The shows start with this band from Lyon in France, “Le Club Du Chat” (the name of the band). I know Maya in the band, who used to play in the Putrellas, a pretty cool Girls Punk Band. Now, Le Club Du Chat is another story. They play an amazing cross between The Shaggs and ESG, I mean, it’s like if The Shaggs had also recorded very tight songs. Maya plays guitar, with one or two fingers, but very sharp and complicated riffs, with crazy sequences and stuff, then this guy sings and play drums, and then this girl, little girl I’m tempted to say, sings on top of it with a kind of Opera voice or something. The show is totally awesome, and unlike the years before, people have already showed up when they start. It is a good start indeed. They have made huge sort of flags out of my drawings for MOFO, so the bands playing on the MO scene have this drawing I made of Dylan behind them, and the bands on the FO scene have this little teddy bear I drew in the background, it’s fun.

After Le Club Du Chat, it really gets too hot in there and I really can’t stand for a whole set of any band. I catch The Pastels though, who are very cool and laid back on stage, even though it’s like a hundred and seventy five degrees. I’m kind of embarrassed that I didn’t say Hi to them (I didn’t know what they looked like) because I know some of them are friends with Dave Wave Pictures, but then it’s sort of too late to say Hi, and I don’t know what to do, I liked what I catched of their set though… Teenage Fanclub was too crowded of a show for me, and I can’t really say I know their stuff that well, even if I love the album they have with Jad Fair, so I don’t risk the heat in the venue, and I hang out with my friends instead. I also talk with Sonic Boom a lot, who of course is like a Scientist when it comes to sixties Rock and Roll, and he tells me about Stax producers, who he recorded with, like this dude who plays piano on Wild Horses and stuff, he also tells me about the crazy instruments he uses all the time, and some of his psychedelic experiences. I’m very impressed by the kindness and the wisdom that seem to come from him; he makes me laugh a lot too. At the end of the night, I get back to my place with Julie and we keep chatting all night.

A few hours later, we wake up to go to Mains D’Oeuvres, we gotta meet up with Turner, Lisa, Andre and Neman, and to take care of the festival a little bit. It’s also my mother’s birthday so I want to try to find something for her on the way. When we get there Sonic hasn’t gone to bed yet, he says he wants to watch Will’s soundcheck before he goes to bed. Will is funny, and I find his band pretty annoying in their manners. They act like a superstar band, they don’t want to move their equipment around and stuff, it’s pretty weird that they would take credit from Will’s fame, when they probably know they have nothing to do with it, especially when I guess they sense he’s better by himself also, anyway, my friends are here so I decide to not spend time discussing whether some equipment should be moved to the side of the stage or not… Marie, my neighbor went to get Calvin (Johnson) at the train station. He looks great and starts joking right away, Apparently he’s gonna have Chloe, a friend from Bordeaux playing drums on stage with him tonight, it sounds pretty “exciting” as he would say.

Then it’s our turn to soundcheck. Beepee has come from Lille for the festival, we soundcheck playing Space Is The Place by Sun Ra for him (It’s his favorite band), and it feels really good to all play together. Q will join us too tonight, but Q doesn’t soundcheck, it’s part of the deal when you play with him. The hang out in the backstage is pretty cool today, I really love everybody who’s playing tonight, Charles from Annecy and the Coming Soon Crew are here too. Sonic shows me all the records he brought for our DJ set tonight, and I think we’re gonna have fun at the Pulp, this Lesbian Club in Paris where we’re gonna have the MOFO sound system, with DJ Chloe, Sonic Boom and myself, tonite.

The night starts off with Turner, who, as he did in Colmar last year, plays one of the best shows I’ve seen him play in a while, It’s like if he really had this special kind of shows for when he plays in France, he’s nice to the audience and all, which he usually isn’t always. I love Turner’s songs, not because he’s one of my very close friends, but because, you can sense that this guy loves writing. He loves writing more than anything. And even though people always have this first impression of him being so arrogant and stuff, I think you can’t be arrogant and work so much on your art and words. It seems totally humble to me. His songs are totally made in a classic way, they are very good, I love a lot of them. I’m glad we play a song together on his set, and I’m glad the audience seems to get it and to appreciate his songs.

Then I have to run because I want to catch Oly Arkle’s show. I really like it and it’s the first time I hear him play with a drummer. Right after him, I promised El Boy Die I would play with him on his set. I recorded an album with El Boy a few years ago, but we haven’t played together since then. Apparently it doesn’t really matter to him, and he’s OK to have some of his friends jamming on his songs. I have a lot of fun during his set, and I even think it’s one of the best shows I’ve seen him play. Not because I was in his band, but because he really seemed to enjoy it for once, I mean being on stage… I just have time to spend some time with my best friend Ome, who took time off from his job (he’s a surgeon) for the festival, and then I have to go on stage for a Herman Dune set.

The heat is unbearable of course when we get on stage. Julie and Lisa are in charge of telling us what song to play. We play a good set, and the audience is fantastic, I’m really glad to play with my sister and Julie tonight. Q plays amazing sax on Walk, Don’t Run. It’s really hot indeed but people don’t seem to be miserable, Andre and I give bottles of water away, and it has this “festival” sort of feel after all. Right after us, on the other stage, it’s time for Calvin to start his show. I’ve seen Calvin perform many times, and I’ve never been disappointed so far. His shows have always been very clever, sensitive, interesting, moving and alive to me, and overall very good, I would say. So, of course I’m pretty excited to hear him play again, and glad that he could make it to MOFO. I tell my parents who came down for MOFO, to check it out, but as he doesn’t sing in the microphone and there’s a lot of people in the venue, it’s kind of hard to get if you’re in the back, so they leave. What an awesome show though, I mean, I was in the front row, so I could hear everything. On “That Would Be Me”, the song where he always improvises these crazy long speeches, he chooses to tell a story about some show he played, and where he met the guy from Old Time Religion. The plot isn’t dramatic at all, still there’s a twist in the end, and I’m amazed at how he could give charm to such a banal story. Anyway, his closing piece is a song with Chloe on Drums. She’s super good. She plays really hard, like a cross between Grohl and Tucker, and on top of her beats, Calvin sings and takes Karate stances, awesome.

After Calvin, I’m being a snob and don’t try to get in the sauna that the venue has turned into, and I skip Will’s show. Anyway, I have troubles appreciating the music of people who annoy me, and his musicians annoyed me a little I have to say. It’s stupid I know, because Will is great and sings great tunes, but I’ve been to enough great shows tonight anyway, I figure. Anyway, Sonic and I have to get to the club and start spinning records, because the party has to start by the end of Will’s show. So we get in a cab, Sonic, Marie, Julie and me, and head to The Pulp. The Pulp is an awesome kind of club. Most of the times it is meant for an exclusive Lesbian clientele, but I guess thanx to DJ Chloe (not drummer Chloe), who likes us and who is friends with Benoit (The Boss of MOFO and Mains D’Oeuvres and Point FMR), we got to have great parties there, like that Luau night we had for the French release of Mas Cambios a few years ago.

Anyway, the club looks great and is the perfect size for parties I think. At that point, Sonic and I have started getting along pretty fine, and so we start with a ping-pong sort of set. DJ Chloe is very nice to us, and helps us to set up (it seems like we are both pretty bad at setting things up); she’s also very pretty. Some other people in charge at the club are not that nice though, and Sonic almost didn’t make it in, I guess he doesn’t really look like some Parisian night clubber or something, but still, it seems like the bouncers are kind of lame in this club. Anyway, after a few warm up rounds of Rock and Roll, everybody starts going “apeshit” (to quote Calvin) on the dance floor. Julie seems pretty good at dancing the Jerk, Marie is going bezerk, Lisa is a good dancer, like always, Calvin can do the Mash Potatoes apparently, Turner is pretty good too, even Andre is dancing, how unusual, it’s the first time I see him outside of on stage or in a tour van in a long time. Neman is the best dancer. He looks like a little animal, and one could really think he’s coming straight from a mental institution when he dances, I don’t know, like a newborn child on LSD, or something. Looking at Ome on the Dance floor, I think to myself that I would never guess that he spends his days fixing people’s brains, that’s the magic of parties. By morning Chloe takes over the turntables, and I get a cab home with Turner and Julie. We end up in this little café that is open 24/7 by my place. It was a very awesome summer night.

The next day, we play on Julie’s set. She’s headlining the night, so the soundcheck is very early. I usually totally trust Beepee at the desk, but when he goes “The room is big, I don’t need any of the amplifiers in the PA”, I’m kind of skeptical, but I shut up because it’s his job, not mine, and I don’t want to be anal. I love playing on Julie’s songs. After soundcheck, I hang out with Neman and Sonic in the catering room for a while, then with Benoit a little, and then Andre, Turner and me go to check out this Gipsy Jazz Festival, you know, guitar, upright bass and violin kind of thing. It is very good indeed, and I notice how weird it is that these musicians don’t even know that we’re having a festival next block, just like people at our festival don’t even know they are playing right now, and how both worlds think their festival is cool, funny.

The night starts with Zombie, Neman and Etienne Jaumet’s musical project, named after Romero and Fela, what more could you ask for? I love Zombie, especially live; the tunes are super simple and they both look great when they are playing. On their last song, which reminds me a lot of the soundtrack that Moriccone recorded for The Thing by Carpenter, or at one part of Conan, Sonic comes on stage with them to play the Theremin, an instrument he absolutely masters, he’s probably one of the best in the world at it, no actually the grand grand daughter of Theremin, who I heard last year at this festival is even better, but apart from her, he’s the best Theremin player I’ve heard. It is stupid, but to see my brother Neman on stage with Sonic brings tears to my eyes, I feel stupid, but it really moves me, especially because the tune they play is awesome, I’m getting a little overwhelmed by my emotions, but the song is almost over so I can handle it.

I watch Miss Pussycat’s puppet show, it’s really pretty and I love it, but then she sings with Mr. Quintron, I’ve heard the songs before because a lot of DJs I know play their tunes, but I have to say that I find their show pretty boring and conventional, so after three songs I leave the room. Sexual Aid Kit play a very cool hardcore set. I love these kids, they are from the North of France and believe in what they do so hard, they have a bunch of killer tunes too. I’m glad they play a good show tonight. Then I miss this British band’s show, and then we’re supposed to get ready for Julie’s show, but Sonic is about to start his set. He’s standing back to the audience, so people can see the machines he’s using, how relevant of his music this is. He’s always been very sophisticated and quasi scientific about Rock and Roll, even if his records all have this raw energy I would say. But still, there’s something didactic about his work. So, his one piece set is totally psychedelic, of course, but also very calm and powerful at the same time, I guess that if one was open-minded enough to listen to a 45 minutes electronic Indian Raggha that night, they would have been happy with Sonic’s show that night. I love it. Right before the end of his set though, Beepee comes to get me to go on stage for Julie’s show.

Everything is set, I tune my bass and my SG, and I’m ready to go. Like during the tour I was on with her in Canada, she starts with this Tom Waits song, Innocent when you dream, and then we join her on stage. The minute I grab my Bass, I know something is wrong. The whole stage turns into this big mess. Everything is just feedback and low frequencies loops. I guess, when this happens on stage, it’s like when you suddenly go blind: Panic. I don’t know what to do, I don’t even know what instrument the sounds that torture me come from, I’m getting more and more frustrated as the song goes on, I really can’t think of another word than Sabotage. And Julie is singing my favorite song on Goodnight Nobody, “Snowfalls”, so it’s even more frustrating that I don’t get to hear what I’m playing, or not even what anybody is playing, or even what she’s singing. By the time the song is over, I figure that it’s the drums that are feedbacking like crazy, my god… Then I figure that my bass is not coming through at all, so I take the guitar, while my friends Benoit and Etienne are kind enough to try to get me another bass. My guitar is not coming through either, or with this weird Fuzz sound, Julie’s guitar amp, I mean, my Mesa Boogie, the best amp in the world ever is feedbacking, and I know for sure it doesn’t come from the amp, Andre’s guitar is just emitting sporadic ugly bass notes from where I am, and Neman’s drums sound like shit.

It seems, visually, that Julie is screaming, but I can’t hear shit from where I am. We’re already three songs into the set and nothing is going any better, I’m getting very frustrated and I wonder if Beepee hasn’t tried some weird DMT shit tonight, or something. “So fast”, Julie’s best song to my opinion, sounds great though, and at least I’m satisfied with one song so far. It’s going worse and worse on my side of the stage, and by the sixth or seventh song I figure that nobody at the desk has any clue about what’s going on, and that the sort of DI they’ve plugged into my amp simply is fried, so no wonder no sound comes from my instruments, the drums are in constant feedback, and so are Julie and Andre’s amps. So I just stop playing, and feel kind of embarrassed, I hope people are not mad at us for ruining Julie’s songs. Because here’s one thing I learnt touring. Nobody cares what’s wrong with the sound; they want to see a good show, period. I guess things weren’t THAT bad in the crowd, though, because I get a lot of good comments when I get out of stage, so I don’t tell anyone it’s been a nightmare for me. Especially I try not to say anything to Julie, because she seems pretty happy with the show, and so I guess that she’s so good that she probably knows when a show is good or not, so there was probably something good to it. I mean, I guess, if people could hear her fine (which I couldn’t), it is what matters in the end.

I quickly run to the catering room, because I don’t want to talk to anyone, and I end up hanging out with Sexual Aid Kit, Charles, Sonic, Lisa and Turner until we have to leave. Same night café than the night before after that, and again, when the morning comes, I’m still up and chatting with Julie. We go straight to have lunch with my mother for her birthday, after what I gotta work. Whenever I am in Paris, I host this Open Mic night on Sundays at Pop In, and then I spin records until closing time, now with the help of my flat mate from Austria. It is unbelievably hot at Pop In. It seems like people know that the Open Mic is gonna be fun after MOFO. The Sign Up List is endless, and I know I’m in for a long time tonight. It makes me kind of nervous, because it hasn’t started and I’m already very tired. People keep adding themselves to the sign up list, and even though I said I would close the list at nine, I can’t tell anyone they can’t play. Some DJ totally screwed the PA the night before, so it takes me forever to set up and people start complaining, and it is very hot.

Turner, as I said a truly entirely truly dear friend of mine, seems to have decided to be the most annoying person on the planet tonight, he talks really loud and makes obnoxious comments on other people performing, he wants me to get his friends to play before other people who were at sign up at seven, I think he confuses me with Latch or something, and then he’s being silly on stage and compares his trips to France to going to a casino, which really embarrasses me. I love Turner and he’s one of my very close friends, but I guess that people who didn’t know him before that night probably didn’t think the best of him, I don’t know. I could use a cigarette if I still smoked, I guess. Anyway, Lisa is great, all of her new songs are amazing. She gave me the album she recorded at Major Matt’s, and I think it is brilliant, especially the first song. Rebekkah is great too, Julie is awesome, Turner plays great songs. Some really nice girl tells me she’s an English teacher in France and uses my songs for the kids to learn English, I’m super flattered and also think that they probably learn to make the same mistakes as I do all the time. The DJ set is short but fun, and by the time Julie and I get back to my place, I’m exhausted.

The next day is Andre and Turner’s last day in France and so I want to hang out with them. Julie wants me to play ukulele on this song she is recording for this compilation, so we do that in the morning, and then we meet up with Turner, Andre, Neman, Paule, Q, Doctor Schonberg, for a cup of tea. Andre has a plane back to Berlin at four thirty in the morning, so I say I’ll drive him, and then Turner leaves at seven. I decide not to sleep at all, and we spend the night hanging out. We watch The Thing, it’s the seventh time I watch it this month, I have to quit, I guess. I’m sad that my brother leaves and that I never hang out with him, but he really seems happy in his cocooning couple life, so it makes me happy too, I hope I’ll get to see Turner again soon, I think I’m gonna go back to Brooklyn in September, so if he’s there, we’ll get to do that I guess. The next day, Julie leaves and I had a great time with her, as always. That night I go to check out War Of The Worlds, because I’ve been told it is as good as ET, whatever, it is a very bad movie, not even worth the free ticket I got from Doctor Schonberg to get in. I mean the first half hour amazed me totally, but then it was like if there had been studies to find out what is the most boring things to me, and to put them all together on film. I don’t know, I really love the book though. The next day I go on a mini tour with Neman and Doctor Schonberg, I’m performing more and more as Ya Ya now, and I’m starting to enjoy it even more than the Herman Dune shows, what we play is a lot of fun, indeed.