the Fête de la Musique all over again.

Balkan Beat Box were amazing. I knew what to expect because I had seen videos. They have a trumpet and sax player. A guitarist, bassist, drummer, and the singer presses some buttons on a funny box that makes even funnier noises, including the chicken noises. They were very energetic and had many calls for peace in the middle east, squarely placing the blame on each side evenly, more or less.

The night was warm and a bit humid so Prairie des Filtres was a bit umm smelly, hot day at the zoo, hot day at the meth lab, etc. Still no smell too strong or crowd too drunk could dampen my enthusiasm for seeing my new favorite band. They played a mix of songs from both Balkan Beat Box and Nu Meds. I was hoping they were going to have the female singers live but I guess that was all sampled.

The crowd sang along to all the songs. At the onset of each song, when the distinctive part began, the crowd went wild. They obviously knew each song. As much as I loved them they played a little long. I got a frantic call during the show and had to leave a bit early, after about an hour and a half. The only song I didn’t get to see that I was really wanting to see was Ramallah Tel Aviv. I’m sure it was great but I had to leave. If you like gypsy music, electronic music but with live instrumentation, world music but with an edge, experimental music, with political lyrics, Balkan Beat Box is for you.

I leave you with Ramallah Tel Aviv