Pop'Pea @ Théatre du Chatelet, Paris May 31 2012

Pop'Pea @ Théatre du Chatelet, Paris May 31 2012
featuring Carl Barât, Marc Almond, Benjamin Biolay, Valerie Gabail, Fredrika Stahl, Anna Madison.

Marc Almond just saw the play ! (far right)

Pop-Rock version of the Monterverdi opera @ Théatre du Chatelet , one of the most beautiful théatre in Paris where we've been many times. We saw Marianne Faithfull with Wayne Kramer, Yoko Ono, Muse, Woody Allen and a few others...

The play began with the most awful way : some rappers saying a lot of "Fuck this... Fuck That..." Ridiculous ! and French singer-actor on a motorcycle "singing" in English...even more ridiculous !
Specially when you know that even when he's speaking or singing in French , he's hard to understand, so imagine in English ! And he's speaking English as good as I would be speaking Chinese after two months classes.
What the hell is he doing here ? They couldn't get an English actor ?

Carl Barât as Néron & Marc Almond as Sénèque

There is a band with 3 musicians on each side of the stage down the front that is playing live musical parts.

They do have some nice costumes and some videos effects done live that are quite good.
Carl Barât & Marc Almond are not actors and you can see/feel it but they're doing OK.
The girls are the best: the acting and the singing are perfect.

After such a ridiculous start, Monteverdi might be turning into his grave, it's hard to really get into the play and not feeling uncomfortable for the actors probably wondering what the hell they are doing here!
For the most of the time we have the feeling that we're attending a School end of year party.
First part is lasting an hour and after a 20 minute intermission the cast is back for the second part (30 minutes long) that is much better.

Benjamin Biolay as Othon & Anna Madison as Drusilla

Valerie Gabail as Poppée with Carl Barât trying to strangle her (or fuck her , we still haven't figure it out)

We have mixed feelings, I never understood why people wanna do rock versions of Opéra, most of the time its a failure.
This one is average, too bad that the beginning of the play is so awful as the play is getting better in the end.

They're playing until June 07 and if you get your ticket at the box office you can get cheap tickets starting at 10 euros, so it's probably worth it but paying 80 euros for that : no way !

Fredrika Stahl as Ottavia (center) Nice Costume !!!

Musicians (far left) Main Cast (far right)

Soundgarden @ Zénith, Paris May 29 2012

Soundgarden @ Zénith, Paris May 29 2012

Small audience for SOUNDGARDEN

This is the first show for Soundgarden in Paris in 15 years, last show was at the very same place on Oct 09 1996 (with Moby opening).
This is one of the very few indoor show on this European Tour as the band is playing Festivals.
It's hot as hell and It's far from being full tonight with lots of empty seats in the stalls, lots of room in the back of the pit and even in the front rows there's enough space.
It's a small capacity Zénith so there's probably no more than 4000 people.

First on stage is The Gaslight Anthem, an American "Punk" band, but they do sound like a good old fashioned pop-rock band, enjoyable: not good not bad.

It's 9:00pm sharp when Soundgarden is taking the stage one by one, they have changed...well not that much in 15 years.
No big production tonight, a clean stage, a powerful and bright lightshow and a backdrop with different images all along the show. It's a well-oiled show that is running smoothly with a band on auto-pilot

.

It's a trip back into Soundgarden's history as they're playing songs from all their albums including many old ones (see setlist below for details).
They're playing the hits, some more obscure songs and brand new single "Live to Rise".

If you're a soundgarden maniac it's a dream come true setlist.

From where we are standing, down the front, we have a good sound (we have earplugs) but all my friends told me that the sound was very bad, I've noticed a few larsens, that can happened,but the overall sensation of the audience was that it was too loud and that it sounded horrible.

Chris , even though he has a good voice is sometimes singing off key but we're used to that.

Overall good 2 hour show but it could have been better with a bit more passion from the band and a good sound.

Chris Cornell will be back in Paris shortly with a solo acoustic show @ Trianon on June 22.

setlist & Merchandising

I've been told that Lars & Kirk from Metallica were in the audience tonight

Mudhoney @ La Villette Sonique, Paris, May 27 2012

Mudhoney @ La Villette Sonique, Paris, May 27 2012

Mudhoney 2012: Guy Maddison/Dan Peters/ Mark Arm/ Steve Turner

This week-end has been hot & sunny, summer time is here at last as May has been awful with rain almost very day for the last couple of weeks.
The Parc de la Villette is rammed on this sunny sunday with people having a late lunch on the grass with their kids.
Nice to see many sexy girls in skinny tee-shirts, mini skirts and shorts, that's summer to me...finally.

We're not hanging around on this sunday afternoon in the Park for the chicks but to attend Mudhoney's gig outdoor.
The stage is set up just by the Canal with the Zénith arena nearby (Soundgarden is playing there on May 29) and the Cité des Sciences in the back.
After leaving our friends still laying in the sun having some red wine, organic cheese and fruit salad we're making our way to the concert area that is packed with several thousands music freaks. Free gigs are always attracting people.

Mudhoney is taking the stage @ 4:30 pm as we're baking under the sun, the sound is loud , clear and the guitar sound is distorted the way we like it.
The band is rocking out their best songs in front of a well behaved audience.
There's a small gap between the stage and the first row with no crash barrier but just a couple of security guys, they will get some work to do when the band is playing their heavier and fastest songs including a great rendition of "Touch me I'm sick" (here on video).
Finally the audience is getting wilder halfway through, starting pogoing and crowd-surfing down the front still with a "sunday family gathering " attitude.
Everyone is well behaved and good natured.

Surprisingly Mudhoney is doing a pretty long set, with several songs played for the encore ("Blinding sun","Here comes sickness","The money will roll right in", "Hate the police" & "Fix Me"), almost 90 min in all.
The band seems happy by its performance and so are we, even though Mark Arm told us after the show that he had trouble with his voice.
It's unusual to rock so early and in daylight but it was very entertaining and fun.
First time I was seeing them and we all had a great time.

setlist without Encore, Check videos of the last 3 songs HERE

"Touch Me I'm Sick"