Me'shell NdeGéocello live, Alte Feuerwache Mannheim, October 27th
So last week I witnessed the great Me'shell NdeGeocello (!?)live in concert. I wouldn't really say it was awesome (like I usually do) but still it was a very good and...interesting (!) evening. The reason why it wasn't awesome is quite simple (sorry, this is a bit egoistic ;) ): first, she didn't perform one single song from my beloved Bitter-album, and second I didn't know/recognize 70% of the other songs (ok, a bunch were new songs to be featured on her current EP and upcoming new album in early 2007).
However...it was interesting! For instance, her performance was way not what I would have expected it to look and be like. When you know some of her live-performances (youtube.com will help you) you would have expected something like this: she being dressed in leather or something, with sun glasses on and singing very graceful and mesmerizing. But ....no!
.......
The stage was kept very basic and humble if you will, meaning only the instruments (with a bunch of guitars besides the drums, percussion and bass) -- no special decoration.
Shortly after 9pm Me'shell got announced and entered the stage. Wearing trousers of a jogging outfit, a grey old t-shirt and a black woolly hat (how do you call this actually ?) she seemed to want to express that it's all about the music for the next 60 minutes. Yes, the concert only lasted around 60 minutes, with about 15 minutes where her percussionist did a lil solo thing of about 3 songs.
Well it really was great and very interesting to watch coz she seemed both highly concentrated and giving in to her art; she had her eyes closed for the most part of the show.
I'm sorry but as I'm not too familiar with her music, and obviously the new songs, I couldn't write down a setlist. But what I remember is that she for sure played the songs "Point of no return", "Tariq", "Evolution", and "Love song #3" (I guess). About the others I'm not sure ... but I'm pretty sure that it were (mainly) the same ones she played in Rome earlier this year.
Anyhow, the show was.........interesting to watch because the songs were so un-like Bitter and her other work from the 90s.....what you got here was more like her last album but mixed with a holla lot Funk!
Her band (she either only sang or played the E-bass) was also one of a kind, very gifted really, and devoted - you could feel the songs. The songs.....they were so enigmatically organic and haunting - most of them lasted more than 7 minutes I'd say - that it was a sheer pleasure to watch them performing. In almost every song you could find some instrumental passages so elaborate that your jaw dropped. I was really blown away by the perfect performance of each of the songs, it really made you feel like the music wants to tell you something. Me'shell has got a voice, one of a kind I can tell you! And she did a great job with it, coz sometimes she placed it so delicately into the songs that it had a special athmosphere, sadly only of a short period but still very intriguing. She also 'rapped', and gosh I loved the lyrics coz it was really singer-songwriter style: she sang about Bush and God, life, the state of the world and things like this. WHOA.
Unfortunately I couldn't take pictures. I tried it once with flash before I was told by another guy in the audience that I should swith the flash off coz Me'shell's an epileptic....And the pics I took without flash are....not really pics:
But however! A great concert ...if only she had played some BITTER-songs! ;).
Remember: Me'shell will release a new album in early 2007. A new EP can be purchased at amazon.fr or at amazon.de-marketplace (that's where I ordered my copy from).
However...it was interesting! For instance, her performance was way not what I would have expected it to look and be like. When you know some of her live-performances (youtube.com will help you) you would have expected something like this: she being dressed in leather or something, with sun glasses on and singing very graceful and mesmerizing. But ....no!
.......
The stage was kept very basic and humble if you will, meaning only the instruments (with a bunch of guitars besides the drums, percussion and bass) -- no special decoration.
Shortly after 9pm Me'shell got announced and entered the stage. Wearing trousers of a jogging outfit, a grey old t-shirt and a black woolly hat (how do you call this actually ?) she seemed to want to express that it's all about the music for the next 60 minutes. Yes, the concert only lasted around 60 minutes, with about 15 minutes where her percussionist did a lil solo thing of about 3 songs.
Well it really was great and very interesting to watch coz she seemed both highly concentrated and giving in to her art; she had her eyes closed for the most part of the show.
I'm sorry but as I'm not too familiar with her music, and obviously the new songs, I couldn't write down a setlist. But what I remember is that she for sure played the songs "Point of no return", "Tariq", "Evolution", and "Love song #3" (I guess). About the others I'm not sure ... but I'm pretty sure that it were (mainly) the same ones she played in Rome earlier this year.
Anyhow, the show was.........interesting to watch because the songs were so un-like Bitter and her other work from the 90s.....what you got here was more like her last album but mixed with a holla lot Funk!
Her band (she either only sang or played the E-bass) was also one of a kind, very gifted really, and devoted - you could feel the songs. The songs.....they were so enigmatically organic and haunting - most of them lasted more than 7 minutes I'd say - that it was a sheer pleasure to watch them performing. In almost every song you could find some instrumental passages so elaborate that your jaw dropped. I was really blown away by the perfect performance of each of the songs, it really made you feel like the music wants to tell you something. Me'shell has got a voice, one of a kind I can tell you! And she did a great job with it, coz sometimes she placed it so delicately into the songs that it had a special athmosphere, sadly only of a short period but still very intriguing. She also 'rapped', and gosh I loved the lyrics coz it was really singer-songwriter style: she sang about Bush and God, life, the state of the world and things like this. WHOA.
Unfortunately I couldn't take pictures. I tried it once with flash before I was told by another guy in the audience that I should swith the flash off coz Me'shell's an epileptic....And the pics I took without flash are....not really pics:
But however! A great concert ...if only she had played some BITTER-songs! ;).
Remember: Me'shell will release a new album in early 2007. A new EP can be purchased at amazon.fr or at amazon.de-marketplace (that's where I ordered my copy from).