FRIDAY, SEPT. 7:

After listening to electro-driven opening bands, the cool meta-pop of Stereo Total was like an electric shock to the cerebellum. Francoise stepped out awkwardly, like a librarian who’s been cataloguing all day caught her with her nose in the stacks, just as she had uncovered a book called something like Feminist Epistomology and the Critiques of Rationality and Dualisms. And on the right you have Brezel Goring, whose name rhymes with “boring” though he is anything but, as he bounds on stage wearing a shirt that says “We Have the Power of Love” in ‘70s typography. What is love? To some people it’s like the heart valentines you gave all your classmates in grade school—a caricature that Stereo Total draws upon in the most yé-yé of their songs, like “C’est La Mort.” To some people, it’s dark and yearning, like “Furore.” Francoise urged girls to explore their needs in songs, like “Relax Baby Be Cool.” Before the encore, half of the kids were enthusiastically vibrating onstage, as Brezel climbed the rafters like a monkey. For the encore, he asked everybody what they wanted to hear: “A punk song about lies or a sweet love song?” And I bellowed: “Both! At the same time!” Which makes me think of something French director Michel Gondry—who has made films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Science of Sleep—said about music, that it is important to keep your brain loose so you can come up with ideas, and be inspired by those around you, as he is by people like his son, who is into punk music. And the played a song that went something like, “This is a punk song, this is a punk song!” and then a love song. Why not? (SS)