Clue Cult

Last June, there was one place where you really had to be:  Hell!

More specifically The Hellfest Open Air which took place in Clisson (yeah, you never heard about this place, it’s ok). During 3 (awesome) days, more than 100 metal bands played for something like 20 000 headbangers.

Everyone who’s anyone in the metal world was there: Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Zombie, Iggy Pop, Judas Priest, Scorpions, Down, Opeth, Morbid Angel, Mayhem, Bad Brains, Kyuss. Obviosuly we were there too, to check out the music, drink  some beers and invoke a few demons ;)

We could have focused on these amazing bands and give you some pictures of the gigs but it’s the audience who caught our attention.  Those crazy metalheads are the funniest people to hang out with! So check it out!

Hellfest 2011

P.S : Photos by Dr Black and captions by Mrs Peacock!

P.P.S : Guess where we’ll be next year :)

They are four, they are young, they look like hippies/hipsters directly imported from LA, but they have something more: they’re totally nuts! Reunited under the name Health, these guys obviously decided that it just wasn’t interesting enough to play the same music played by 99.99% of the other music combos. This is the first of many good reasons for us to go and see if they can be as powerful live as they are on record.

We should also start by saying that the band opened a couple of shows for Nine Inch Nails in 2008. We could even stop here and you’d have to trust us (and Trent) about the quality of their concerts. But here at Cluecult, we definitely love sweat and appreciate beautiful lumberjack shirts – so we ended up at Le Point Ephémère on a September night to check it out for ourselves.

It was a lonely Brit, Chad Valley, who had the difficult mission to warm our bodies and to get our minds ready for what was coming. I always have a lot of respect for lonely musicians and singers on stage. I mean, I’m pretty sure they’d die for a backing band to help them to face the audience (especially the nasty ones). But tonight’s crowd was polite and listened carefully. Coming from Oxford (strong accent!), this guy scared us by starting with some low quality 80’s electro sounds – but then, he started to sing. And he sure knows how to do it! Good songs, a lot of new-wave influences, a sincere singer but the end of his performance showed some limits (are those ugly beats and bass lines really necessary?). I’d really like to see this guy again with a backing band!

Chad Valley – Paris – 090611

So by the end of the warm up, everybody was quiet, charmed by Chad Valley’s voice and sweet tunes. I’m not sure we were well prepared for the tornado to come! The lights were switched off, and this weird giant appeared, almost entirely in the dark. This weird character is John Famiglietti, a tall guy, approximately 2 meters high, possessed and really into head banging, hidden behind his long hair.  Health don’t have an official leader, but it’s difficult not to be hypnotized by this guy’s presence! Damn, THIS is a rock star! If you were brave enough, you would also have noticed another possessed singer/guitarist (Jake), the multi-instrumentalist with the “serial killer’s eyes” and a drummer who dangerously looks like Stephen Carpenter from Deftones (all racist jokes aside).

Yet, Health is not lead by any member, Health is an entity. This band may well become one of the leaders of 21^st century psyche music. Imagine if  the hippies from the 70′s had access to all of our current digital technologies and effects. Imagine that they lived tough times which lead them to care about heavy music, furious energy and head banging on stage. Shake it, shake it and there you go: Health! The whole show was even more impressive than on record – stronger, mind-blowing and totally full of energy! Needless to say, the minute and a half encore was brilliant, as funny as it was powerful.

Health 1 – Audience 0!

Health – Paris – 090611