The Answer: Irish rockers hit Paris
Oct
23
Written by:
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
There's no verb in French for 'to rock'. Amazingly, the likes of Voltaire, Zola, Proust and Camus somehow overcame this obstacle in writing their classic works. This only serves to prove their resourcefulness and genius, of course.
By contrast, Downpatrick band The Answer depend for their very existence on the verb 'to rock' - for how else could they describe themselves, express themselves, BE themselves? It's an existential conundrum worthy of the intellectual cafés of Paris, the city where the Norn Iron foursome happen to find themselves these days.
Not for them, however, some poncy philosophical Left Bank café. When The Answer want coffee (and maybe a sticky bun with it), they'll settle for no less than the Hard Rock Café. The Café of Rock. Not soft rock, molten rock or kinda-sorta-semi-solid rock, but Hard Rock. Rock!
[Sorry. We'll stop that.]
Tonight The Answer continue their French detour from their current jaunt around Holland - they're playing an acoustic gig in the aforementioned H.R.C. on the Boulevard Montmartre (which, as our Paris-loving readers will know, is not in Montmartre). Wouldn't it be gas, right, if they met a man called Pierre, because 'pierre' means stone, and they like rock, and he's French, and... ah, forget it.
Their plugged-out show tonight follows their support slot with American band Black Stone Cherry (keeping with their love of rock in all its forms) at the Trabendo last night. The lads also supported The Rolling Stones (see what we mean?) in Dusseldorf last week as late replacements for Amy Winehouse, whose favourite type of rocks would probably be [Snip! - CLUAS Legal Department]
The Answer got considerable exposure in the Paris press today - commuter freesheet Metro (the fine French equivalent of what you in Dublin litter the DART with) featured the band in an interview ("Q: Who would you like to collaborate with? A: A girl!") and full colour spread, including a photo of them backstage at a recent London gig with Jimmy Page. By contrast, Paul McCartney's show at the Olympia last night (tickets on sale earlier that day, one per person - cue pandemonium on the streets of Paris) only got an article half the size.
Does this mean that The Answer are twice as good as the man who wrote Let It Be? Decide for yourself by visiting the band's MySpace page ("Influences: ... Van Halen, Motley Crue...") and website (motto: Keep Believin') to check out some of their tunes. They're currently promoting their re-released debut album 'Rise' - from it, here's their single 'Under The Sky':