Fancy discovering the best of Paris’ up-and-coming musical talent? The city’s Fallenfest festival is a launch pad for emerging artists, offering unsigned groups the chance to play in some of the city’s funkiest concert halls, including the Batofar, the Cigale and the Boule Noire, where the likes of Metallica, Cat Power and The Kills have all previously graced the stage.
If you’re in Paris on Easter Saturday (April 7th), head to the Boule Noire to check out seven on-the-up indie groups – namely rocksters ‘Blinky’, ‘L’Ecole des Garçons’, ‘The Blue Boys in White Socks’, ‘Little d big B’, ‘Mystified’, ‘Kellyfrüsm from StrØmland’ and quirky British electro-pop artist Monkey Anna whose sound is a catchy mix of 80s pop, West-End musicals, 70s disco, Britpop and the French Touch.
If you’re into traditional band set-ups, you’ll be well served (most groups play to the time honoured formation of guitars, keyboards and drum kits); but innovation is also on the cards with Monkey Anna's leftfield interactive video performance - “The Monkey Anna TV Dinner Show” - in which a monkey in a tuxedo, a 1930’s crooner, sexy girls in bikinis, and an oversized cupid emerge from a bed on a giant TV screen. Surreal, funny and wholly feel-good, you leave the gig on a high.
Monkey Anna is one to watch: The UK's BBC Introducing programme in North Yorkshire (part of the radio launch pad that discovered Florence and the Machine in 2008) has already hailed her sound as “infectious French influenced pop…so addictive...it stays in your head for days”; and she’s performing on the other side of the Channel at Dewsbury Town Hall on March 31st for the first leg of the UK's Live and Unsigned competition.
Back in Paris, other Fallenfest dates to look out for include April 13th at the Batofar (quai F. Mauriac, 13th) and the Divan du Monde (75 rue des Martyrs, 18th), where you can check out Paris’ hottest emerging heavy metal, rock, funk and hip-hop groups.
The line up on April 7 at La Boule Noire is as follows:
7pm: Blinky
7.30pm: Kellyfrüsm from StrØmland
8pm: Monkey Anna
9pm: The Blue Boys in White Socks
9.30pm: L’Ecole des Garçons
10pm: Mystified
10.30pm: Little d big B