Aidan Curran posted on July 02, 2007 07:32
The band with most influence on the Paris scene? The Libertines, who seem to have inspired the formation of half the guitar acts in the city (Plastiscines, for example, met up one of the London band's Paris concerts).
It's somehow logical, then, that the most popular band of the Paris scene sound so similar to Pete Doherty's former group.
Naast, namechecked by every young Paris band as the best of their peers, share The Libertines' raucous rough-cut garage style. In short, your attitude towards Naast will depend largely on your attitude towards The Libertines.
In a further act of imitation, this time of The Ramones, the four members use the band name as their surnames. Hence Gustav Naast the lead singer, Laka Naast on guitar, and so forth. And they also share some of Da Bruddahs' attitude (but, alas, none of their pop quality).
They do show one streak of individuality, however - they sing in French, whereas most of their fellow bands have at least a few English-language tracks.
And they can certainly walk the walk. After a recent Bordeaux gig, where a hostile crowd hurled cigarette butts and beer cans at the stage, Gustav is alleged to have attacked the 15-year-old bass player of local band Cowboys In Africa - specifically, by stabbing him in the eye and body with a fork. At the time of writing, the matter has not yet been resolved.
Not altogether ironically, one of their singles is called 'Mauvais Garçon' ('Bad Boy'). Here's the video:
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