My experience at the Nimes festival 'This is not a love song'

Okay so I've been meaning to write an article for a while because I just like doing so but I had absolutely no idea of any subject I could write about that wouldn't be yet another band or movie that no one is going to check out (just kidding, no beef with anyone who write these articles). I finally got an idea, which is the exact title of this article because I'm not original with titles like Rania was with her last one (luv u!!). Mind you I only went to one day out of three of the festival so you'll just get my take on their last day, the 1st of June (happy pride month to my lgbt friends out here btw!!).

So I found out about this festival last year, when there were posters about it everywhere around Marseille, and I just remember taking pictures of these posters and sending them to Santa because of the festival's name (it's the name of a PIL song that I made her discover, here's a link if you care for it (if you wanna see the singer of the Sex Pistols act stupid I suggest you watch the video)).

Turns out for my birthday my dad gave me tickets for this year's Tinals, and I have to admit I was quite surprised at first because I knew literally only one band out of the whole lineup and it's not often that it happens (my dad knew 2, legend). In my great sense of preparation, when June 1st came I had completely forgotten it was the day of the festival, so I hadn't taken the time to listen to the bands' music either beforehand. So I went to this festival pretty much expecting nothing (still excited to see the band that I knew though).

I'll start with my opinion on the festival itself before the bands I discovered, and let me tell you this festival is GREAT. The huge and famous Parisian Download fest is nothing compared to this kinda tiny Nimes festival. The setting is really pretty and unique, there are huge paper flowers that light up when it becomes dark, there's a swing made of a cut-up Combi van, you can find beanbags in some parts to sit between concerts... To my pleasure it's also for the most part eco-friendly (there are solar panels that can recharge phones, the toilets are all "toilettes sèches" (made even more gross than usual by all the beer-drinkers). The 5 different stages are super cool : 2 of them are just usual outdoors stages, the 3 others are indoors in a sort of arena (one of them is the big arena's venue, the other is a small patio that looks very cute and the last one is a club that we didn't go to so I can't tell you more than that). Throughout the day, there are conferences, karaokes, blind tests and children activities which I find really great for a music festival. Really blown away by the whole organisation that kinda resembles what I imagine We Love Green to look like, and the artistic choice to only schedule non-famous bands to make them be discovered by the public, many of said-bands having women band members which is rare and great!

Now, the most important : the music. When we arrived it was around 6 pm and we got to see an all-girl Japanese band called Shonen Knife. They sung about groundbreaking things such as wasabi and banana chips, but it didn't matter because their bubbly energy felt very refreshing : they were the living proof that you don't have to be a marvellous musician or singer to do what you want in life. My dad called them the Japanese Ramones and he was quite right, their songs were easy to listen to, the subjects not very deep and the chords never complicated (btw they did a nice rendition of Blitzkrieg Bop (whoop spelt that with no help yay me)). The drummer really stood out : she was giving all she had and was smiling all the way through too. They seemed really nice because they spent a long time signing things for people after their concert and you could see them wandering around the festival with no security guard or anything throughout the day.

After that we only heard from afar another Japanese woman called Wednesday Campanella that we didn't really appreciate; the songs were long and repetitive, and eerie but in a bad way. If you like electronic music and Japan you might appreciate them (for example, if anyone here is a Kpop fan definitely check it out, it's quite similar musically), here's one of their songs (after checking their studio music out, I can definitely say that it's way better than being thrown into their live music).

Then OH BOY things got better. This next band is one of the two that my dad knew beforehand (from Télérama apparently, yay). They're called Fontaines DC (my dad told me DC stands for Dublin City), they're Irish and they're ducking amazing!!! The singer's monotone voice with the loud music were really great together, and his attitude was really similar to Ian Curtis' (he kinda looked like him too), the crazy dancing aside. He never talked between songs, always just delivered his lines, nothing less nothing more, but was really full of silent charisma. The bassist had taken god knows what without their set and was clearly in another world, which was really funny to watch. The guitarist also acted similarly as Bernard Sumner in the Joy Division days, very impassible with a kinda frowny expression. Their set was only thirty minutes long, but was really energetic and demanding, and left the whole audience screaming for more. "I'm gonna be big" sings the singer on one of their songs, and I don't doubt that for a second!

After came another band that we didn't really appreciate; Dirty Projectors. Their studio music is not half-bad, but discovering their music for the first time in a live setting was very different. It's a kind of electronic genre that I couldn't really classify or describe, and it really was inaccessible. When I looked around I could see the audience swaying with a confused face on, not quite sure what the hell was happening. The keyboards and electronic drums added many odd sounds, the guitars were full of reverb which made impossible to decipher a clear melody, the main singer was singing way too loud and close to his mic, so yeah we left a few songs in the set. Then followed a period of confusion : we saw for half a song the electronic/techno band Rinôçérôse, which really wasn't our type of music. The songs are reaaaally long to start, the buildup appreciated but should really be shorter, and it was at the big venue so the speakers were way too loud for me for music I didn't appreciate. Then we queued to go to the Club venue, but some guys came out and said it wasn't worth the wait, so being kinda fed up with music we didn't like we stopped queuing and just went to wait somewhere.

As the night started, the band Rendez Vous was next (we took an English accent saying their name every time but there really was no need because they're all French). If I said Fontaines DC's music was demanding, it was nothing like Rendez Vous'. There was no way to not get into what they were proposing, even if it was a really unusual style of music and I'm sure far from most of the audience's taste in music. The two main singers were not really singing but rather screaming, with some weird effect on the mic that made it really taunting and just, good? I took some time to realise they were singing in English, but it didn't matter because they sounded like they had things to say and so everyone listened. As far as I looked I couldn't see anyone not into it and not bouncing to the music. Their studio music is less threatening than their blaring live sound, but it's still oddly good. To me, they kinda sound like an angry, punk version of New Order.

We left before their set was finished to go check out another band called Pinky Pinky. They were a 3 piece female band with a singing drummer, their style between blues and rock. It was really light-hearted and well played, and the singer was really intense. However, the bassist and guitarist looked super bored through the whole set, which gave slightly off vibes and made it hard to be fully enjoyable. Their studio music is thus really good!

Finally, my one expectation, the band I knew and really enjoyed, the British band Shame. I discovered them before their album was out through Quotidien (this performance isn't the one I saw, this one's only on the internet and the TV version isn't on the internet), and my first thought after seeing them was "wow! a band singing live on Quotidien! that's rare enough to be noticed!". They were really good, and my mom and I agreed that they had broken the baraque :D, and I started paying closer attention to them, as I really saw in them punk having reborn. I particularly liked their song Tasteless and still do :) And then I got their album for christmas, and after having listened to it in its entirety, I decided they were reaally British and I liked their sound a lot. So anyways, I can't say I was really surprised by their performance at the festival because I had seen videos of them live before, but they did live up to my expectations. Singer Charlie Steen has an amazing cocky aura and stage persona, lightning a cigarette between his lines just like the singer of Fontaines DC had previously done, jumping in the crowd and speaking banter/giving instructions in a thick London accent that people didn't seem to understand. They were really good and the pit really fun to be in. The bassist threw himself in the drums more than once.

After that was another set of Fontaines DC, same songs played but on a different stage : they were at the Patio, the tiniest venue and at this occasion packed with people. The atmosphere was really great because it was late so they probably didn't expect this many people to show up, so there was no security or anything stopping people from invading the stage (luckily, no one did). The pit took most of the crowd and I got a few badly placed punches, but it was a very friendly place to be in and people were clearly enjoying themselves. The drummer of Rendez Vous kept crowdsurfing and mosh pitting really hard, and I think it was him who spilled his beer all over my arm, which was too real for me.

The last band of the evening was Johnny Mafia, and my body was too sore to thoroughly enjoy their set but they were really good! The whining voices of the three singers fit really well together and the music was loud but not agressive. The drummer was really impressive and the overall style just friendly rock. We sadly left before the end and drove back to the terter of Simiane-Collongue, content with our day.

I apologize for the length of this article that literally took me three hours to write oops? but I had things to say I guess.
If you read until the end comment something (like literally do) so that I know qui sont les vrais <3

-Sibullex