Croque Monsieur
May. 3rd, 2004 09:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darren_strangerAbout six months ago we were up at the Empress having dinner and heard a band playing in the main room. Due to various things going on at the time i wasn't able to watch or listen to them properly, but they sounded really intriguing and unusual. They were called Croque Monsieur and i'd been meaning to check them out properly for some time. They played at the Empress last night and i finally got a chance to see if they were as interesting as i'd remembered.
They were. And then some.
The best way i can think to describe them is if you imagine the band from Tim Burton's Halloween Town jamming with their gypsy cousins while drinking copious volumes of punch spiked with unspecified psychedelic substances. The music had bits of everything from folk to jazz to swing, usually all within the same song. Half the time i didn't know whether i was at a New Orleans jazz club, a Hungarian peasant wedding, a Mexican cantina, some beatnik dive or a cabaret in 1920s Paris (not that i know what any of those would actually sound like) or whether to dance a jig, polka, tango or jitterbug (all of which people were doing at various times). They were definitely the most unusual, wild and utterly infectious band i've seen since i don't know when.
If the above sounds even remotely intriguing to you, and you're in Melbourne, go see this band. Soon.
(And unless i mis-heard, i think they're playing at the Empress every Sunday night this month).
They were. And then some.
The best way i can think to describe them is if you imagine the band from Tim Burton's Halloween Town jamming with their gypsy cousins while drinking copious volumes of punch spiked with unspecified psychedelic substances. The music had bits of everything from folk to jazz to swing, usually all within the same song. Half the time i didn't know whether i was at a New Orleans jazz club, a Hungarian peasant wedding, a Mexican cantina, some beatnik dive or a cabaret in 1920s Paris (not that i know what any of those would actually sound like) or whether to dance a jig, polka, tango or jitterbug (all of which people were doing at various times). They were definitely the most unusual, wild and utterly infectious band i've seen since i don't know when.
If the above sounds even remotely intriguing to you, and you're in Melbourne, go see this band. Soon.
(And unless i mis-heard, i think they're playing at the Empress every Sunday night this month).
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Date: 2004-05-03 12:09 am (UTC):-)
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Date: 2004-05-03 03:25 am (UTC)What an odd name for a band.
I googled, because it sounds very good, or very bad.
I believe last night was their CD launch.
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Date: 2004-05-03 05:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-03 05:56 am (UTC)Never really 'got' the Ergot Derivative, but Croque Monsieur definitely hits some spot of mine. They almost don't seem 'eclectic' at all because they make the gypsy/folk bits and ragtime/swing bits etc all sound like they're *supposed* to be in the same song together and always have been.
(Most of all i like it because it takes me away, makes me feel like i am in some wierd Parisian cabaret and a beatnik jazz club and a gypsy canival all at the same time).