The block party is over, and the concert went reasonably well: rain on monday, rain on wednesday, and nice weather on tuesday, just when we played !

Some photos from the party are available on Flickr.

As usual, recordings are available to band members below.

Access only allowed to Moma Poka members. Please login to access the audio on this page.

In the end, we performed three half-hour sets, which were rather well received. The audience surprised us by dancing in the street to some of our songs, notably "Fragiles", "Voyages", "Imagine un soir" and "Fin".

Gear

The bass amp was an old SWR "Bassic Black", which seems to be most of the time referred to as "Basic Black". It's a surprisingly light combo, which was apparently very popular 8 years ago, but which proved incompatible with the PX4B: I had inserted it in the effects loop, but the PX4B went into larsen as soon as I injected some wet signal back. I sort of think I'll really need a dedicated pedalboard instead of relying on the PX4B outside the home practice context for which it is designed. In the end, I could only use it for the tuner function, and rely on the amp sound. Speaking of which...

Although I had rolled off the treble and medium below 50% on the amp panel, I had to cut off all treble on the Corvette to avoid sounding like an ukelele. This amp seems to have been designed for more traditional Jazz or Precision basses, not Warwick slap machines. Not very convenient.

This being said, we had time to set up properly before the concert, so I could make sure the sound was reasonably balanced 50 meters from the stage, thanks to the wireless system. Neat ! If only we always has as much time to set up stage.

"Immeubles en fête" is a yearly block party held everywhere in France.

Come and hear us at the Villebon event, on 2007-05-29 19:00 to 22:00 !

Although technical problems (batteries !) prevented a full recording of the concert, the middle section is now available to group members.

Regrettably, until licensing terms are cleared up, these recordings cannot be made public.

Access only allowed to Moma Poka members. Please login to access the audio on this page.

In the meantime, here are a couple of shots from musicians playing in the other bands that night:

• 
  Bass player from the "Batucada social club"
• 
  Julie from "Julie et ses Jules"

See the → driving directions.

As usual, there will be several bands playing. The concert is set up by french charity Portes Ouvertes. This nonprofit exists to help people with social difficulties by providing them with a way to meet others through art events, graphical or musical.

I've just learned that we're going to do our first gig this year sooner than on previous years: it is scheduled for 06 April 2007, 21h00, mid-April, but I don't know where yet at:

MZ Evenement
rue des Roses
77170 Servon

See map with driving directions.

Following JP's suggestion, the whole band went to see Tania Maria in Palaiseau yesterday.

Now, I had heard lots of praise about her in the late 80s, notably from Isabelle, who used to sing and play drums in one of my former bands, but I had not been enthused by what I had heard, so I went to the concert ready to be disappointed : after all, I've never liked latin music *that* much.

The stage layout brought the first surprise : instead of the traditional band we had expected to see, based on her previous work, were just a grand piano and a mammoth percussion set. The concert itself was indeed a revelation, although not really about Tania Maria herself.

While attending the Muse concert in Paris Bercy on 2006-12-14, I took particular notice of something rather specific in the sound of the band: their ability to bring out a mix of major and minor chords with full distortion on the bass or guitar, sometimes even superimposed with crystal clear keyboards.

Now, if you've ever tried to play a minor chord with half the distortion Muse actually uses, you've certainly noticed how awful this can sound. I sure did, and hearing this sound great at the distortion and amplification levels of Muse was intriguing. What was going on ?

Highly anticipated concert on Sunday: this is our "big" concert for the year, in a private festival of multiple musical styles.

Beautiful uncommon setup for an outdoors concert, with a stage set on a tiny island, with some stage art :

OK, then here is a pair of them : Moma Poka at the 7even festival, 2005.