Montmartain Circus Beach Party

Everything begins with a haul to Montmartin dur Ser. The moments aren’t as long today. Maybe it’s because we got an early start. Maybe it’s because we know that the beach is at the end of our drive, along with a support slot for Atari Teenage Riot. Yes, the mostly still living ATR.

When we arrive at what the GPS tells us is our final destination, I wonder if we blipped through a wormhole into an outtake scene from Big Fish. There is a giant circus tent set up 100 meters from the beach, and really, nothing else.

Meet Escargot del Mer. A whole bowl of it.

It’s a brutal way to start the evening. Zach and I pry the rubbery mollusks from their spiraled, barnacle covered shells and move them towards our mouths. The thought that the kitchen is messing with us crosses my mind, as we don’t see anyone else with a bowl full of snails. I think they’re just being kind and giving us what they consider a delicacy. And so the little blobs keep working their way out of their moot defenses and into our mouths. Ah, the niceties and pleasantries of being grateful guests.

BBE play at twilight.

Atari teenage put on exercise-rific show. At first I’m standing on the side of the stage, watching them run around and the hippies in the crowd go wild.

I wander out into the crowd to see if they’re seeing something I’m not. And they are- the lighting guy is doing an awesome job.

I don’t know ATR’s exact politics, but for some reason the thought keeps running through my mind that they’d make a great opener/accompanist for MIA.

We end the night in what I’m guessing is the next town over. Our accommodations are darkly hilarious. Our hosts insist on locking and unlocking the doors for us and won’t leave us with a key. When we’re led in, we find we have four rooms with four bunk beds in each. The hallways outside our rooms have an unnerving feel fed by yellowish fluorescent lights against green walls. Uniform, unmarked doors line the wall apposing the bedrooms, and depending on which door you open, you find a toilet or a shower. These are interspersed with sinks, and the whole thing communicates to me an X-Files vibe, as if this is where the government brings people to conduct their little alien abduction experiments. If I start getting bloody noses and find a tube in my nasal cavity, I’m coming straight here for answers. Come to think of it, I don’t know where here is, they brought us here. Well then.