lundi 4 juillet 2011

Lou Reed @ Grand Rex, Paris July 05 2011

Lou Reed @ Grand Rex
Paris July 05 2011
Support Band (far left) Grand Rex (center) Poster signed by Lou Reed (far right)

Another show at the Grand Rex, our 5th in 8 days ( Brian Setzer was first then Gregg Allman, BB King & Jeff Beck) and tomorrow we're back for The Beach Boys.

Difficult choice tonight : going to Lou Reed or John Mellencamp @ Olympia ?
We chose Lou Reed even though we never saw John Mellencamp Live, that's his first concert in Paris since 1992(?).
First on stage in this beautiful theatre on the Grands Boulevards we have a duet on guitar & Bass... well Ok !

Lou Reed is taking the stage with many musicians : 2 guitar players, bass, drums, piano and sax.
It's starting with heavy rock songs with sax, considering the songs he's playing it's not really a Best of... setlist.
Things are calming down a bit with "Ecstasy" , "Small Town" & John Lennon's cover of "Mother".
Every song is streched out to maximum between 7 & 9 min for each one. Not really what I expected.
Things are slowling down a bit more with a few Velvet Underground's covers including "Venus in Fur" (see setlist below for details).
Lou Reed is always giving his musicians indications with his hands like "hit harder" "faster" " slow down"...He's the boss.
I'm not too convinced by the songs played tonight thankfully with have a long version of "Sweet Jane" with the guitar intro that's close to the one on the "Rock'n Roll Animal" live album.
The end of the set is great with " Charley's Girl" (here on video), "The Bells" and last Encore "Pale blue eyes".
Far from being my best Lou Reed concert as we're a bit disappointed by the setlist and most of the songs are stretched out too much.
Good show overall.

PS: Lou Reed just recorded an album with Metallica.
Kirk Hammett
& Robert Trujillo were in the audience.(see pic below) They met him backstage before & after the show with some friends & family.

Check our Pics of Metallica @ Bercy on April 1st 2009 Part 1 , Part 2 & Part 3 and the day after April 2nd @ Bercy Part 1 , Part 2 & Part 3 (including setlists and videos feat Metallica/Biff Byford from SAXON on "Motorcycle man").
Also Metallica doing promo in Paris @ radio station & tv show Taratata for the release of the last album
setlist / Kirk & Rob from Metallica

"Charley's Girl":