ROCKERPARIS' list of TOP 10 Rock concerts of 2014 & The Worsts...

ROCKERPARIS' list of TOP 10 Rock concerts of 2014 & The Worst...

THE BEST CONCERTS:

1) THE ROLLING STONES
We attended only 3 shows on this Tour @ Stade de France, Circo Massimo & Werchter festival and I have to say that we had a blast each time even though they were probably far from being their best shows on the tour.
Each time we were in the Golden Pit ( Platinum for Paris) with a great view, we took some nice Pics, our favourite was probably Rome @ Circo Massimo (though not their best show) because of the location and the fun we had for 3 days in Rome, probably the most beautiful city in the world.

2) AC/DC Video shooting for "Rock or Bust" in London, Black Island Studios.

A dream come true : attending a video shoot with AC/DC. Not a proper concert but the highlight of the year for us.

 Too bad Phil Rudd was NOT there but being with the boys for a couple of hours in such an intimate setting was perfect. If you're looking closely at the official video and extras you can see Rockerparis in the audience. That was Christmas before it's time.

3) ENNIO MORRICONE @ Paris Bercy Feb 04

Just in the middle of the Rolling Stones's rehearsing @ Bondy Studios, Ennio Morricone playing his famous soundtracks in front of a sold-out Bercy.  I've never seen so many people on a stage: 86 piece orchestra and 75 voice choir.

Amazing concert and we could met him before the show and get my "Good Bad Ugly " American Vinyl signed by the master himself. 

Then we did a few other concerts that we will remember for 2014:

Jeff Beck @ Grand Rex, Paris May 27 2014
Fantastic guitar player

 Prince, concert n°1, 6:00 pm @ Zénith, Paris June 01st 2014
 Two shows in one day, you don't do this everyday

 Prince @ Zénith, Paris, show n° 2 , June 01 2014
 second show was better and longer than the first one

 Buddy Guy + Quinn Sullivan @ Olympia, Paris July 03 2014

legendary bluesman with great support: a young virtuoso.

Scorpions @ Fête de l'Humanité, la Courneuve, Sept 13 2014

Rocking like never before , great setlist though too many ballads and we were on stage for this one in front of more than 80 000 people

Babyshambles @ Chorus Live fest, Paris , March 29 2014
 Peter still rocking, last babyshambles album is great and when peter is not out of it , he doing great performances

 Rodriguez @ Olympia, Paris March 16 2014
come back show after the disastrous concerts from last year at the Zénith , glad to see Sixto in better health

 Jello Biafra & the GSM @ 104, Paris April 23 2014
kick ass show from Jello

 Anna Calvi + Daughter @ Cité de la Musique for "Days Off", Paris July 07 2014
Sexy as hell and great guitar player

 Ty Segall @ Cigale, Paris Oct 21 2014
Rocking like a maniac

 The Strypes @ Gaité Lyrique, Paris April 30 2014
new band kicking ass

THE WORST show of 2014:
 YES @ Grand Rex, Paris May 13 2014
By far the worst of the year is YES, After reading our review written straight after the show, I Guess that we were a bit rough... in fact NO. Boring music played for & by boring old farts.
We have nothing against Prog, we're great fans of RUSH but this crap was beyond everything...

We've also attended a few disappointing , average or boring concerts:
Bryan Ferry @ Palais des Sports, Paris , Nov 21 2014
I guess he was sick. Very average show
 Mlle K @ L'Album de la Semaine, Canal+, Paris Dec 08 2014
just boring, no good songs at all
 The Do @ "Coming up session #1" France Inter, Paris Sept 24 2014
electro pop boring
 Herbie Hancock & Wayne Shorter @ Olympia, Paris July 15 2014
 Very disappointing concert, we were expecting a lot from these two legends but it turned out very... de-constructed and experimental...

 We can ad this two as well:

Jack White (2nd show) @ Olympia, Paris June 30 2014
New record not as good as the previous one and a bit disappointed by the show even though it was an overall good show

Cat Power solo @ Gaité Lyrique, Paris Oct 30 2014
Very strange concert, she was confused for the whole set, ending songs prematurely, not remembering her own songs, but we still love her very much , she's so sweet.

TOP 10 Rock concerts of 2013 (and the worst) for ROCKERPARIS & the events of 2013 to remember.

TOP 10 Rock concerts of 2013 (and the worst) for ROCKERPARIS & the events of 2013 to remember.

THE BEST CONCERTS:

1) BLACK SABBATH @ Paris Bercy Dec 02

It is our most recent memory, Fantastic gig by Birmingham legends, Bill Ward not included, too bad.

Always suspicious about OZZY's vocals on stage (live or tapes? ) Nevertheless they've rocked Bercy

No need to tell you it is one of our favourite band

2) BLACK CROWES @ Cigale June 27

Great come-back gig from the Crowes in Paris with a best of setlist

Without Blac Sabb playing in December , it would have been on top of the list.

3) THE WHO @ Paris Bercy July 03 (Part 2 here)

Quadrophenia is one of my favourite Who album, show was fantastic, perfect conditions for us, 5th row in the pit with people seating in front of us so we had a prefect view. Great sound, lightshow...

4) BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN @ Stade de France June 29

Another 3h+ concert by The Boss maybe not as fantastic as the concerts from last year @ Paris Bercy.

Hes' playing a stadium and it felt like a club gig !

5) CROSBY, STILLS & NASH @ Olympia July 04 & July 05

Once again almost perfect show for CSN, lots of great tunes, both shows were terrific.

6) ROGER WATERS @ Stade de France Sept 21 (part 2 here)

Last show on the 2 year tour for "The Wall" in Paris @ Stade De France. He played a few shows the previous year in Paris, we've been to 2 out of 4 in Bercy.

Roger is still miming almost all the vocals so it's not a concert but more a "show" but it's faultless.

Still have part of a brick at home

7) BABYSHAMBLES @ Place de la République July 08

Short 30 min come back gig from Peter's Babyshambles  but it was rocking

8) SIXTO RODRIGUEZ @ Cigale June 05

Sixto's resurrection for this set after the catastrophe of his concerts @ Zénith the previous days

9) BOB DYLAN @ Grand Rex Nov 12-  Nov 13- Nov 14-???

Well it's hard to say anything, it was one of the event of the year, these 3 shows @ Grand Rex theatre, we've been to the 3 of them.
Is he a genious ? is he a real bastard that doesn't give a shit ? I Guess he's both

10) JACK BUGG , MILES KANE& ANNA CALVI

JB @ Album de la Semaine Nov 20 2013, MK @ Olympia Oct 30 & Hotel de Ville July 18, AC @ Gaité Lyrique Sept 26 & Album de la Semaine Sept 25

THE "let down" CONCERTS:

Peter Doherty & Babyshambles @ Zénith Oct 03 

Very average show By Peter & Co, blame it on Peter's being wasted once again too bad specially after the gig @ Republique.

@ Olympia Oct 22 Once again Peter was probably too wasted to turn up and the show was cancelled at 11pm

 

Sixto Rodriguez @ Zénith June 03 & June 04

We were expecting to see Sixto for the last 4 years, when we discovered his music a few months after he played the Nouveau Casino in 2009, all we had was a drunk old man lost on  stage, very sad.

Fortunately he came back to life @ Cigale a couple of days later.

CAT Power @ Olympia July 17

Don't like the new album and we couldn't really get "into" the show

Arctic Monkeys @ Album de la Semaine Sept 11

Great band but the singer's attitude trying to impersonate a crooner from the 70's is ridiculous and completely ruining the gig, too bad, some songs are great specially when Alex is on guitar for the faster songs. Too many slow songs either

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

ROCKERPARIS Top 10 shows for 2012

ROCKERPARIS Top 10 shows for 2012

We'll be back in a few days , Stay tuned for our TOP 10 Shows for 2012

A little bird is telling me that Bruce Springsteen & The Rolling Stones will be on top of the list

The Rolling Stones for two special shows in Paris (Trabendo & Mogador)

Bruce @ Paris Bercy for two sold-out shows in July 2012