Indie rockers take the French capital

by Marjorie Hache

Article published on the 2009-11-12 Latest update 2009-11-16 08:26 TU

Inrocks 2009 festival poster
(Photo: http://www.lesinrocks.com/)

Every November French indie music fans get treated to a delightful musical concoction put together by the trendy French magazine Les Inrockuptibles. Le Festival des Inrockuptibles, or Inrocks festival, is still going strong after twenty years. Although events are staged across France, it is firmly stapled in the French capital with bands rocking venues like Boule Noire or La Cigalle.

Jean-Daniel Beauvallet, editor of the magazine, and the main man behind the festival, says everything started in the late 1980s so that bands from abroad could tour in France.

“None of the bands we liked at the time were featured in the press or we couldn’t see them live,” he explains.

“We started the magazine to talk about bands we liked such as The Smiths or Jesus and Mary Chain, we started the festival because whenever one of these bands came they played in terrible venues with terrible sound and no PAs.”

Beauvallet says that to the average punter many of those on the line-up may seem obscure.

“People might not know who’s on the line-up, but then subsequently they realise two years later they’ve seen great bands who were totally unknown at the time.”

He points to Franz Ferdinand, who played their first ever show outside of Britain at the Inrocks festival in 2003.

“They were totally unknown and played for maybe 50 people,” says Beauvallet. “A year later they were one of the biggest British bands of that year.”

This was also the case for bands like Oasis, Placebo, Muse and The White Stripes.

This year (3-10 November) saw many imports from cool Britannia, with Bat for Lashes, Little Boots, Florence and the Machine and La Roux (who ended up cancelling due to illness).

Miss Natasha of Bat for Lashes proved to be one of the highlights of the festival.

While Little Boots was nonchalant about performing with Florence and La Roux, who emerged at around the same time.

“I guess it’s just maybe our age that’s just rediscovering the ‘80s so maybe it’s in the zeitgeist you know,” she says.

Another British lady (who’s previously appeared on RFI) is Ebony Bones. She managed to upstage the hotly-tipped Black Lips by encouraging the audience to invade her arena rather than theirs.

But do the crowd at Inrocks get down and dirty with any crowdsurfing?

Back in the day, the festival attracted a crowd that would show up just to look cool. This year, besides the odd celebrity, like designer Jean Charles de Castlebajac, the crowd was not dominated by the stuck-up cool kids.

“People assume its going to be a very snobby geeky festival,” explains Beauvallet. “It’s actually very relaxed, it’s a great audience […] it used to be a little bit more snobby, where people would come and be seen. It’s not so much the case because I think people buy the tickets really early on.”

In other words, the festival now attracts real fans.

Gilda Loaec of Kitsuné
(Photo: Allan Alistair)

Speaking of cool, the Franco-Japanese music label and clothing brand Kitsuné, which is renowned for the compilations Kitsuné Maison that kick-started the careers of bands like the Klaxons, and which prides itself for its classic cuts in fashion, had a whole night to themselves.

Gildas Loaec, one of the founding members, was delighted to have a whole night to promote artists featured on the latest compilation Kitsuné Maison 8, like Two Door Cinema Club, French Horn Rebellion and Le Corps Mince de Françoise.

“It’s a really nice stage and a great way for us to get more visibility for what we do,” he said at the show. “It’s really a good timing to introduce [them] to the French audience.”

The young French band The Dodoz, who are touring heavily right now and opened one evening, were very hopeful that Inrocks will invite them back next year as said guitarist Jules explains.

“It’s a chance for us - it’s a dream - because a lot of bands like Franz Ferdinand have been discovered by this festival […] we really hope to be there again next year.”

dc670c2bc9e9">