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Les Calamités on stage |
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Les Calamités gave few concerts
under their short career, mainly from 1983 to 1985. There had consequently
been less than three years between their first real stage performances and
their voluntary stop to public appearances. And during that short period
they accepted to tour only outside of school, exams and grape harvest time.
One month later their numerous Paris
fans had the opportunity to give them a big hand at the Rex Club on a Saturday
evening. And the week after at the Ecole Centale's Night of the Rock (where
a second concert had to be set up, due to the huge public demand). Their
biggest audience was probably about one thousand people at a feminist event.
Going to a concert with the Calamités
was therefore always a patiently longed-for thrill. This longing often grew
while waiting in front of the stage, when the artists tuned their instruments.
If the crowd became too impatient, Caroline sometimes happened to step on stage and tell a stand-in joke (which very few rock stars ever succeeded in doing, one must admit...).
But as soon as the girls appeared with
their guitars hanging on their shoulders and Michael impassively sat down
behind the drums, the atmosphere became electric until the end of the concert.
All through the songs they had a ball in the mikes, hopping and dancing across
the stage during the musical bridges.
From the very beginning the audience
was already won over and joyfully boisterous. During the songs a bout of
happy pogo dancing sometimes required the small-scale security service to
step in. Between the songs, while Odile introduced the next one, some people shouted out "Malhabile!" because
they wanted to listen to Malhabile (which they eventually always did); sometimes Isabelle shook her head to tell the people closest to her that, no, this was
not the one they were going to sing this time. There were people shouting
"Michael!", but they were all girls. Once a guy screamed alone "Caroline,
I love you!", then she said "So do I. So do I." in a very fast and very concentrate
manner, wishing this to be over soon.
And they went through all their songs whether from their records or not. Everybody sang along on The Kids Are Alright and it was always slightly out of tune. Were Les Calamités not professional? Probably so, if being professional means showing off. Otherwise they were in control...
After an hour or so (they kept an incredible rhythm all through the concert) one was out in the street again, or facing another band, but with one's ears full of nice moments that we are still missing, fifteen years on...
