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+ Angelo Spencer, Kimya Dawson & Coming Soon - Bright Folk Day - Le Brise Glace, Annecy, June 7, 2007  A big bright sun shines on Annecy that particular Thursday afternoon. The quite frenchy looking Woven Hand tour bus arrived during the night and is now parked just outside Le Brise Glace. The travellers discovered the view as they woke up : they slept only a few dozens of yards from an alpine lake surrounded by mountains. Now it’s a bit past 2pm. Inside, the team gets ready for sound check. A tour manager would warn you: if you’re just a fan, you just can’t hang out there. But the author is not a fan, strictly speaking : she hasn’t listened to all the albums, she hasn’t read all the interviews, she hasn’t known the band for years. She’s only here to witness a very special event and then tell the tell: a mythical band has come to town. On stage, the drums already started pounding alone when the rest of the band arrives. It’s funny how a guitarist simply fastening his guitar strap can make you think of a cowboy saddling his horse before going to work, somewhere in the middle of the great desert plains. Quiet and concentration… The usual routine. Quite often, at the beginning of a sound check, the sound of each instrument is adjusted in turn but not this afternoon: it's more a touch of guitar then a touch of bass, guitar again, voice… And soon they're ready to play a first tune. It’s only sound check and you’re not a fan still you find it hard not to clap at the end of that first piece. That single song and knowing that the singer and head of the project, David Eugene Edwards, enjoys woodwork - he would have kept with his first job, cabinet-maker, if he hadn’t been able to make a living out of his music, says he in a recent interview (Crossroads, May 2007); that would be enough to get a clear picture of Woven Hand music: it feels as strong, simple and natural as wood, yet not any piece of wood: an ancient piece slowly carved and polished by careful caring skilful hands as well as mere time, an impressive dark sculpture of strange yet somehow familiar symbols telling a story coming straight from some archaic ancestral unconscious grounds common to us all human beings. And as the author is not a fan, she won’t be able to tell what song that was! How frustrating, sorry. Then… After two Whistling Girl and one Dirty Blue… “Oh boy!”, says Mr Edwards… It’s 2:50pm and… They get off stage. Someone asks, surprised: “vous avez fini?” (“you’re done?”). “Ouai!” (“yeah!”). All so very simply. And on that particular sunny Thursday afternoon, as Le Brise Glace team is waiting for the next artists, Angelo Spencer and Kimya Dawson, to arrive for sound check, Woven Hand is walking down Annecy old streets. Soon, part 2: a minimini interview, photos, videos and the end of the story all the way to Paris. P.S. : thanks to Le Brise Glace team and the two achierpointcom fellows, special thanks to Fred, to mr Edwards for shaking hands and to Guillaume for the phone call. |