ROCKERPARIS Top Concerts for 2012- The best, the New, the Old and the worst of 2012

ROCKERPARIS "TOP 10" ROCK CONCERTS

The best shows, The nice surprises and the crap...of 2012

We've been to 150 rock concerts this year and we stayed in Paris for (almost) all of them excluding two shows in Lyon and Strasbourg for Guns N Roses and the Arras Main square Fest with Pearl Jam.

1- BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & The E Street Band.

@ Paris Bercy July 4 & July 5 2012

Without a doubt BRUCE is the BOSS of 2012

2 Fantastic shows @ Paris Bercy Arena, both shows Sold-out with 18000 people screaming like one man. each show lasted more than 3h40 min.

First Tour without the Big Man.

The second show being the best and each time we had a terrific "seat" in da pit down the front.

the video below speaks for itself:

2- The ROLLING STONES

@ Trabendo club, Théatre Mogador and rehearsals

 The celebration for the 50th anniversary were nowhere to be seen and suddenly the Rolling Stones were everywhere, it started with the recording of two songs at the end of August in Suresnes then the band started rehearsing just outside Paris on Oct 1st for more than a month.
They've played one club show @ Trabendo on Oct 25 which was a dream come true: seeing the Stones in a 500 capacity club, Then it was a private show for bankers @ 1500 capacity Theatre Mogador on Oct 29.
The best was yet to come when they invited us at their penultimate rehearsals on Nov 08 another dream come true seeing The Rolling Stones at work for more than 50 min. A "mini-Trabendo" as Mick Jagger called it.

3- JACK WHITE

@ L'Album de la Semaine for canal+ April 20, @  Cigale April 22 & RTL radio show on July 03rd

 Not only he had one of the best album of 2012 with "Blunderbuss" but the man is going on Tour with two different bands ( one male band and one female band). We were lucky to get both bands at the Canal+ tv show in front of just 150 people. The Cigale show was terrific, Ice on the cake was a private 30 min showcase for a 100 people at RTL radio in the afternoon of July 03rd.
I'm still wondering why we didn't attend both his shows @ Olympia Hall on July 03 & 04.

4- GUNS N ROSES @ Paris Bercy June 05 , Halle Tony Garnier June10, Zénith Strasbourg June 11

 No matter what the critics are saying, this "Guns N Roses" or Axl Rose's band IS terrific on stage more than 2h30 min on stage lots of great songs including the one from "Chinese Democracy" and AXL on top form.

5- BLUE OYSTER CULT @ Montereau June 09

A classic band , Classic songs even though there are only two original members

Lou Reed opened and was horrible

Then in no particular order:

GRANDADDY @ Rock en Seine

The band was back together & it was our first time for us

METALLICA + The Kills @ Stade de France May 12

Maybe not their best show ( Sonisphere was fantastic with the big Four in 2011) but we were in the pit down the front once again so the view was top. The Kills were booed off stage

IGGY & THE STOOGES @ Casino de Paris

Private show for a beer brand, not really THE Stooges as there is only Iggy from the original line-up but still kicking ass and we went ON stage for this one, our second time as we already went on stage with The Stooges @ Fete de l'Humanité in front of 50 000 people a few years ago.

MILES KANE @ Cigale April 20, @ Arras in June, @ Casino de Paris Jan 30 opening for Arctic Monkeys.

Once again Miles played several shows in Paris promoting his first solo album, each time with class

WORST SHOWS:
The Musical Box @ Olympia
Genesis cover band : worst piece of shit I have even seen, nothing to with the band but the music ...
James Iha @ Maroquinerie was a joke

We also had a good time with:

 Chris Cornell solo @ Cigale June 22

Nick Lowe @ New Morning Feb 12

America @ Bataclan March 17

Leon Russell @ New Morning March 19

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers @ Grand Rex June 27

Noel Gallagher @ Grand Rex March 06 & casino de Paris

Imelda may @ Olympia May 11

Pearl Jam @ Arras June 30

ZZ TOP @ Olympia July 27

Steve Miller band @ Olympia Nov 02

Suzanne Vega @ Casino d' Enghien Oct 19

Rich Robinson @ Fargo & Silencio Dec 12

click on links for Pictures, video and review

Blue Oyster Cult with original Members @ Best Buy Theatre, NYC Nov 05 2012

One of our favourite band BLUE OYSTER CULT reformed with its original members: Allen Lanier, Joe Bouchard & Albert Bouchard to celebrate 40 years of music and play a special show @ Best buy theatre in New York City on Nov 05 2012.
The 2012 line-up played the first part and at the end of the show the original members joined in

 setlist: (with links to videos)

01	Summer of Love
02	Golden Age of Leather
03	Burnin' For You
04	Harvest Moon
05	Me262
06	Last Days Of May
07	Lips in the Hills
08	Shooting Shark (with Bruce Kapler - saxophone)
09	Godzilla
10	I Love The Night
Set 2
01	Harvester Of Eyes (acoustic)
02	Astronomy (acoustic)
03	Gil Blanco County (acoustic)
04	Death Valley Nights (with Albert Bouchard vocals, acoustic)
05	In Thee (with Allen Lanier guitar, acoustic)
06	Summa Cum Laude
07	Arthur Comics
08	Black Blade
09	OD'd On Life Itself (with Allen Lanier, Albert Bouchard, Joe Bouchard)
10	Career of Evil (with Allen Lanier, Albert Bouchard, Joe Bouchard)
11	The Red & The Black (with Allen Lanier, Albert Bouchard, Joe Bouchard)
12	(Don't Fear) The Reaper (with everyone) BOC in Paris @ Olympia in 2009 @ Montereau Festival with Lou Reed on June 09 2012

Lou Reed + Blue Oyster Cult @ Montereau Festival June 09 2012

Blue Oyster Cult + Lou Reed + Hubert Felix Thiéfaine @ Montereau
Confluences Festival, June 09 2012

Good show from French singer HF Thiéfaine

Late arrival at the Montereau Confluences festival, in fact our photographer arrived there at 8:30pm instead of 6:00pm to get his pass, so thanks to the PR for their kindness.
Huber felix Thiéfaine is already on the main stage in this park, aound 15 000 capacity maximum.
This french singer has lot of dedicated fans even though he's never (rarely) played on the radio and ignored by the media. Lots of songs about junkies & shit. Cool pop-rock set.

Lou Reed is playing around 10:00pm, no one is allowed to take any pics when he's getting on stage from the dressing room surrounded by his musicians, his manager and half of the security of the festival, just to walk 10 meters. Of course only the local press is allowed to take pics for the first 3 songs and they have to be publish in black only.
Here are a few snapshot we took from the audience.
It's only a taste of the pain in the ass that is Lou Reed.
Funny to remember what people working for M______ told us about him.

setlist:
Brandenburg gate (from Lulu) (?)
Heroin
Waiting for the man
Senselessly Cruel
The View (Lulu)
Mistress dead (Lulu)
Cremation
Walk on the wild side
Junior's dad (from Lulu)

Never really listen to Lulu too many times , it's so boring maybe I should have as he played 4 songs from the record he did with Metallica. Didn't recognized the first one.
Then we had a very long version of "Heroin" clocking at more than 11 minutes, "Waiting for the man" was also an extended version, in fact he didn't play any below below 6 min.
9 songs in all for an 80 min + set.
Some people started leaving after "Mistress dead" which is the fastest song on the album.
Average performance.

Blue Oyster Cult didn't start before 12:45 pm, they had sound problems in their monitors at the beginning and we could hear Buck's vocals for a minute but that was nothing as they've done a KILLER set.
Hard to go wrong with such fantastic songs

Too bad Eric Bloom asked the audience which song they wanted between "Harvest Moon" and "Shooting Shark" and they chose the latter.

Great sound, great Lightning, an audience of dedicated fans even though some people left after Lou Reed as it was getting late and it was more of a family audience.
really strange that BOC headlined this festival and played so late as you couldn't get any train back to Paris
Late ending as the band left the stage at almost 2:00 in the morning.

SETLIST:
The red & the black
Golden age of leather
Burning for you
Cities on flame
Shooting Shark ( instead of "Harvest Moon")
ME 262
Buck's Boogie
Last days of May
Godzilla/
Bass medley: Joan jett/ Rungren's Utopia/ Meat Loaf + bass solo
Drum solo/ Godzilla
Buck intro/ Don't fear the reaper
----
Hot Rails to hell

GREAT show by Blue Oyster Cult

We have a winner: BOC

Reminder:
BOC @ Olympia in 2009
Lou Reed @ Grand Rex 2011