On 30 May, Parisians looking for things to do had plenty to choose from: the very famous (at least in France) pop-star Aya Nakamura was performing at the Stade de France whilst the local team was playing football. But as we couldn’t get accreditation for Aya and we’re not that much into PSG or football, let's focus on the underground scene and the choice between Corlyx and Diamong Dog on one side and Nox Novacula, Bestial Mouths and Bleakness on the other. Our weary hearts leaned towards the latter, the line-up put together by Sanit Mils bringing together several great acts we don’t usually get to see here! So off we went to La Mécanique Ondulatoire, a haven of peace where the air conditioner and Tiamat’s album Cain playing in the background shielded us from the packed bars nearby and the stifling heat. What’s more, at that point in the evening, PSG was losing the game – fingers crossed, perhaps we’d be able to head home in peace!
BLEAKNESS
The musiciens were starting to get (half) wind of something: only one of the two fans on stage is switched on! Phab, the bassist standing by the working fan, teases Nico on guitar: “it won’t blow in your hair that way”! It’s true that bald people are funny (and a bit worrying), but Phab would do well not to make too much fun of it. Hidden beneath his mop of hair and behind his mic stand, we can only vaguely assume he has a face, simply because that’s how people are generally made. The gig is ready to start but we’re looking for the sound engineer, and if you're familiar with Paris dark and underground events, you already know who the go-to sound engineer is: Clem, the underground goddess of noise and cellar smells, is nowhere to be found. It turns out she didn’t have the right timetable. Later in the evening, others will have less acceptable excuses for turning up at the last minute...
The term ‘post-punk’ encompasses all sorts of interpretations and approaches. For Bleakness, what interests them isn’t so much playing postmen as emphasising punk energy, a rage that explodes without delay. Blind Devotion, The Left Behind, Artificial Answers, This Vicious Game: the concert begins just like their latest album, Blurred Visions, released last February. You can still recognise the 80s goth influences, whether in certain rhythms and melodies or in the highly expressive vocals, but there’s a passion and dynamism in Bleakness that makes you want to start a revolution or throw a party rather than stare at your feet with the usual sadness that comes from gazing at one’s own feet.
A few older tracks stand out (the theatrical Dancing with Darkness, the more aggressive Towards the End) without any real break in style: across their albums, Bleakness remain true to their approach, combining a touch of gloom and rain with a desire to let rip, to belt out those in-your-face choruses together. Next time, we’ll stick them on the terrace to go wild BEFORE the match, just to get the sporting drudgery out of the way!
BESTIAL MOUTHS
FINALLY, we were going to see Bestial Mouths in Paris! For her European tour dates, Lynette Cerezo is accompanied by two musicians who speak french and who are not Brant Showers (the brilliant mastermind behind SØLVE and ∆AIMON, who has co-written Bestial Mouths’ upcoming album). For the past few years, Bestial Mouths has actually been more of a solo project, so all the attention is focused mainly on Lynette, who starts with her back to the audience, in the smoke, wearing a cape and a hood for that ritual touch... yes, yes, of course, that really grabs attention!
Right from the start, the concert takes us back to the marvellous 2020 album RESURRECTEDINBLACK, with the mysterious The Fall building tension in the fog of La Méca, followed by the more intense Lain to Rust and its choruses which sound like magic spells echoing off the venue’s walls as if in the depths of a dark cave. It sounds absolutely brilliant, and little by little the audience lets itself go. The music retains all its subtlety live, but the electronic drums add punch to the rhythms—an extra edge of tension and impact that is particularly evident on the more EBM/industrial tracks (the commanding Innshroudss, or Withiin, played at the end of the set, whose rhythmic section wouldn’t have been out of place with some Belgian gentlemen in tank top and dark glasses). The music is haunted by a host of tormented souls, yet it also possesses a solid backbone, muscles and strong nerves!
But above all, as mentioned earlier, all attention is focused on the singer, who embodies the turmoil, the exorcisms, the melancholy, the poetry and the menace of her music. An underground priestess for the duration of the concert, she chants in the semi-darkness, prostrate on the floor or, conversely, taking up as much space as possible, playing with her long hair to make her silhouette imposing and intimidating. We obviously expected it to be dark, but we didn’t expect so much interaction and communication from her: by the third track, she was holding the hand of someone in the audience who had reached out to her. We left feeling spellbound—it was brilliant—but also reassured: ultimately, it isn’t us that Bestial Mouths seems to be cursing in her songs. So we’re keeping our fingers crossed: with a bit of luck, it was the football players of PSG she was targeting, and they’re losing by a huge margin right now!
NOX NOVACULA
There are lots of great things about La Mécanique Ondulatoire, and quite a few of them are down to the fact that it’s underground. Not least the fact that there’s no mobile signal. For the duration of the evening, you can forget about the outside world. Except when suddenly there’s a row at the bar… Apparently, it’s not just mobile networks that can’t penetrate the stone: Bestial Mouths’ spells haven’t managed to curse the local football team hard enough. Nox Novacula are a bit late. On stage, half the band is missing. Singer Charlotte Blythe asks guitarist Zu Leika what on earth she’s doing with her jacket on – it’s far too hot! Zu explains: “I thought I’d keep it on for a bit so I could take it off during the set, hoping it would make me feel a bit cooler, but I don’t think it’s even worth trying.” People from Seattle are cool but they can be weird! Then bassist Dav Tafoya finally arrives: he was watching the end of the football fame! That’s it, Clem, when it comes to making excuses for being late, you’ve met your master. Disappointed, we then learn that Paris have won the match. All hope for a peaceful night is now dead and buried...
The venue was packed for Nox Novacula. As we’re seeing more and more at post-punk and goth gigs, there are actual YOUNG PEOPLE there – real ones, people born in the 2000s – wearing the band’s T-shirts. So cool! A good portion of the crowd seems won over from the start, the rest are about to be taken by the flood (well, don’t read any pun into that: Flood will only be played later, right at the end of the gig). A screeching deathrock guitar, a bass rumbling like a storm ready to break, ultra-expressive vocals bursting with vitality, somewhere between sinister cabaret and visceral rage... on stage, Nox Novacula is a joy to watch: despite the heat, everyone’s thrashing about in all directions, Charlotte Blythe is pulling faces and flashing big smiles, and Dav Tafoya is leaping about on stage—which might not seem like much, but if you know La Mécanique Ondulatoire, you’ll realise just how risky the manoeuvre is, given how low the ceiling is!
The concert races by at breakneck speed, bathed in colours that highlight the band’s spooky vibe – a mix of red and green that gives the show a really cool Halloween vibe. Nox Novacula have a knack for catchy choruses and melodies that stick in your head, but also for killer riffs – a proper rock sound that’s perfect for working up a sweat in a basement. Irony blends with the macabre, with melancholy, with romanticism, but also with the urge to party. The quartet has fun congratulating us several times on “our victory”—thanks, eh? It’s true that here, in our basement, we really gave our best to deserve it. Bats and football – that’s quite an unusual combination, just imagine: the Soccers of Mercy? Siouxzidane & the Banshees? Only Theatre of Painalty? Joy First Division?
Nox Novacula often plays a cover towards the end of the concert, frequently putting their own spin on The Cult. This time, it was Killing Joke’s Requiem, and then Flood, and then it was over. “Too soon”, as Charlotte sang with her powerful voice earlier in the evening: we would have loved to have stayed there a bit longer, tucked away, enjoying this intense, visceral show, whose infectious touch of madness was a brilliant breath of fresh air. Outside, in stifling heat, hordes of people in SHORTS and SPORTS T-SHIRTS or LIGHT-COLOURED OUTFITS and FLIP-FLOPS were crowding together, their faces contorted by something clearly very painful called HAPPINESS... Please, give us back our goths, give us back our cellars! Now that Nox Novacula has found the way to Paris, we can only hope the band will return. Come on, fingers crossed: next time will be soon and, if possible, PSG will get thoroughly thrashed. In the rain. At -10 degrees. On a day when the night falls before 4pm. We can’t wait!
