Cajun Mountain Climbing

The Lost Bayou Ramblers pride themselves on a traditional sound, with French lyrics supported by fiddle and accordion strains that seem to holler of Acadiana. On stage, however, this young, energetic Lafayette band offers anything but a typical Cajun dancehall performance. The band closed out a barnstormer of a set on the Fais Do-Do Stage. Alan LaFleur gave a few hints as to what would come as he periodically lifted his upright bass over his head with one tattoo-scripted arm. Later, this battered-but-tuneful bass was cantilevered out over the edge of the stage with LaFleur perched on its tail end, still playing. As a grand finale, he held the bass stable, slapped its strings in time with the rest of the band and invited fiddler and vocalist Louis Michot to climb up the instrument's ample flank. Michot kept strumming as he climbed and then held a photogenic pose there atop the bass as if it were a mountaintop. The Lost Bayou Ramblers didn't miss a beat.