Pigalle is an area in Paris around the Place Pigalle, on the border between the 9th and the 18th arrondissements. It is named after the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Pigalle (1714–1785). Pigalle is super touristy, with many sex shops on the main boulevards and prostitutes operating in the side streets. The neighborhood's raunchy reputation led to its World War II nickname of "Pig Alley" by Allied soldiers. The Divan du Monde and the famed Moulin Rouge are here. Henri Toulouse-Lautrec's studio was here and Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, and Maurice Neumont also once lived here. The works of artist Salvador Dalí can be seen at the nearby Espace Dalí. (I once hitchhiked through Spain to get to Figueres, the town in which Dalí was born and where he had an amazing surrealist museum built, but did not make it to this one in Paris.)
The area to the south of Place Pigalle is where tons of little music shops are. A section of the rue de Douai solely consists of stores selling guitars, drums, and musical accessories. How a store selling only saxophones can survive, I do not know, but my heart warmed when I saw a shop called California Bass. It was unfortunately closed when we were walking around between sound check and the show. The venue Andrew Bird played at, Casino de Paris, was a beautiful theatre and the staff was extremely friendly. In addition to the upstairs dressing rooms with bathrooms nicer than mine at home, there was a full bar/lounge behind the stage. After the show they brought in champagne. How very French!
The funniest thing was that they told us about the set from Oui Oui was on the stage. Being a huge Michel Gondry fan, I freaked out and ran out to photograph it, thinking it was from his band and that they were playing there. It wasn't until the next day, that I was told it was actually a French children's show, which Gondry named his band after, that was doing live performances there. :(
After Berlin, I went back to Paris for a couple of days and met up with a friend of a friend, Julien, whom I had just met. After he took me around shopping, I took him to see Grizzly Bear and St. Vincent at La Cigale. We got there an hour after doors, thinking we would be just in time to see Annie play, when we saw a huge mob of people milling about out front. Signs posted on the doors said that there was some sort of problem with the bus and that the show would be late. The crazy thing about this is that I had just talked to a member of Wilco in Amsterdam who told us the story about Grizzly Bear missing a show they were supposed to open for them in Italy due to their tour bus getting totaled. (Sure enough, it was posted the next day on Pitchfork.) Unbelievable that they had accursed Euro bus problems twice in the span of a week! As we were deciding what to do, a huge orange bus pulled up to the front of the venue and they all got out and started loading in. I spotted Annie and asked her what happened and she said it was something with the axel.
Julien and I were famished and ran down the street to get something to eat before the show. He took me to a place that he frequents and djs at, Sans Souci, 65 rue Jean Baptiste. It was cozy, with a simple menu and we just ordered wine and croque monsieurs to be quick. Some of his friends were there, which we made plans to meet up with after at a party. We got back just in time and were able to get seats in the reserved section. (They banged it out so fast because Paris has strict curfews at music venues, apparently.) At this point I got so sleepy because I had been going non-stop since I arrived back in Paris earlier that morning and did not sleep the night before on my last night in Berlin, so it was kinda good that it was a short set. Feist was at the show so she came out and sang on a couple of numbers. When we got up to leave, Julien had a piece of paper stuck to his back from his seat, see above. Wrong Julian. Funny...
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