Les Dirty Frenchmen: 10th Anniversary Show

It has been ten years, five drummers, three Halloween shows, two Madonnarama’s, a seven-inch, a full length CD, two thousand seven hundred eighty four gallons of beer and well over 200 gigs for Les Dirty Frenchmen, whose decade-long career spans both Ralph’s Corner Bar and the Aquarium. 

On Saturday, October 10th, this most resilient of Fargo bands takes to the Aquarium stage to celebrate their 10th anniversary.  All of your favorites will be played, as well as a number of dusty old cover songs that we have not heard performed for a good long while.

For those unfamiliar with Les Dirty Frenchmen, their music is influenced by the legendary Ramones, the Dead Boys, and the Stooges. They play an obnoxious catchy brand of rock with a glorious disdain for conventionality.

They are also good.

Ten years is an impressive life span for any band.  Even the wildly popular Beatles barely lasted that long.  Regardless as to what the lyrics from the single “So Damn Easy” from the LDF debut album might preach, it has not always been easy.

In the late months of 2001 the band was under considerable social and political pressure to change their name to Les Dirty Freedom Men. Later, after the closing of Ralph’s Corner Bar, when most venues were favoring bands with a jam-oriented style of music, the Frenchmen briefly considered changing the name to Les Dirty Frenchfoot.

Through it all Les Dirty Frenchmen have stayed true to themselves and their sound, playing music with a unique sincerity that only comes from musicians who truly love the music they make.  If the goal from day one was to gain fortune and fame, it is highly doubtful that they would have lasted as long as they have.  It is obvious that the LDF priorities hover much closer to having a good time. It comes through in the music, and their live shows. 

In the words of Phil Hunt, the lead singer, “I don’t think we dig serious music all that much. We’ve always loved basic, classic punk and rock and roll. I never thought that we’d last as long as we have. If I’d known we were going to stick around for 10 years, we would have put more thought into it. A band named Les Dirty Frenchmen sounds like something that will flame out after about 6 months. I think we’ve always acted like a band that will flame out. We’ve always acted kind of stupid on stage, because you can. You don’t have to be reserved up there. It’s better if you’re not. For the first year or so, our shows were a total mess. Complete chaos. After we walked off a stage, there would be puddles of beer, twisted mic stands, tipped over drums, shoes, shirts. We made a mess of everything. If I was in the crowd, I would have loved that. But when you’re in your early to mid-20s, you are a little more nihilistic. You literally don’t give a shit. You just want to drink beer, and be obnoxious and loud. That’s what I think we were going for anyway. You can’t get away with that in your 30s without looking sort of pathetic, but the music is sort of badass. And we have always tried to antagonize the audience a little bit.”

This 10 year anniversary is by no means a bookend, but just one more milestone for the band as they continue to blaze through another year of gigs and rock and roll.  So come out and raise a glass or plastic cup or 16-ounce aluminum can to a band who certainly deserves it.  And if you want a memento from what promises to be a memorable black-out experience, LDF box sets will be available stuffed with the their 2005 full-length album, two CD-Rs with unreleased recordings from their seven inch session and a scrapped album session, a T-shirt, actual brick mortar from the destruction site of Ralph’s Corner, and most likely some other wonderful little oddities as well.

Salut!

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If You Go

What: Les Dirty Frenchmen
Where: The Aquarium
When: Sat, Oct 10, 9:30pm
How much: $5, 21+