BOOMERANG'S NEWS
Concert on 10 July 2010 -- Concert on 20 March 2009 -- Fallenfest 3rd round -- Studio recording session -- Fallenfest 2nd round -- Fallenfest 1st round -- Videos of our very first concert
10 JULY 2010 - Concert at the "Portail Sud" theater
On Saturday 10 July 2010, we left the Paris suburbs to go to Chartres, in a pretty little theater located at the foot of the famous, superb cathedral. The Portail Sud theater is rather small (50 seats) with a 5x3m stage which turned to be big enough to host the whole band. The acoustics was nice and cosy, and our amplifiers and drums filled the venue with music quite nicely.
We played along with the band Poppies Out, who played from 9 till 10pm, then Boomerang followed from 10 to 11pm. About thirty people came to see both bands, which is not too bad, considering that we did not have the chance to make promotion, as we don't live in the town. Good news, the audience left the venu quite pleased with the concert. Everybody was smiling, the atmosphere was very warm and relaxed, and the players could exchange a few words with the spectators.
That was a very nice evening for everyone, and it makes us feel like doing it again some time!
20 MARCH 2009 - CONCERT AT LE CHAT NOIR - PARIS
Well, the concert took place as planned, in a very warm basement (no air conditionning). Spotlights, amplifiers, about 70 people... it felt like playing under the summer sun.
The band Poppies Out started playing in front of a very enthusiastic crowd, then Boomerang played in their turn for about 50 minutes. A very nice evening indeed.
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COMING SOON - 20 MARCH 2009 - CONCERT AT LE CHAT NOIR - PARIS
On Friday 20 March 2009, Boomerang will have a concert at Le Chat Noir. Poppies Out invited us to join them for this Rock evening. Thank you, Poppies Out!
Poppies Out will start playing at 9pm, then Boomerang will play second around 10:30pm.
We hope to see you there for a great Rock show!!!
Le chat Noir
76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 75011 Paris
Metro : Couronnes (line 2) / Parmentier (line 3)
We sell tickets for 3 euros.
13 DECEMBER 2008: LE NOUVEAU CASINO
For the third round of the Fallenfest music festival, we played in Le Nouveau Casino, a very nice venue in Paris, France. As usual, we had 30 minutes to play and convince the audience to vote for us, hoping that we could reach the fourth and final round of the festival
Unfortunately, we did not pass this round. The band Odyssey won that evening. Congratulations! We wish them good luck for the final, on 24 January, at La Cigale, in Paris.
In spite of our defeat, we were highly pleased to have played three rounds before a real audience, on real stages in good venues.
Only two short videos remain from that concert:
What do we think about this festival? Well, the idea is to help the competing bands to go from one round to the next, thanks to the votes of the audience. The downside is that the more people you bring in, the more chances you have to win the round. Talent (or lack of talent), creativity, virtuosity are not rewarded, nor taken into consideration. If you just snap your fingers and have a lot of friends in the room, you can win!
Another disturbing thing: the festival managers do not make any promotion of their own event (except for their web site). So the bands have to promote themselves, call their friends, relatives, colleagues, neighbors, ask them to come and support them and pay 10 to 12 euros for a mere 30 minutes of concert. The bands do not get a single cent out of this, but they do fill the concert halls.
We also noted how difficult it is for an unknown band to attract an audience... It is indeed difficult to have the same people come and see you several times in a row. Some do it with pleasure, they like what we do and gave us their support, and so they came every time, payed their ticket every time, but most people do not have the will, the money or the availability you may expect from them. They have a life of their own! And of course, insisting can quickly make you look like an annoying pest!
As a conclusion, I must say that this has been a very interesting experience, which helped us see our strengths and flaws when playing live. We can't wait for more concerts!
Thanks to Isabelle for the photographs and the video extracts.
STUDIO RECORDING SESSION
We finally did it.
We spent some money for a 2-day session in a real recording studio and get our very own 4-track CD:
What do you think?
Of course, two days is a very short period of time to record and mix 4 songs, but we managed to do it.
We found a nice little studio in some Paris suburbs, recruited a sound engineer friend, recorded 4 songs on Saturday, 22 September, then mixed on Sunday, 23 September. In spite of imperfections due to our lack of experience, we have obtained a pretty good result, better than what we could have achieved ourselves anyway.
We found out that it's very pleasant to go to a studio and see the songs taking shape step by step until they form a whole. Then you take home your brand new CD and listen to it over and over again!!! That really is a pleasure.
The four of us are pleased with this recording session. In a perfect world, we would love to make a living out of playing music, and have a large and loyal audience... end of the dream. We are well aware that success does not come easily and that we are not even close to being famous. It does not matter, as we merely enjoy playing and creating. So far, so good, Boomerang is doing well.
27 SEPTEMBER 2008 : LA BOULE NOIRE
After winning the first round of the Fallenfest Festival on 26 June 2008, we were granted the right to play again on 27 September 2008 at La Boule Noire (the black ball), a very good concert venue in Paris, France.
Eight bands participated in the contest that evening and Boomerang ranked 3rd, tie with another band. Therefore, we'll get to play again in another concert venue in Paris. The venue will be "Le Nouveau Casino" and we'll be playing there on 13 December 2008.
See you soon for more music adventures, then! In the meantime, we'll try to play in more easily accessible venues.
26 JUNE 2008 : CAPITOL STUDIOS
We played on stage for the first time on 26 June 2008 during the Fallenfest music festival, a French contest for amateur bands. We won that night against three other bands. The audience voted for us.
We are going to play again in September, competing for the second round of the festival in a venue called "La Boule Noire" (the eight ball, in billiards) in Paris.
We were quite stressed during that first concert, the temperature was really hot, detuning our guitars, but the audience was pretty warm.
Video extracts from that concert.
OUR FIRST CONCERT
Here, you will find extracts from our very first concert, during the first round of the Fallenfest music festival, on 26 June 2008:
The bottom left button opens the track list
