La Flèche d'Or: Frightened Rabbit Show

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We love this music venue–it’s small which means you can get really close to the bands, there’s always a great lineup of bands from all-over the world, it’s perched atop an old railroad track (love me some industrial re-use) and it’s in a hip area of town (the 20th arrondisement, next to Père Lachaise). In fact, the building itself was an old train station and the name La Flèche d’Or is taken from the name of an all first-class Pullman train line between Paris and Calais that ran between 1926 and the onset of the World War II. The venue has a capacity of 490, including front patio and lounge area, and as Melephobe reports, “Since everyone smokes in Paris, it’s easy to get to the stage between sets, when the cigarettes come calling.”

View from the back lounge onto the railroad track:

I took my big camera and my new low-light lens to the Frightened Rabbit show in April to start learning concert photography. I have newfound respect for concert photographers, having always been on the receiving end. As musicians, we move around a lot with no concern towards the epileptic lighting show. I understand why a lot of people take photos in black & white–it sort of cancels out the crazy lighting. And check out Frightened Rabbit! Their first album The Midnight Organ Fight, pretty much defined my band’s existence in the month before our first SXSW performance in 2009.