Do not come wiz me to ze Barby - we shall make beautiful musicks togezzer right here!

Last night I went to the first night of the Bonsoir Tel-Aviv French-Israeli music festival at the Barby, and it was pretty damn awesome, despite poor (and often dickish) attendance. First up was Umlala, an Israeli band from Jerusalem that sounds like this:

Pretty great stuff, right? Right. So howcome most of the people at the club, of which there weren't that many for some reason, didn't seem too enthusiastic about it? Too many of them stayed far, far away from the stage, while some of them didn't even bother to stand up! What total and utter dickery. Umlala still gave a fantastic (if short) performance, which left me extremely pleased with that part of the evening.

The main act was Lilly Wood and the Prick, a French band headed by Israeli-born singer Nili Hadida, that sounds like this:

Totally. Fucking. Awesome. At Ms. Hadida's request I moved even closer to the stage (the dicks in the back still kept ignoring her repeated pleadings, until she finally gave up), the closest I have ever been to the stage at the Barby, and it was totally worth it! I didn't know anything about Lilly Wood & the Prick before I read about them coming here, but once I've listened to Down the Drain I was pretty much in love with them. Deep, passionate, sleazy love, the kind of love that makes you cream your pants whenever you think about it even a tiny, tiny bit. Invincible Friends is a pretty great album, and witnessing all those incredible songs performed live was mind blowing. However, what I wasn't prepared for was the fact that in real life, Nili Hadida is just about the cutest thing to ever come out of France since Pepe Le Pew!

Nili Hadida and Benjamin Cotto, aka Lilly Wood & the Prick

The outfit and makeup in the video really didn't do her much justice, because the wildly charismatic (she effortlessly made me clap, sing along and even jump up and down on cue) and freakishly talented performer I was lucky enough to see last night, wearing a simple yet elegant heart pattern dress, was nothing short of adorable. At the end of the night Ms. Hadida invited everyone present to come and see the band again on their future visits to Israel, and in my stupid little heart I promised her to do so unquestionably, and only wished that I could give her a great big hug for making me as happy as she has.