Algerian Folk/Rock But Not Rockin The Casbah

Last night was another musical first for me in Europe. I am familiar with some Algerian music particularly some of the "Rai" Singers like Cheb Mami. The show we saw here in a small music hall in Pigalle was female Algerian singer/songwriter named Souad Massi with her band at "La Cigale" which is about the size of the National in Richmond but perhaps a little smaller. I never did catch who the opening act was but they obviously had just thrown their band together or they had a fill in drummer. They weren't tight although there were obviously a lot of Algerians in the audience who were very forgiving and clapped their asses off none the less.

It should also be noted here that almost no place we've been like movie theaters and now concert venues have seating for anyone over 5'5" which means that someone who's 6'2" is left feeling like I'm sitting in the back seat of a Mazda Miata which get's pretty crampy later on in the evening. One other thing that was notable was the almost total lack of stage planning as far as Souad's set progressed that manifested itself in some pretty blatant incidents telegraphing confusion on stage that included one of her guitars brought to her totally out of tune that she had to walk off stage with to try that song later. The stage crew kept hooking mics up for one song and then unhooking them immediately only to have to do it again 3 songs later. Through it all Souad Massi and her understated but powerful band started slowly but built up into a full out rock and roll jammin show. Personally, I would have mixed it differently but she may have been stuck with the house mixer.

As the music got more intense the Algerian women in the audience started "ululating" which is the high pitched keening that Arabic Women do when they're excited or mourning or for who knows what. It made for quite the sound-scape at times during the show and of course Souad sang primarily in Algerian which is for the most part Arabic which neither Cassie or I speak. I had to reprogram my DNA to get used to hearing Arab sounding guitar riffs which was not too hard to do but still took some real getting used to and honestly this music isn't something I would have ever purchased on my own.

We ate dinner in an "Indiana Grill" which is part of an American tinged franchise in Paris that served of all things Tex/Mex food of which I was never aware that Indiana was famous for. The food was fair and delivered quickly which worked great. I guess the next time I'm in Indiana I'll need to look for Tex/Mex.

All in all it was a great night.