Eglise Saint-Pierre-sur-l'Hâte


Clouds in the afternoon


Backstage in the sacristy


The storm is coming


Tagono-Ura


After the concert


Ratsky and Arthur


Moriarty on tour: Festival C'est dans la Vallée, Sainte-Marie-Aux-Mines, Eglise St-Pierre sur l'Hâte

Up the long and winding road to the old XVIth century church; some time spent in the cemetary; dead dried frogs and rusty iron crosses.
as night falls, a storm builds up in the valley, two hundred people packed inside the church like Noah's Ark waiting for the flood;

We start playing, thunder cracks; lightning illuminates the stained-glass windows like in an expressionist movie; first song, second song; the rain comes hitting hard, pounding like waves on the wooden roof; then Private Lily; "she's going to war, she's going t-" and a sudden flash of lightning and a simultaneous explosion of thunder and in a split-second all lights and the sound-system go out; two-hundred people brace under the impact, heads retracted inside their shoulders; all that is left is the candles burning quietly on their chandeliers and the rush of rainwater and, the song is going on; the martin double-thumb rythm, the drums, the double-bass, the dobro, the harmonica, the voices, all sounding even warmer, naked sounds amplified by the wooden body of the church. It feels good to play without microphones for a while. Rose Gilbert and I climb up in the preacher's chair for Enjoy The Silence in total acoustic setup; On Motel, Animals can't Laugh, the storm plays tricks with the electricity again, and the sound-system goes on and off and on and we just have to concentrate on the music and keep going, and when it comes to the Crimson Singer or der Leier Mann, the electricity goes in the bodies and the fingers and the ears of everybody; and Rodolphe is there, leaning against a wooden pillar and he's the one who shouts and cheers when Charlie goes nuts on his Hanoi Blue solo.

When it's over, all the people rush into their cars under the beating rain; and we're left alone with silence and echoes in the empty nave of the church.

Further into the night there will be a concert of the Winter Family inside Rodolphe Burger's Klein Leberau Studio. People hugging to keep warm and slowly falling asleep.

Photographs and text by Zim

Playing the Jew's Harp on Taiwanese TV, Banqiao Auditorium


Aftershow


Never-ending lukewarm rain soaks everything


Tom on the Taipei metro


The Mahjong lesson


Lost at night, somewhere around Chengde Road, 1 a.m.


Arthur, Nong-An Street, round midnight


Minquan West Road / Zhongshan North Road, 2 a.m.


Moriarty on tour: concert at the Banqiao Auditorium, Taipei, Taiwan, June 5th, 2009

Taiwanese welcome by Pearl Lin & George;

It rains the whole time, it's warm, we're soaked; water cascades down the facades like a neverending torrent;

One entire morning of interviews and acoustic sessions at the former residence of the US ambassador; The official photographer wears an "F-16 Fighting Falcon" hat and a moustache ;

A trip with Tom to the top of the Taipei 101, tallest and ugliest building in the world ; Taipei appears, 500m below the clouds ;

Nightfall in central Taipei, Redhouse theatre, plastic umbrellas, miles and miles of underground roads;

A lesson in Mahjong by Pearl's Brother; for some reason he can't stop laughing;

Long walk at night through Northern Taipei; rain, desert alleys, wet cats, families sleeping inside their homes with red lights watching over, temples and pagodas with smoke, food-joints serving fried pieces of pork at two in the morning around Shuangcheng Street;

The next day, rehearsals in the hotel room; then concert at the Banqiao State Auditorium, performing "The Screech of the Bird", a classic Taiwanese song in local dialect;

Farewell dinner with Pearl Lin and the people from Sunrise Records; long drive to a tiny bar called the "fucking place";

Back to the hotel as the sun rises; on Shuangcheng Street a lady is having breakfast, shared with her chinese dog;

Then back to the airport, and to Tokyo.

Photographs and text by Zim

Arrival in London


Thomas testing his jew's harp at the Borderline


Eric in the Borderline's boiler-room / dressing-room


Rosemary at the 20th Century Theatre


Moriarty at the BBC


Exit from the BBC


Talk-show host




Pics & Text by Stephan

Moriarty new EP

It's about a gangster pussycat and a ogre who needs a head doctor, a bored king and a princess looking for a man that can really do it right, a lonely prince that could be that man, a monkey that chewed too much tobacco and a very very scary forest

*Nouvel E.P. de Moriarty, Musiques inspirées de la Veritable Histoire du Chat Botté - Ecouter et se procurer