Tabarnac

This is weird stuff! It's about a famous rock band from Quebec (French Canada), Offenbach, who was in France one year, in 1974. The filmaker shot them in day to day life, in a house were the guys lives and pratice their music. This is kind of direct cinema, with no script, no direction, no intentions. We see the musicians having a lot of fun with grass and beer, in a way that was very familiar to rock fans who were there in the 1970's.

Sometimes, lead singer Gerry Boulet gets bore with the constant presence of the camera. Drummer Wezo seems to do too much in front of it. At last, we, the spectators, are very very bored too. But, in many ways, this is an important document about the way of life of rock musicians in the 1970's, away from the stardom and

limousines. Very popular in Quebec, Offenbach was unknown in

France. The live sequences are the best, but there are not many. We see the band rocks in very strange little places, like in a bar during a motorcycle race. We hear the band and the motorcycles! And there's fight betwen drunken French. The sequence where Boulet sings Edith Piaf classic L'Hymne à l'Amour is a must to see and hear! This is the true sense of soul and blues! I read that the band dislikes the experience of being stuck in this house with all these cameras all the times. They get angry with each other. About a year later, half of the band says goodbye and Offenbach will carry on with Boulet, Johnny Gravel and new musicians, while Lamothe, Wézo and Harel will form Corbeau. The soundtrack of this movie was a huge hit in Quebec at that time, but is now a very rare record ! Those were the days, you know...

I have to say, I'm a huge fan of that period of Offenbach. Pierre Harel, who wrote some amazing song lyrics, was not a singer anymore from that point on (with Offenbach). But I have to say, he sang killer tracks on the 1st Corbeau album ('79). This is, to me, the very beginning of what would become a huge band in Quebec. To see those young men, playing live shows, drinking, rehearsing, drinking, tripping, and drinking again, is always fun to witness...well, not for two hours every time, but some passages are very fun. Johnny is very quiet, Gerry is the natural front man, Willie is very up front too, but Wezo is the coolest. He just looks like he doesn't take all that circus too seriously, except when it's time to play on his drum kit. We even see him french-kissing Francoise Faraldo, who later became Gerry's wife! Two years after they came back to Quebec, they recorded a television show (Le Jardin des Etoiles), and that ROCKS! I guess they had to go through Europe and the adventure of Tabarnac to find there unique sound...Mostly for the hardcore fans of the band, and for the curious ones, if you wanna see what goes on back-stage...and in their house! Don't forget the perfect companion, a pack of Labatt 50