Frenchy Returns to the Saints Sideline, 20 Years After the Domecoming

On Monday, October 5, Frenchy sets up his easel on the New Orleans Saints sideline to paint the Saints against the Atlanta Falcons, live, as the game unfolds.

It’s a matchup with history. Twenty years ago, on September 25, 2006, the Superdome reopened for the Domecoming, the Saints’ first home game since Hurricane Katrina, against the same Falcons. Frenchy painted that night live from the sideline.

The Domecoming

Early in that 2006 game, Steve Gleason blocked a Falcons punt, a play that came to stand for the city’s comeback. Frenchy has said he cried walking onto the turf that night, and before kickoff he traded a low-five with Gleason.

“It’s OK French, I cried too.”

Steve Gleason to Frenchy, as Frenchy recalled to Artist Waves

Frenchy later captured the moment in his serigraph “Not Today”, the image at the top of this story.

King of Oak Street, now streaming

Frenchy’s story through those years is told in King of Oak Street, the documentary that started filming the night before Hurricane Katrina. It follows Frenchy and New Orleans through the levee failures and the flooding to the comeback, narrated by John Sinclair, with music by Dr. John, Widespread Panic, Rebirth Brass Band, The Meters, Bonerama and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. The film won Best Documentary (jury prize) and Best Feature (audience award) at the 2009 Big Easy Film Festival.

To mark the anniversary, the full film is streaming free on the King of Oak Street page and on the Videos page.