As I'm not familiar with the Paris live indie scene, it's probably hard for me to judge this place…read morein the context of the scene as a whole. However, what appears to be a slightly delapadated and small club from the outside, turns out to be a pretty cool little venue with an open-minded vibe inside. I was there on a Saturday night, for the Festival Wild Cards: Fairtilizer Party, with Lesser Panda , Rolo Tomassi and NLF3 playing. As luck would have it, two out of the three bands were from the UK, Rolo Tomassi were even closer to my roots, being from Sheffield. I don't want to start giving reviews within reviews, for fear of Qype collapsing in on itself, but Rolo Tomassi were fantastic, well worth seeing them live.
The venue itself has three main areas; a front, stage area, where people can watch and even mosh along to the acts. You could probably fit a hundred people there at a squeeze, so think along the lines of Barfly rather than Wembley Stadium. The back area is fitted out in nice loungey sofas and boothes, where the tragically hip can sip at their mojitos safe from the flailing amateur dancer that is Sickboyedd. The third and final area is the saviour of the nicotene-enhanced; the heated terrace, which was pretty rammed throughout the night. The venue has a kind of glamourous decay vibe to it, we're talking velvet curtain interspersed with band posters and tagging. I really liked it, it wasn't pretentious and was definately a cut above some of the more commercial venues in London. The sound quality was definately better
Uncle Edd would like to sit you on his knee now and give you some advice. If you're planning on getting drunk and don't own your own home, I'd suggest you have a few before coming to the Fleche d'Or. There's a little bar (Gambetta) next door that's cheaper, but my advice is to head into town (in the area by Parmentier metro) and take in a few before heading up to catch the music. 5 euros is better spent on a good cocktail or belgian beer, or even band merchandise sold at the door, than a half of lager.
It's a bit out of the way, unless you're staying at the mega-awesome Mama Shelter, but then you sometimes have to make a little effort to find a place like this, especially one with free entry. Ultimately, if you like to hear some lesser known and up and coming bands, then you'll probably already be familiar with this kind of club and in that case, you should go and check it out, I think you'll like it.
