vendredi 14 mars 2014

Vanilla Fudge @ Divan du Monde, Paris March 14 2014

Vanilla Fudge @ Divan du Monde, Paris March 14 2014

 Not a lot of people on this friday night, around 300, the balcony is closed. Early start as the band is on stage at 8:15 sharp.Nice start with a slow and long version of The Beatles' "Ticket to ride".  Great sound, not too loud.
As you can guess the entire set consists of almost only cover songs as Vanilla Fudge were famous and had hit records but never with their own songs. The guys know how to play, technically it's perfect. The musicianship is very high. Mark Stein still has a fantastic voice.
Carmine is a monster on drums always doing the right thing,very demonstrative but not overplaying.  Maybe the low point of the show is the arrangement of the songs that is sounding very dated, typically the kind of things from the late 60's-early 70's. with lots of breaks and instumental parts
 Now I know why Led Zeppelin became so successful and Vanilla Fudge just vanish after a few records specially after hearing their version of "Dazed & Confused" wich was technically perfect but lacking "feeling".
Overall good gig but it could have been so much better.
The whole band went to the merchandise table to sign anything you wanted and were VERY nice with everybody, which is very rare nowadays. So a big "Thank you" to them.

 setlist & merchandising