King Charles, She Keeps Bees and Weave! at Flèche d'Or

Text: Brendan Seibel

Shooting craps with loaded dice, La Fléche d'Or rolls a trio of acts staking their independence from influences. The evening begins with a juke joint card game courtesy of She Keeps Bees. The hustle increases with some flea market three-card monty from Weave!. The sound of slots and showgirls will be squaring off across the roulette table from England's King Charles.

Wordsmiths with notebook pages blackened by blotches and crammed with chaotic scrawling suit slam poets more than vocalists. The feverish cadence of King Charles would not be out of place in the corner of some nouveau-bohemian café, but his stream-of-consciousness delivery divulges a carefully constructed vernacular arsenal aimed at brighter lights than those in caffeine caverns.

Juxtaposition encompasses all aspects of King Charles' public persona. Quasi-hippie hipster attire and slacker aesthetic trickles from the stage anticipating fuzzed-out rock cliches. Shoeless backup singers clash with subtle pop nuance, the repetition of two chords accompanied by a ragged vocal melody slowly building to an unexpected crescendo. It is a melange of styles: free associations between singer-songwriter confessionals and anthemic rock; lilting folk guitar licks and electro-pop keyboards. In the internet age it is not difficult to mine inspiration from a wealth of genres, but it is difficult to do it well. King Charles does it very well.

Los Angeles quartet Weave! fails where King Charles succeeds. Spawned from the art-damaged cool kid California scene their collective acts of tune thievery pillage equally from The Slits and ESG without sharing the ecstasy of exploration that defines the source material. Bass driven funk-lite songs stagger along a rutted path that the exaggerated Afrobeat drumming cannot resuscitate. Their paint-by-numbers approach and painted on boredom ruins would could otherwise be a joyously mindless soundtrack for drunken dancing.

Although the middle act threatens the evening's entertainment She Keeps Bees is well worth an early appearance. This Brooklyn-based duo violates every rule: male/female, guitar/drum combo; soulful and earnest female vocals; stripped down country-blues game plan. They transcend ranks of revivalists on the strength of Jessica Larrabee, whose down and gritty singing is the most successful subterfuge since Bobbie Gentry's Mississippi Delta. She Keeps Bees' depression and whiskey aura is so convincing an atmosphere they don't worry about filling the stage - the stage shrinks to fit them.

Thursday, 28 January 2024 at 7:30pm
La Fléche d'Or
102 bis rue de Bagnolet
75020 Paris
Metro Gambetta/Port de Bagnolet, Alexandre Dumas; Maraîchers
Tickets 8 Euros with a drink

Comments

[Sebastien]

J'adore King Charles!