It’s a Tuesday night, a rainy and cold one at that, but over at the 11th arrondisement’s rue Oberkampf  it feels like a Friday night. Cafés and restaurants are filled to the brim with bored-looking, chain-smoking Parisians. It’s almost 21:30 but people are still spilling out of the metros and heading off to appointed meeting places to wait for their friends before flitting off to bars to start their evening.

I get off the metro and walk down the length of rue Oberkampf to Nouveau Casino. I’ve got a ticket to see Midlake in my bag, purchased months ago. Actually, I have a pair of Midlake tickets. Julien and I were supposed to go together, but because no babysitter was available he offered to stay home because I badly needed a night out and Jul is aces like that.

A lot of my friends think that going to concerts alone is sort of sad. It is, in a way, but I don’t really mind. I used to go to concerts alone while Julien was in Qatar and I was still in Paris. The only problem with going alone is that if you go to the bar to get a beer no one saves your place on the floor.

The new album has yet to grow on me; I have to admit that I find that the songs drag a bit, but then again it’s probably just my mood. Also, after an hour of traveling by metro to get to the concert I was all wound up and ready to dance, but a lot of the songs from the latest album are “sway tracks” – so we ended up just swaying a lot. I guess, like I said, I just wasn’t in the mood for it.

They did play Roscoe and Head Home and some other tracks from The Trials of Van Occupanther; such a shame they didn’t have anything from Bamnan and Silvercork on the playlist. But don’t get me wrong – they’re a fantastic band to see live. The songs from the new album are melancholic, bare and raw, and the effect achieved is what Midlake does best: they hide complexities in the most basic of melodies. And yes, it works!

Here’s an oldie but goodie from Midlake’s Bamnan and Silvercork (video by Jason Lee too, take that!):

And Roscoe from The Trials of Van Occupanther (god, when I think of the number of times I had this song on repeat while driving the roads of Doha…)

Fortune, from The Courage of Others:

Currently listening to:
Midlake
The Courage of Others