Soul Rebels!
On Thursday, a few local Dukies took me to Le Bon Temps Roulé (French for "the good times rolled"), a small bar off of Magazine Street in the Garden District. Soul Rebels, a second line brass band was playing [see their Myspace page here: http://www.myspace.com/soulrebelsbrassband]. They were AMAZING, and even though it was insanely hot and the space was so crowded, I still danced all night long.
The name second line comes from the tradition of brass band parades in New Orleans: the “first line” of a parade consists of the people who are integral parts of the ceremony (funeral, Carnival krewe processions, etc.) whereas the “second line” were people attracted to the music and who followed behind the first line. These people would traditionally wear brightly colored feathers and beads and would dance as they followed the band. This led to the dancing style known as “second lining,” which I saw at Le Bon Temps—I also made a horrid attempt at second lining myself, but the people there were really fun and didn’t look at me like I was crazy, so perhaps I wasn’t so bad.
I am officially in love with the Soul Rebels and can’t wait to “let the good times roll” next week!