Paris

Paris ended up being really fun. We had a day off on Sunday and nothing was open so we did a lot of that - NOTHING! It was nice to relax. We actually went to a photo shoot with Devendra for this big French music magazine called Les Inrockuptibles. The photographer was pretty pro and had a studio with a beautiful garden. He shot a bunch of 4x5 Polaroids and 4x5's and then had a whole Hasselblad system. Yes, of course I was checking out his gear! He took some shots of Dev by himself, some of the whole band, and then some of individual band members. In Andy's I'm giving him a kiss! Then we went back to the hotel and Andy, Lucky, Noah, Jona and I went out for dinner. Dev and Bianca had some much needed time alone. We passed through the neighborhood that had the venue, La Cigale, and apparently also had the Moulin Rouge, but we didn't see it. We climbed higher up the hill to Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur Cathedral. There were tons of people on the steps just taking in the view of Paris. Unfortunately there was so much smog you could barely see anything. Gross. We ended up at a cheap Indian place that was OK. The waitress was nice but the service was terrible and the food wasn't really spicy at all.
The day of the show, Andy and I woke up and did an errand at the Beggars' office (Dev's label in France) and had some coffee and chocolate croissants. We met back up with everyone at the hotel and went over to the venue, La Cigale. That afternoon it was so hot outside I just stayed in the theater where it was cooler. And where there was internet! Dev had a couple of interviews. One was televised for a French TV show and he had me and Andy and Jona stand behind him. During the interview Andy and I made out and Jona had on his fake beard and pretended to chain smoke. It was pretty funny, especially knowing that people who watch it are gonna be like, "What the heck is going on behind Devendra?!" I had to set up merch in the lobby before doors opened, and there were people lined up outside way before the show. It had sold out 2 weeks before. I didn't get to watch very much of the show, but the parts I did watch were awesome. The sound was really good and they played really well. The audience was going NUTS. It was probably about 100 degrees in that room (no air conditioning) and totally packed with people, some of whom were even smoking, and they were dancing and screaming. At the end of the show, during "White Reggae Troll/Africa", Devendra invited the audience onstage and about 40 people took him up on it!
After the show everyone was amped and it was only midnight so we wanted to hang out a bit more. Devendra's friend Amy Sue invited us up to her garden to hang out. We passed some cafes on the street and when the people saw us they started cheering and clapping! It was so sweet! Dev and Bianca went back to the hotel but the rest of us went up to Amy Sue's, which was right up near Sacre Coeur, and had some drinks on the grass in the private garden area of her residence. It was a really nice ending to the evening.