Lyon Calling Tour

One day I checked the official website of Roxy, the most known Prague club, which was closed during the summer because of reconstructionand I find out, that the famous french group Le Peuple de l'Herbe is coming to the town... I was very happy, because I missed themearly this year in Köln, Germany. And it wasn't all. On the internet I found out, that Le Peuple are coming in a company of 2 other french bands - electronic dub experimentatorsHigh Tone and afro-ethno-jazz group Mei Tei Sho...Lyon calling tour - that is the name of this mini-festival, which is a creation of this 3 groups from french city Lyon. The only thing I was afraid of, was that Roxy have to close at 10pm, so the festival must start at 6pm... It sounds like some show for children. My habit from the past years - first go to the puband then to the club, was turned upside down...First club, then pub. My fear was...sadly...justified. I entered the club and Le Peuple were already playing.The band, which is really famous in France and their fans are coming to their festival gigs in the number of ten (and more) thousands, were playing at the moment just for me and two security guys, which were kinda upset, when I wanted to get closer to the stage to shoot some pics. I think, that Le Peuple had to be surprised too. JC001, who is touring with them at the moment told me after the concert, that this is not the problem of Prague, but of the promotion. And he was damn right! The last week I didn't see any poster about this event, nor some advertisment in the radio...

Well, but after a few minutes the situation was a bit better, some people came late, because of the ridiculous beginning time... Most of them were french - students, tourists etc...Which was good, so I had an opportunity to practice my french language, especially after the gig, when we went to a pub with a bunch of nice people...

But let us get back to the gig. After the first shock at the beginning, the atmosphere turned better and so did the performance of Le Peuple... They mostly played songs from their two latest records - P.H Test/Two and The Cube. In most of the them was present JC's fast and original rap, in some pieces, for example "20 years gone", he made great beatbox improvisations. The show, which lasted for one hour and a couple of minutes, was ended by probably the most know song "No escape", originally performed by UK APACHE, who wasn't present here of course, but boys managed the song without him very well though...

After a short chat with JC001, askin' him about the forthcoming QUADDAFI OPERA, written by Chandrasonic from Asian Dub Foundation, where JC performs in the main role of the dictator QUADDAFI, the show of the second band - High Tone - took its place. I didn't know this guys before, but after this evening I will remember their stuff for a very long time. The experimental dub, full of electronic, rough guitar riffs and the psychadellic video projection totally catched my body and didn't want to release it during all the show. The vibe was so strong (sometimes too much), that in some moments I was totally tranced and didn't know about the world, which was surrounding me (no drugs used! :-)). My most favourite song called "No. 1 station" is composed from marvellous scratches of the DJ, some techno elements and dub bass line, check it out if you have an opportunity! The next thing, which caught my attention, was drummer's kick-drum, which looked like a sonar from the submarine (check out the photoreports). This device had its own motherboard and it was put in the computer high tower frame... After this gig I was totally satisfied. And still there was one more band...

Mei Tei Sho! This band visited Czech Republic once in the past. In 2002 they were in the club called Akropolis within the project called "Euroconnections". Roxy was totally full at this moment. The spectators were collaborating with the band, especially in the song, where the main refrain was something like "Free education". The atmosphere was stunning. Saxophone, bass, guitarand a singer from Africa. I must say, that I don't remember much from the last gig, because I was still totally wrecked by a vibe of High Tone...

What to say at the end? Another perfect event. Sad thing was, that the timeline of the gigs were strict and there wasn't anz encores. But... From the puzzled beginning to the marvellous end - the show was great. Even the new improvements in Roxy was obvious. Good new sound and the working aircon.