Robert Plant & Alison Krauss @ Grammy Awards

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss ( here with producer and musician T Bone Burnett ) won 5 Grammy Awards yesterday.
It's not good for a Led Zeppelin reunion , that will never happen... anyway as Robert Plant confirmed in an interview a couple of weeks ago.

U2 @ Stade de France July 17th & 18th 2009 ( TBC )

The title says it all
U2 will be playing 2 shows in Paris @ Stade de France July 17 th & 18 th 2009 ( could be 16th & 17 th ) TBC

U2 will be in Paris promoting their new cd on Feb 23rd playing 2 songs live at " Le Grand Journal " tv show on Canal+

Iron Maiden in Paris ?

A couple of friends told me that the musicians from Iron Maiden are in France rehearsing in a studio near Paris .
I'll check and see if i can get more info about it .

Tower of Power @ bataclan Paris Feb 06 th 2009

Tower of Power @ Bataclan in Paris Feb 06th 2009

the Marquee

Mr James Brown is dead , The JB's ,Parliament & Funkadelic are long gone , Sly ( & his Family Stone ) is high up in the clouds God knows where .
But there 's still one band funkin' & Groovin' in 2009 and he's playing the Bataclan tonight.
41 years together, a real performance in itself. Tower of Power is in da house .
A bit sad that the parisian theatre is far from being full , the balcony is closed and there are lots of empty spaces down in the pit.
What are you doing froggies on friday night ?
Anyway ToP is here to groove and that's what they're gonna do for 90 min.
Storming set very Funky but they know also how to keep things calm too with a couple of slower songs including one reminding me of those vocals band from the sixties
The band will release a new cd next month ( they've play one new song from it ) featuring Tom Jones ,the legend from Sam & Dave : Sam Moore and the lovely Joss Stone.
Nice evening & some of the guys came to sign stuff to fans just after the show
I guess that everyone went home happy

The whole cast & signing session with singer and original bass player

Groovin' in Paris + Setlist

Aftershow meeting

Dewey Martin ( Buffalo Springfield ) dead at 68

Original drummer from the 60's band Buffalo Springfield , Dewey Martin died at his home in L.A. on Feb 1st of apparently , natural causes. He was 68 years old
Buffalo Springfield had a few hits in the late 60's and is famous for having both Stephen Stills & Neil Young as singers and guitar players.

The Stranglers @ Olympia Paris Feb 5th 2009

The Stranglers , live @ the Olympia theatre in Paris , Feb 5th 2009

Couldn't see support band Kim Novak as i've stayed late outside talking to friends , i made my way in as the Stranglers were playing their first song.
It may not be sold-out but it's really packed, hard to find an empty seat at the balcony , Nono guitar heroe for french rock band TRUST is among the guests.
i came to the gig out of curiosity as i don't really know what they've done apart from a few songs that were EVEN hits in France.

JJ Burnel plays his bass in a very relax way , he's also perfectly fluent in French but doesn't use it to communicate with the audience apart from the usual " Merci" . He took time to thank the guy in charge of the Olympia for welcoming the band here .

The band is really rocking, the keyboard is not too much forward in the mix, they' ve done a nice rocking cover of the Kinks' " all day and all of the night " .
Of course the gig wouldn't be perfect without " Golden Brown " and " always the sun " which are very welknown over here.
The audience mainly in their forties is reviving its youth down in the pit by pogoing in a friendly way ( yes sir they do have manners )
The set ended with a storming " No more Heroes "

The Stranglers playing The Kinks :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPgLyWeqK9g

" No more heroes " LIVE :

Lux Interior ( The Cramps ) dead at 62

Another sad news for 2009
Lux Interior from The Cramps died yesterday at a hospital in Los Angeles
Myspace the cramps

Dita Von Teese @ Crazy Horse Paris Feb 4th 2009

A relation of mine kindly invited me to see Dita Von Teese @ Crazy Horse Paris
Just a GREAT show , if you can go there don't hesitate
Then we ended up for a drink at the nearby George V hotel
Nice evening.

Here's a video from her performance ( not my video ) :

Cazals @ Virgin Champs Elysées Paris Feb 4th 2009

Cazals @ virgin Megastore Champs Elysées Paris Feb 4th

Review & video tomorrow as i'm going to see Dita Von Teese @ Crazy Horse in Paris tonight

Fires of Rome @ Virgin Champs Elysées Paris Feb 4th 2009

Fires of Rome @ Virgin Megastore Champs Elysées Paris

Franz Ferdinand @ Studio SFR Paris Feb 3rd 2009

Franz ferdinand @ Studio SFR in Paris

The Title says it all

Live

Second show for me today , this one was broadcasted live on french rock radio OUIFM co-sponsor of the event.
They've changed the setlist a bit , the atmosphere was much more rock and so was the band.
This afternoon at Canal+ was like they had played in slow motion compare to tonight's gig.
They fucked it up on a couple of songs but no one cared, the band was much more relax as well.
The place was packed but not crammed , capacity 250 people so they were right in your face.
Once again very good 50 min gig in a lively atmosphere, too bad those bastards from the security prevented people from taking pictures. Fuck'em
Like they did this afternoon the band took the time to meet all the fans that were waiting after the show , signed stuff and posed for pictures.

Oui fm has send a beauty to interview fans outside / setlist

Charming girls & Bob queueing for the loo

Alex dating

Nick surrounded by underage girls !

Paul doesn't seem happy that his drumstick ended in my home

Franz Ferdinand @ L' Album de la Semaine Feb 3rd 2009

Franz Ferdinand @ "L' album de la semaine" to promote their newly released album " Tonight "
In Fact this show was recorded for the tv show " Concert Privé " for Canal+ , it's the same setting ( a small studio for 200 people sitting in stalls in front of the stage ) but the band instead of playing 5 new songs + a couple of their hits is playing a proper gig with 12 songs.
So that's really cool.
The gig starts a bit late as the band is doing an interview ...
And here we go for almost an hour of a neat performance , not that much communication with the audience , i guess they focus on their instruments as it's recorded.
Not that much to say :Great show but Franz Ferdinand is always very good live.
Half of the set ( see setlist )consists of new songs and they sound really good live even though i'm not too fan of their new-wave sound with keyboard.
Great performance i'm looking forward to see them tonight ... again
Sorry no live pictures as it's forbidden

Alex , the man with the hat / Shinny happy Nick

Bob' a happy man / Paul plays the tough guy

signing stuff / Setlist

The band came to sign and posed for all the fans waiting after the show.
Nick told me that they will change the setlist for the Studio SFR gig .
See ya tonight !

Previous review from the Inrockuptibles festival with pictures and a video here:
http://rockerparis.blogspot.com/2008/11/franz-ferdinand-yo-majesty-get-well.html

The Pierces @ L' Album de la Semaine Canal+ Feb 2nd 2009

American Pop-folk duet The Pierces are in Paris to promote their latest record.
Principal members are two lovely sisters one blonde and one brunette on vocals, plus a beautiful Violin player and two guys playing drums and acoustic guitars.
I was a bit afraid when they played their first song , a kind of Pop-folk with some tiny traditional Irish influences ( for the violin ) that could remind you of The Corrs.
The stage moves between the two singers are ( too ) perfectly executed, very american. After a couple of songs you start getting into it slowly and then you like it.
Even if you don't know if it's because of the music of the perfect plastic of both sisters-singers.
The only problem is that everything is too perfect , something's missing : a spark
7 songs are on the setlist , they had to redo one because of some sound interferences on the violin, then the show went smoothly. They came back for an encore , did one song unfortunately during the second one the voice of the blonde singer gave up so they had to put an end to the performance.
Enjoyable evening.
Sorry no pictures for this one
Check their myspace for a bite : http://www.myspace.com/thepierces

See ya tomorrow for both FRANZ FERDINAND private shows ( 4 pm & 8 pm )

Saxon & Iced Earth @ Bataclan Paris Feb 1st 2009

Can't remember last time i went to a Heavy Metal gig , can't consider Motorhead a heavy Metal band well anyway ...
Not that many people tonight the balcony is closed and so are the aisles on both sides of the pit downstairs.
So there are far less than a 1000 heavy metal "kids" who are more, in fact , in their 40's .

Iced Earth "opened" for this co-headlining show , after just a minute now i remember why i don't listen to Heavy Metal anymore : it is sooo boring and full of clichés.
The look is ridiculous , the attitude is ridiculous , the title songs are ridiculous and so on ...
Completely indigest music and absolutely ridiculous band .
Please give me my shot of Judas Priest !

Then we have SAXON , with Iron Maiden and Def Leppard they are the only survivors of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal ( which started around 1979 ) and the least succesfull. Their glory days are far behind them.
It's hard for old bands to keep up with new bands ; so Saxon , for the last few years , is trying to be more heavy than younger bands and unfortunately it doesn't work at all , they're as boring as those younger bands .
I mean who wants to hear any new songs by Saxon ( valid with Iron Maiden too ) ?
But there's one territory where they can't be beaten up is when they play the Classics and they have lot's of 'em . And i'm 15 again : " Dallas 1 pm " " Princess of the dawn " " Crusader " ...
Too bad they only played for a little more than an hour ( first encore after 45 min !!! ) when we had to endure Bored Earth for almost 90 min.
Great lightshow too

One of the Classics :