Moriarty-web

There’s a good chance that many people attending this year’s festival have never heard about the 6-person French group, Moriarity.

I could count myself as one of those people if not for being assigned to write a a feature article about the band ahead of their Taipei area appearance  last June.

After doing some initial research like visiting their Myspace site and watching some videos on Youtube, I was quite suspicious that Moriarty had borrowed a page (musically and stylistically) from Natalie Merchant and 10,000 Maniacs and to some extent, Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians. And, I wasn’t sure that what had been cool vibe in the early 80’s originating in upstate New York, a scene that may be described as “American Gothic” would still be compelling  30 years later.

As their concert approached, I did an email interview with the band, not really sure who responded, but the band member rambled on in ALL CAPS  detailing some of the  alternative venues the band had performed such as a mental institution, a prison,  a night train, and  a church lit with candles during a thunderstorm.

And this responder said that yes, the band had been named after the lead character in Jack Kerouac’s beat classic “On the Road,” which many members of the band had read, and as they put it

“THE MAIN CHARACTER IS THIS BAD BOY WHO STEALS CARS AND JUST RIDES, LOVES REAL JAZZ, WOMEN AND (MAYBE) MEN..

After reading this rambling email, and finishing my feature length article for the weekend section of the local English language newspaper, I decided the band was worth checking out.

The concert was set in a distant suburb of Taipei, in a modern auditorium that was acoustically perfect and had comfortable seating. I was fully confident that his performance could potentially be riveting, though my spirits sank a bit when the concert was delayed for 30 minutes due  an unexpectedly light  box office which left promoters  scrambling to fill more seats.

When the band finally did take the stage, vocalist Rosemary Standley was a commanding presence, inhabiting her own eerie head space and knitting the air with her fingers. Her vocals were enrapturing vocals and the band moved effortlessly through radio friendly fare such  as “Jimmy” as well as other French language chansons.

It was an intoxicating performance, something that was both creepy and compelling, something that 10,000 Maniacs had always promised yet never truly delivered. And, the band’s composition with American Rosemary Standley as vocalist with a French backing band gave them true bohemian cred, not the type of stuff the Edie Brickell had hinted at.

Moriarty have achieved some success in France, with the release, “Gee Whiz But This is a Lonesome Town,” selling 70,000 copies and going gold. And, their latest record has been released by the respected, French independent label, Naïve, which scored a marketing coup earlier last year by releasing an album by France’s First Lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

And, if there’s another indication that the group may rock out, the other group which had support from the French government to play Fuji Rock last year was fellow French citizens, The Inspector Cluzo.

Sean