Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band @ Stade de France, Paris June 29 2013

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band @ Stade de France, Paris June 29 2013

Once again Bruce Springsteen proved that he's The Boss: it started very early, as the Stade de France is half empty, with a 3 song solo acoustic set around 6:00pm.

Last year BRUCE played two shows @ Paris Bercy on July 04th (Part 2) and July 5th (Part 2) [click for review with lots of Pics & videos] that were the highlights of the year.

Very long intermission with nothing to do, we're in the golden pit, until 7:45 when Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band are getting on the stage to play the first song "Badlands" of this 3hour+ show.

What to say ? Tight band, whatever the song played, we had a request " Lucille" first played on this Tour. Great showmanship by Bruce. Fantastic songs...all is said.
He might be playing a stadium it feels as if we were attending a show in a club thanks to great communication not only with the band but also with the audience. Lots of interaction, he's coming down the front very often, shaking hands, even signing a kid's arm and as always at his shows getting several people on stage to dance , sing or play the guitar.(see video below).
At everyshow on this tour he's playing an album in its entirety: tonight we have "Born in The Usa", great choice.
For "Born to Run" Elliott Murphy (and son) are joining in.
Show ended with "American Land" before Bruce came back on his own on acoustic guitar for "Thunder Road".

 

SETLIST:

Pre-show acoustic solo:
This Hard Land
Burning Love (Elvis)
Growin' Up
MAIN SET:
        Badlands
        Out in the Street
        Lucille (Little Richard )
        Wrecking Ball
        Death to My Hometown
        Cadillac Ranch
        Spirit in the Night
        ---------------Born in the U.S.A.---------------
        Born in the U.S.A.
        Cover Me
        Darlington County
        Working on the Highway
        Downbound Train
        I'm on Fire
        No Surrender
        Bobby Jean
        I'm Goin' Down
        Glory Days
        Dancing in the Dark
        My Hometown
-----------------------------------------------------------
        Pay Me My Money Down
        Shackled and Drawn
        Waitin' on a Sunny Day
        The Rising
        Land of Hope and Dreams
        Encore:
        We Are Alive
        Born to Run (with Elliott Murphy & Gaspard ?)
        Ramrod
        Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
        American Land
        Encore 2:
        Thunder Road (Solo acoustic)

Check BRUCE TAPE for everything about this show (links to articles in the press, videos of each song...)

 

 

Merchandising & Pass sheet

The Black Crowes @ Cigale, Paris June 27 2013

The Black Crowes @ Cigale, Paris June 27 2013

 

Finally The Black Crowes are playing a proper concert in Paris, The first since their show @ Olympia in 2001, not counting the private gig they did for The "Album de la Semaine" -Canal+- tv show in April 2008.
Of course it was sold-out almost instantly, funnily enough people are getting to the venue very late, there's no support band and when the band is getting on stage at 8:15 there are still many seats left at the balcony.
The concert couldn't have started better with "Jealous again / Thick n Thin / Hotel Illness".
The sound is loud & clear, Rich Robinson is on the right, new guitar player Jackie Greene on the left hand side and Chris Robinson dead center attracting all the lights.
The band is tight and now things are getting serious with some extended jams on a couple of songs.

We're lucky tonight, the band is treated us with a "Best Of" setlist, maybe is it because the band hasn't been in Paris for such a long time. It's a dream setlist and probably the best one on this tour.

The Crowes are getting a very warm reception from the wild audience, we have a few covers for the last part of the set with The Velvet's "Oh Sweet nuthin" & "Hard To Handle/ Hush".
The band is leaving the stage for the second time the house light is on but no one wants to leave the premises and the audience  is asking for more...

The Crowes are back, for the first time on this European Tour, for one more song ( not on the setlist) with a terrific rendition of the Stones' "JJF" (here on video)

Perfect 2 hour set.

The audience/ Merchandising/ setlist

"Jumping Jack Flash":

Mark Knopfler @ Bercy, Paris June 26 2013

Mark Knopfler @ Bercy, Paris June 26 2013

Mark Knopfler is still very popular in France, Bercy has been sold-out for ages, as the audience is very old, it's an all seated event so Bercy is sold-out with almost 12000 instead of the usual 17000 when the pit is "standing".
Support band is a nice girl with a crystal clear voice: Ruth Moody, but the music is sooo boring, Folk at its worse.

After a 30 min intermission it's Mark Knopfler and its 7 musicians band to grace the stage. 

Lots of mid tempo songs, some with a very Irish feel and others sounding like the first album of JJ Cale.

I thought it would be a bit boring, in fact it's enjoyable.

He has the same soft spoken voice and the guitar playing is very subtle and intact after all these years: incredible.
The girl who opened the show,Ruth Moody is back to sing two songs with Mark.

Needless to tell you that it's not too loud and that the sound is PERFECT, probably one of the best I have ever heard @ Bercy.

Mainly songs from his solo albums and a couple of Dire Straits songs "Romeo & Juliet" (here on video) and a 10 min+ version of "Telegraph Road", both had the best ovation from the very quiet audience who finally stood up and rushed to the stage for the last 4 songs of the 2 hour set

 Setlist:(from AFMK)
  1. What It Is
  2. Corned Beef City
  3. Privateering
  4. Father And Son
  5. Hill Farmer's Blues
  6. I Dug Up A Diamond [with Ruth Moody]
  7. Seattle [with Ruth Moody]
  8. I Used To Could
  9. Romeo And Juliet
  10. Gator Blood
  11. Haul Away
  12. Postcards From Paraguay
  13. Marbletown
  14. Speedway At Nazareth
  15. Telegraph Road
  16. So Far Away
  17. Piper To The End

Very good indeed, much better than expected.

 Merchandising & Pass sheet

Archives:

Mark Knopfler + Bob Dylan @ Paris Bercy in 2011 (Pics + Setlist + Videos...)

Nile Rodgers @ Fnac St Lazare, Paris June 25 2013

Nile Rodgers @ Fnac St Lazare, Paris June 25 2013, 12:30 to 2:00PM

 "Sugarhill Gang" guys coming into Nile's studio threatening him with guns (far right)

Very interesting Master Class with Nile Rodgers from CHIC fame and guitar player or producer of many great records (for Madonna, Bowie, Jagger, Earth Wind & Fire.. and recently the n°1 album of French duet Daft Punk).
The audience asked questions and Nile answered with always a smile and some funny stories while journalist Olivier Cachin was doing the translation
- Working with Daft Punk: album recorded a year ago, he was supposed to play on only one song, then they asked for another one and another one...
-Working on the next album from Etienne Daho.
-Working on David Bowie's "Let's Dance" album: It took them 2 weeks to record and master it.
-Working with low budgets: White musicians always had big budgets for their records whereas Black musicians always had low budget so they had to make things quicker.
-Sugarhill Gang and copyright infringement : interesting story on how he listened to the song for the first time in a club and was NOT pleased when he heard his parts on the song and that after tracking who it was they discovered that they were not credited and not getting any money.So they sued them and latter had 4 guys with guns threatening them in the studio. Everything was settled and contracts were negotiated and SugarHill Gang went to see them with a case full of cash...

As it was a Master Class he played some guitars and told us how he was playing on CHIC records with the different guitar parts... very interesting

Then there was a signing session

 Nile signing my "Let's dance"