annual concert report
While typing the following up I was reminded of why I don't use the PC more often these days - my PC and V's laptop died thrice on me within 20 mins from a variety of unfathomable causes, ignoring my "save" pleads and swallowing everything written...so against all technical odds here are my concert activities of the last year or so (I've been shortcutting the NIN stuff as good as possible):
09th to 11th of june 2005 Hurricane, Scheessel - NIN partially because of traffic, Rammstein, Oasis partially cause it wasn't thrilling, QOTSA missed because of traffic, New Order dedicated "Atmosphere" to Ian Curtis. All in all very cold and frustrating because we missed so many acts..
NIN & Dresden Dolls & Saul Williams - Berlin Columbiahalle 15/06/05, Paris Zenith 22/06/05, London Brixton Academy 3rd/4th/13th/14th july 05, Birmingham Carling Academy 08/07/05 (supported by EODM, who by then I actually thought were metal for reals, so we skipped them, which I’ll never forgive myself), Manchester Apollo 10th and 11th july 2005
25th & 26th august 2005 Rock en Seine, Paris - The Pixies, Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters, Franz Ferdinand, The Departure, Baby Shambles, Robert Plant. Departure and Baby Shambles having swapped time slots and stages because Pete Doherty was too drugged or drunk to make it onstage. Plant does Flamenco-Blues fusion these days, it's a mix difficult to digest. QOTSA & Pixies were killer, the two FF's were somewhat uninteresting.
NIN & QOTSA & Death from Above 1979 (Autolux & Saul Williams respectively) - 5th to 20th of november 2005 east coast, Canada, California
NIN & Moving Units - 10th to 25th of february 2006, the « Midwest » in a very broad sense of the word
03/03/06 Tricky Woo & Mighty Eagle Band - Babylon, Ottawa. Total WahWah fest, I hope the Mighty Eagles make it bigger some day. In theory we should have seen NIN, but Trent was still sick.
NIN & Saul Williams - 2nd march to 1st april 2006, Canada, north east, south east, south, Texas, California
08/05/06 The Stooges (& unfortunately Les Brats who undoubtedly are such..) - Zenith, Paris. Les Brats must be avoided at any cost - they are part of France's 17yrolds-parent-sponsored-garage-rock-revival and have such titles as "My english teacher really sucks". The Stooges ruled, at one point Iggy got 50 people on stage, unzipped his trousers and stagedived. Ron Asheton was awesome, their bass guy was a bit too goofy and predominant to my taste.
17/05/06 Mudhoney - Elysee Montmartre, Paris. Considering we didn't know the discography well an very enjoyable concert of a band with very impressive musicianship. We could have bought one of the guys guitars the other day on ebay (dirtcheap !) but missed it :/
24/05/06 Yeah Yeah Yeahs/Celebration - Elysee Montmartre, Paris. Celebration shouldn't open for the YYY's coz it makes them look like a rip-off, which in fact they're not. The YYY's were very intense, too short set unfortunately, awesome acoustic version of "Maps". My faves are "Date with the night", "Black Tongue" and "No mysteries" though.
NIN & Bauhaus & TV on the Radio - 6th of june to 14th of june 2006 south, east coast up to New Jersey
NIN & Bauhaus & Peaches - 16th of june to 8th of july 2006, east coast, Canada, lakes area, California
13/07/06 Agent Orange & Dick Dale - Twilight Dance Series The Pier, Santa Monica. Dick Dale betrayed rock'n'roll tonight by bringing his "guitar protegé" kid onstage and turning the concert into a cheap circus number...a very sad moment for music. Agent Orange had an actual moshpit going on, amidst thousands of pensioners in foldable chairs and picnic gear.
04/08/06 Malted Milk Blues - on our market place around the corner. Incredible blues musicianship and craftiness. We didn't plan to go, but while I was cooking I heard the echoes from the outside, shouted to V: "There's someone out there who sounds like Hendrix !" and so we went. Very enjoyable concert, and so close and for free at that !
12th of august 2006 Route du Rock, St Malo - TV on the Radio and Cat Power (after enduring both Pipettes and Belle & Sebastian for positioning reasons). I had never seen Cat Power before, but she has probably the most impressive female voice I know, plus she gets away with the "House of the rising sun" ! TV on the Radio, first time I see them on a big stage, people love them and crowd surf all over the place.
17-19th of august 2006 Pukkelpop, Werchter - Radiohead, Scissor Sisters, Dirty Pretty Things, The Raconteurs, Twilight Singers feat. Greg Dulli&Mark Lanegan, TV on the Radio, Massive Attack, Eagles of Death Metal, (Zita Swoon, involuntary though) before the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Placebo, Broken Social Scene. YYY's seemed tired, stage was too high and far away for Radiohead & Massive Attack. Placebo officially lost it. Dirty Pretty Things are better than Baby Shambles, but still not really thrilling. The Raconteurs and EODM are *very* thrilling on the contrary. Scissor Sisters turned into a guitar hero act, their guitarist might have been the technically second best one of the festival after Jack White...
25th & 26th august 2006 Rock en Seine, Paris - TV on the Radio, The Raconteurs, Morrissey, The Editors and Radiohead. Crowd goes mental for the Raconteurs, by right, they are my new addition to the "favourite bands" circle. White/Benson are excellent songwriters, awesome guitarists, impressive singers and they have a very powerful, groovy and entertaining rhythm section. It's like seeing the Stones or Led Zep in their heydays (I guess..). Their rendition of "Bang Bang" is thrilling !!! Morrissey was a bit pompous, but he gets away with it. He doesn't get away with a doubleneck guitar with the italian tricolore though... Radiohead - I've never seen soo many concert goers totally focused and tripping on one act (several tenthousands) and the band *was* awesome, too. As a response we bought their whole discography the next day (had only ripped versions before) - yes,THAT good. A longer set and more guitar oriented than in Pukkelpop. Thom Yorke has a mosquito face...
28/08/06 Massive Attack - Olympia, Paris. Massive Attack play three different parisian venues in three days. Concert atmosphere is more focused than at Pukkelpop, it's an allstar lineup with Mushroom, Liz Fraser, Horace Andy and a greatest hits setlist, which means "Mezzanine" mostly. Incredibly enjoyable and trippy. Olympia is an incredibly posh venue sponsored by Gibson and a Champagne vinery.
29/08/06 Massive Attack - La Cigale, Paris. Cigale is the smaller and nicer one among the two venues. Security is less nazi, too. MA's guitarist is very dedicated and soulful, playing in this band must not be fun though considering the complexity of the song structures, everyone is focused to the last nerveending all the time, 3D counts beats along all the way in order not to miss his (off beat) singing parts. Inertia Creeps and Group Four are as close as one can get to psychedelic trips without drug use.
30/08/06 Eagles of Death Metal - Trabendo, Paris. A tiny venue with smart architecture, tiny pit and several standing levels connected by stairs. Optically and energetically it gives a very compact feeling, which is superb. EODM tore the place to shreds and loved it. I'm not sure I've ever seen such enthusiasm in a band and audience before. Their guitarist soloed straight in our face a couple of times, so at one point I got one of my pics out and strummed the lower strings along ;) Very cool guys and very cheery (but smartly crafted) feel-good music at a very high level of musicianship. And "Big Hands" deserves his name alright...
09th to 11th of june 2005 Hurricane, Scheessel - NIN partially because of traffic, Rammstein, Oasis partially cause it wasn't thrilling, QOTSA missed because of traffic, New Order dedicated "Atmosphere" to Ian Curtis. All in all very cold and frustrating because we missed so many acts..
NIN & Dresden Dolls & Saul Williams - Berlin Columbiahalle 15/06/05, Paris Zenith 22/06/05, London Brixton Academy 3rd/4th/13th/14th july 05, Birmingham Carling Academy 08/07/05 (supported by EODM, who by then I actually thought were metal for reals, so we skipped them, which I’ll never forgive myself), Manchester Apollo 10th and 11th july 2005
25th & 26th august 2005 Rock en Seine, Paris - The Pixies, Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters, Franz Ferdinand, The Departure, Baby Shambles, Robert Plant. Departure and Baby Shambles having swapped time slots and stages because Pete Doherty was too drugged or drunk to make it onstage. Plant does Flamenco-Blues fusion these days, it's a mix difficult to digest. QOTSA & Pixies were killer, the two FF's were somewhat uninteresting.
NIN & QOTSA & Death from Above 1979 (Autolux & Saul Williams respectively) - 5th to 20th of november 2005 east coast, Canada, California
NIN & Moving Units - 10th to 25th of february 2006, the « Midwest » in a very broad sense of the word
03/03/06 Tricky Woo & Mighty Eagle Band - Babylon, Ottawa. Total WahWah fest, I hope the Mighty Eagles make it bigger some day. In theory we should have seen NIN, but Trent was still sick.
NIN & Saul Williams - 2nd march to 1st april 2006, Canada, north east, south east, south, Texas, California
08/05/06 The Stooges (& unfortunately Les Brats who undoubtedly are such..) - Zenith, Paris. Les Brats must be avoided at any cost - they are part of France's 17yrolds-parent-sponsored-garage-rock-revival and have such titles as "My english teacher really sucks". The Stooges ruled, at one point Iggy got 50 people on stage, unzipped his trousers and stagedived. Ron Asheton was awesome, their bass guy was a bit too goofy and predominant to my taste.
17/05/06 Mudhoney - Elysee Montmartre, Paris. Considering we didn't know the discography well an very enjoyable concert of a band with very impressive musicianship. We could have bought one of the guys guitars the other day on ebay (dirtcheap !) but missed it :/
24/05/06 Yeah Yeah Yeahs/Celebration - Elysee Montmartre, Paris. Celebration shouldn't open for the YYY's coz it makes them look like a rip-off, which in fact they're not. The YYY's were very intense, too short set unfortunately, awesome acoustic version of "Maps". My faves are "Date with the night", "Black Tongue" and "No mysteries" though.
NIN & Bauhaus & TV on the Radio - 6th of june to 14th of june 2006 south, east coast up to New Jersey
NIN & Bauhaus & Peaches - 16th of june to 8th of july 2006, east coast, Canada, lakes area, California
13/07/06 Agent Orange & Dick Dale - Twilight Dance Series The Pier, Santa Monica. Dick Dale betrayed rock'n'roll tonight by bringing his "guitar protegé" kid onstage and turning the concert into a cheap circus number...a very sad moment for music. Agent Orange had an actual moshpit going on, amidst thousands of pensioners in foldable chairs and picnic gear.
04/08/06 Malted Milk Blues - on our market place around the corner. Incredible blues musicianship and craftiness. We didn't plan to go, but while I was cooking I heard the echoes from the outside, shouted to V: "There's someone out there who sounds like Hendrix !" and so we went. Very enjoyable concert, and so close and for free at that !
12th of august 2006 Route du Rock, St Malo - TV on the Radio and Cat Power (after enduring both Pipettes and Belle & Sebastian for positioning reasons). I had never seen Cat Power before, but she has probably the most impressive female voice I know, plus she gets away with the "House of the rising sun" ! TV on the Radio, first time I see them on a big stage, people love them and crowd surf all over the place.
17-19th of august 2006 Pukkelpop, Werchter - Radiohead, Scissor Sisters, Dirty Pretty Things, The Raconteurs, Twilight Singers feat. Greg Dulli&Mark Lanegan, TV on the Radio, Massive Attack, Eagles of Death Metal, (Zita Swoon, involuntary though) before the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Placebo, Broken Social Scene. YYY's seemed tired, stage was too high and far away for Radiohead & Massive Attack. Placebo officially lost it. Dirty Pretty Things are better than Baby Shambles, but still not really thrilling. The Raconteurs and EODM are *very* thrilling on the contrary. Scissor Sisters turned into a guitar hero act, their guitarist might have been the technically second best one of the festival after Jack White...
25th & 26th august 2006 Rock en Seine, Paris - TV on the Radio, The Raconteurs, Morrissey, The Editors and Radiohead. Crowd goes mental for the Raconteurs, by right, they are my new addition to the "favourite bands" circle. White/Benson are excellent songwriters, awesome guitarists, impressive singers and they have a very powerful, groovy and entertaining rhythm section. It's like seeing the Stones or Led Zep in their heydays (I guess..). Their rendition of "Bang Bang" is thrilling !!! Morrissey was a bit pompous, but he gets away with it. He doesn't get away with a doubleneck guitar with the italian tricolore though... Radiohead - I've never seen soo many concert goers totally focused and tripping on one act (several tenthousands) and the band *was* awesome, too. As a response we bought their whole discography the next day (had only ripped versions before) - yes,THAT good. A longer set and more guitar oriented than in Pukkelpop. Thom Yorke has a mosquito face...
28/08/06 Massive Attack - Olympia, Paris. Massive Attack play three different parisian venues in three days. Concert atmosphere is more focused than at Pukkelpop, it's an allstar lineup with Mushroom, Liz Fraser, Horace Andy and a greatest hits setlist, which means "Mezzanine" mostly. Incredibly enjoyable and trippy. Olympia is an incredibly posh venue sponsored by Gibson and a Champagne vinery.
29/08/06 Massive Attack - La Cigale, Paris. Cigale is the smaller and nicer one among the two venues. Security is less nazi, too. MA's guitarist is very dedicated and soulful, playing in this band must not be fun though considering the complexity of the song structures, everyone is focused to the last nerveending all the time, 3D counts beats along all the way in order not to miss his (off beat) singing parts. Inertia Creeps and Group Four are as close as one can get to psychedelic trips without drug use.
30/08/06 Eagles of Death Metal - Trabendo, Paris. A tiny venue with smart architecture, tiny pit and several standing levels connected by stairs. Optically and energetically it gives a very compact feeling, which is superb. EODM tore the place to shreds and loved it. I'm not sure I've ever seen such enthusiasm in a band and audience before. Their guitarist soloed straight in our face a couple of times, so at one point I got one of my pics out and strummed the lower strings along ;) Very cool guys and very cheery (but smartly crafted) feel-good music at a very high level of musicianship. And "Big Hands" deserves his name alright...