After holding the tickets of one of the biggest concerts in France, Rock en Seine, finally the day had come. We bought the tickets for Day 3 where Bjork was the highlight, not only of the day but perhaps of the whole three-day concert. However, the ones I was equally, if not more, eager to see were Bat for Lashes, Mark Ronson and Faithless.
Bat For Lashes opened the day 3 on the 2nd stage at 2pm. Perhaps it was too early for the French as the audience seemed yet to be awaken and actually only 1/4 space was filled up. Standing too still with the eyes and ears focused like seeing and hearing the unfamiliar and for some, most likely, the unknown songs for the first time. Mesmerized by the voice and the sound? Maybe. The crowd had been quite a disappointment. Until the well-praised debut single; "What's a girl to do" began, which was almost towards the end of their show, the audience started to scream and clap loudly like they had come solely for this song. Natasha, the front vocalist, made a remark which to me sounds like a relief for the band that someone actually knew this song (and knew them!). Another song that got the audience moved and made noise was "Horse and I", although it's a shame that it was one of the last songs.
About 40 mins later, Mark Ronson appeared on the main stage. Again, the impression I had from the crowd was that 75% of them had no clue who these people were. Fortunately, some could sing along as the songs are the remix-and-remade of the classic like "Just" by Radiohead, "Oh My God" by Kaiser Chiefs (also made a hit with the help of Lily Allen) and "Toxic" by Britney Spears - not sure if this song counts as a classic, probably not.
Kings of Leon came up later with a loud applause from the crowd. Caleb, the front man, was too irresistible with his performance (and of course the hot haircut makes him no longer look like a redneck). They rolled out all their songs from the two hit albums. The front rows, of course, were the fans and acted so but from where I was standing and observing...only a few were shaking their head and moving along. For me, though "The Bucket" was my favorite, I wasn't a fan until I saw them live here. What an awesome show! At the end, before KoL played a few last songs, Caleb said that they didn't expect to have a good time here but they did. I was a bit surprised they pre-expected such a response from the French... what surprised me even more was that they had a good time. Did they really? I hope they did.
Faithless performed after KoL...as the mood had been built up quite well, I was more than excited to finally see Faithless as one of my English friends gave such a good rave to their live act. This time I was within the so-called front zone. It was just as amazing as I had expected. When "Insomnia" came on, the crowd went crazy. Nothing could stop the madness of the fans as people started to raise up their hands and jump along the beats. However, there were some people who seriously did NOT belong to the front zone. Why? Because they were just standing like they were watching a golf tournament! Worse than that when "We Come One" was on, they did NOT let out the word "One"...!
Of course, I know the French adore Björk. I do like Björk. But it was just too annoying to see these certain lot of people who paid faint participation in any form of support besides standing as still as possible and waited for their time to see Björk.
Björk's show was very impressive with all the lighting and laser effects, make-up, costumes...and all things Björk. The crowd was just PACKED. There was no room to move or breathe. All eyes were either on the stage or on the two big screens, as if they were being possessed by some magic power or others might say by the evil power...(listening to Björk's you wouldn't imagine it was a sound of heaven, would you?) The show was quite a fair share of a few songs from her latest album and her mega hits like "Hyper Ballad", "Emotional Landscape" and "The Army of Me".
All in all, though some part of the audience disappointed me, it was such a great experience to be part of the history of Rock en Seine.
*addicted*
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3 comments:
Wow life in Paris today seems great. when I was there for the first time in 1960, as a kid, I had nothing and slept on the street. The last time, I took my wife for her birthday. She had flue, we stayed in a hotel at the top of the side road (RHS) to the Moulin rouge which I swear was used by the "le fammes de la nuit" please forgive my "French" we only spent about three days there and upon leaving I gave all my change (about twenty pounds ) to a "beggar" who quietly sat in a doorway opposite the hotels small entrance, he wore one of those hats that were around during the revolution? I would have loved to have just sat and chatted to him about his past life but as you can see my language skillls aren`t good. I still wonder if I perhaps shouldn`t have done it as a sudden excess of cash can be bad for us all (its relative) but I like to think that it may have helped him? :o((
Twenty pounds could be a bit too much for a "beggar". I wish I could see what it was like back in 1960's though...but yes today is great :)
Cofee bars, gaulois,Balkan Sobranie, joss sticks and an overwhelming bohemian attitude. Drugs in the form of Opiates and weed. No I didn`t do them! but they were easily available even then. Edith Piaf was still alive and no doubt still having problems with Aznavour, Paris was great even then, I loved it, I really did. I saw my first Bidet through the open window of a seedy hotel used by the local american forces.
A strange thought that only ten years ago I again visited with other directors of a company interested in aquiring Parc Asterix. Ho Hum!
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