BrightestYoungThings: Live DC: Nouvelle Vague @ 9:30 Club (plus Interview)

all photos: Mike Danko

All those of you who never had a crush on a French foreign exchange student / think that accents are generally overrated/ don’t have a beret bought at the age of 15 hidden in the depths of their closet:
Don’t bother to read this post.

Same for those who think that describing music as “sweet” is an insult.

Are you gone? Good.

Now, that we Francophile lovers of sugary sounds are in private: The Nouvelle Vague show was an answer to the naïve longing for all things French and sexy.

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Six years ago, Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux – the masterminds behind Nouvelle Vague – came up with an idea that was doomed to be a success: Sexy singers stripping punk songs to their skeletons and putting them back together in a way that the Sex Pistols’ “God save the queen” became a perfect soundtrack for making out or preparing shake&bake croissants on a romantic Sunday morning. Long gone are the bossa nova arrangements of the first LP, but the concept is still the same. And it’s working better than ever. For their US tour Olivier and Marc picked two wonderfully contradicting and at the same time complementary singers out of their impressing collection of beautiful chanteuses: A wild Brazilian nymphet (Karina) and a mellow vamp (Helena). On stage, the two pulled out all the stops to allure the crowd.

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A see-through dress? Check.

Open zippers and bare feet? Check.

Red lights? Check.

5’4” (ED: she meant 6'4", these women were prancing amazonian godesses) babes touching each other all over and breathing into each other’s ears, tossing their hair, playing footsy, cooing and whispering, lasciviously sprawling on the ground?

Check. Check. Check. Check. Check.

Is that predictable? Maybe.

Did it work? Oh yes.

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And the most amazing thing: it worked for everyone. The crowd was a little stiff during the opening set by Clare and the Reasons', but they started to loosen up with the enticing sounds of Nouvelle Vague’s “Master and Servant” and they even dared some salsa steps to “Dance with me.” By the end of the concert everybody in the packed 9:30 Club had let their hair down and was feeling the sexy French groove.

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One of the reasons Nouvelle Vague keeps on filling venues all over the world: Their music is universal. For fans it’s a revelation. At its worst, Nouvelle Vague’s sound can be called plain. (Quote Mike Danko, the man who gave me Ire Works as a sample of music he puts on while cuddling: “There’s nothing wrong with it. But I’m biased, they are hot.”) The simple but genius concept works cross-gender and cross-age. In fact, Nouvelle Vague is one of a very few bands a car filled with four generations on a family Sunday ride could agree on.

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And so everybody at 9:30 club was happy. Francophile 30-somethings were delighted, their husbands were kept busy drooling at the singers, the teenagers went bananas and probably couldn’t wait to pin the concert tickets next to their “Amélie” posters. The crowd gladly gave up its free will and was 100 percent obedient to Karina and Helena. They clapped, they danced, they chanted, and they couldn’t get enough. Even after three encores they were begging for more.

Good songs, good arrangements, an energetic show and a heaping portion of sex appeal. Sometimes it’s as simple as that.

And for those of you who “just can’t get enough” of the cuddly French, here is a short English-as-second-language phoner with Marc Libaux, held despite clashing accents, disastrous reception and noise level in a corner of the Cruisn’ Yacht.

The original concept of Nouvelle Vague was to use young girl singers who don’t know the meaning of punk music and let them reinterpret old hits – what changed with the third LP?

Firstly, we said good bye to bossa nova and are trying different styles from blue grass and country to reggae. However, we still stick to the concept of re-interpreting. People keep on asking when we will move on, make our own songs. But we are not really a band, we are a project. We concentrate on writing our own songs while pursuing our careers outside Nouvelle Vague. Secondly, this time we have original musicians record with the girls.

Right, you’ve got really big names: Ian McCulloch of Echo And The Bunnymen, Magazine's Barry Admanson… How was Dépêche Mode’s Martin Gore?

He was the only one we didn’t meet in person, because we never were on the same continent. He recorded his part and sent it to us.

Did any of the musicians you asked turn down the offer to collaborate?

No, everyone we asked agreed except for Danny from the Talking Heads. He didn’t decline because he didn’t like the idea, though. He simply didn’t have the time.

I just recently heard “Dance with me” in an elevator in Chicago. Is “elevator music” an accusation in your ears?

Oh, no! You hear the most beautiful music in elevators and stores. We are proud of that! There will always be hardcore fans, who will hate every interpretation of the original songs by bands they love, or people who don’t like loungy compositions. But I don’t make music to please everyone on the world. Especially in the US we had such a warm welcome.

DC is the last stop on your US tour.

Yes, it was the longest we have ever had. We hoped to get a tan on the West Coast, but the weather was awful. We brought so many t-shirts and shorts but were not able to wear a single piece.

Karina and Helena are touring with you this time. What happened to your singer Melanie?

Melanie is pregnant. But neither Oliver nor me are the father! It's our bassist. They will have the baby by the end of March, which is good news. But she had to stay home.

And for the question everyone is dying to know: Where do you get all these beautiful chanteuses?

It’s not that we ask every beautiful girl: Can you sing? It’s a coincidence. But a good one.