Maxïmo Park @ Gaité Lyrique, Paris Oct 28 2012

Maxïmo Park + Animal Kingdom @ Gaité Lyrique, Paris Oct 28 2012

First we have Animal Kingdom at the tiny Gaité Lyrique, indie rock band from England. Not really our drug of choice.

The Gaité Lyrique is far from being full, I guess Maxïmo Park ain't the flavor of the month anymore, it's too bad as they've done a great kick ass rock set, starting very softly with the first part of the first song then exploding 'till the last riff of the last song. Great atmosphere specially the girls down the front who couldn't kept from grabbing his legs.

The singer is acting a bit like a maniac for the whole set (see video below).

Most of their short are very short, 3 min max and fast.

That's how we like it !

Entertaining !

The Rolling Stones @ Trabendo, Paris Oct 25 2012

UPDATED OCT 26 with more pics & videos

 Street Fighting Men ? Not Tonight !

setlist

The Rolling Stones @ Trabendo, Paris Oct 25 2012

Hard to believe that I'm at the tiny Trabendo club to see The Rolling Stones. We've already seen some famous band in this club, including The Strokes, Green day, Muse, Metallica.... but The FUCKIN' ROLLING STONES !!!

Dream Come True

We had to go through several security check points, for the tickets (twice) and search, you couldn't get in with your cell-phone or any camera...
I've never seen so many security guards, police in riot gear (?!?) and they've closed down the whole perimeter around the club. It looked like a military zone in Irak.

All that shit for 500 Rolling Stones fans most of them in their 50's? Bollocks !

Lots of familiar faces in the club, just 3 small backdrops in the back: including the cover of the new album above Charlie's drumkit.

9:15 pm , The band is getting on stage, we're just down the front facing Ron Wood.

They are all skin & Bones with gray faces and grief-written lines.Charlie's looking good and Keith Richards looks a zombie, Scary.

We're so close that we can see every line , every little muscle or vein on Jagger's face : Impressive, specially after seeing him/them only in Arenas or Stadiums.

Lightning is white and not that fantastic, sound is not too loud and perfect !

Route 66 is the first song played... in slow motion, I guess there's a bit of tension as it's their first official show since 2007.

Mick Jagger's is talking in french mostly, "I can't believe that we're still standing up" Yeah that's right specially regarding Keith Richards shadow, He looks scary and very frail; most of the time, there is no life in his eyes and from time to time there's a smile or a wink of an eye or a grin that shows us that there's still a bit of life in his body & brain. I've been told they had trouble finding an insurance Cie to sign them for a tour, I can understand why by looking at Keith.

The guitar playing is (still) perfect but kept to a minimum but isn't it his trademark ? Ronnie 's shining so is Mick.

He's playing the guitar on several songs "when the whip comes down", D&G" &"Miss ya".

You can see that several times they are relying on Chuck Leavell's direction to play a song.He's the Musical director and Mick Jagger , the conductor.

Ronnie's fooling around a bit and Daryl is faultless with some groovy bits, specially on "Miss You".

Fantastic version of "Midnight Rambler". "Doom & Gloom" is sounding very good on stage either.

Great 75 min gig, I would have never dreamed to see the Stones in such a tiny club and (almost) front row.

Now it's done, hallelujah !!!

More Pics from the show HERE

(c) Rolling Stones & Rocks Off

Rehearsals  (with Setlist)  of Oct 23 is HERE

Rehearsals  (with Setlist)  of Oct 22 is HERE

Rehearsals  (with Setlist)  of Oct 15 is HERE
Rehearsals (with setlist)  of Oct 16 is HERE
" I wanna be your man" audio from rehearsals is HERE

 Rehearsals  (with Setlist)  of Oct 11 & 12

The Rolling Stones @ Trabendo on Oct 25 ?

UPDATED Oct 25 2012

Latest news:

The Rolling Stones have recorded a video today (Oct 24) so no rehearsals.

From what I've been told:

No rehearsals on Oct 25

YES There is a short warm-up show @ Trabendo on Oct 25 & tickets were sold this morning @ Virgin Megastore on the Champs Elysées , only 350 tix sold, the rest are invit'
It's NOW SOLD OUT

MEA CULPA my informers told me it was only a video shooting

They are shooting the end of that video in public @ Trabendo club

There were a couple of competition organised this morning on two radios: RTL & OUI FM to win tickets.

The Rolling Stones' Rehearsals in France, setlist for Oct 23 2012

From my spy at the Barn, setlist for today's rehearsals Oct 23:

1. Route 66
2. IORR
3.  Shattered
4. When the whip comes down
5. Little red Rooster (x2)
6. Doom & Gloom (x2)
7. Miss You
8. Tumbling Dice
9. Start me up
10. Jumping Jack Flash
11. Brown Sugar
12. All down the line
13. Respectable
14. You can't always get what you want
15. You Got me rocking
16. Let it bleed
17. Honky Tonk Women
18. Paint it Black
19. Worried about you (x2)

It looks like there are no rehearsals tomorrow Oct 24 & the day after (Oct 25).

Maybe shooting a video somewhere else ?

Show @ Mogador will be private for bankers only

Another interesting article about sites reselling tickets for concerts at mad prices with the promoter's help , in order to get more money, of course this applies to The Rolling Stones' shows in London & Newark

Here's a video from English Channel4 about ticket touts:


Rehearsals  (with Setlist)  of Oct 22 is HERE

Rehearsals  (with Setlist)  of Oct 15 is HERE
Rehearsals (with setlist)  of Oct 16 is HERE
" I wanna be your man" audio from rehearsals is HERE

 Rehearsals  (with Setlist)  of Oct 11 & 12

The Rolling Stones' Rehearsals in France, setlist for Oct 22 2012

From my spy @ The Barn in France, here's the setlist for today's rehearsals Oct 22:

1. Tumblin' Dice
2. Route 66
3. It's only R 'n Roll
4. She's so cold
5. When the whip comes down
6. Champagne & reefer
7. Miss You
8. Tumbling Dice (again)
9. Start me up
10. Midnight rambler
11. Jumping Jack Flash
12. Doom & Gloom
13. Shattered
14. She's so cold (again)
15. Some Girls (X2)
16. RIP THIS JOINT
17. THAT'S HOW STRONG MY LOVE IS (twice)
18. Just my Imagination

Rehearsals  (with Setlist)  of Oct 15 is HERE
Rehearsals (with setlist)  of Oct 16 is HERE
" I wanna be your man" audio from rehearsals is HERE

 Rehearsals  (with Setlist)  of Oct 11 & 12

RS 'Should' be playing @ Mogador...

Interesting article on how Ticketmaster (... Sorry Ticket-bastard) are acting as touts and directs fans to "sister site" charging more than 20 000 euros a ticket.

More news from the Premiere of Crossfire Hurricane in London on Oct 18 (StonesNews.)

Jefferson Starship @ Bataclan, Paris Oct 22 2012

Jefferson Starship @ Bataclan, Paris Oct 22 2012

We get to the Bataclan very late so we missed the first 30 min, it's an all seated event and the balcony is close and there were lots of people on the guest list (Competition winners...) so I guess no more than 500 people. It  looked like a senior reunion as I haven't seen anyone under the age of 50... apart from Me ;-))) and politely clapping at the end of each song.

Nice lightning , very good sound, the musicianship is high.

I have to say I haven't really ever heard what this band has done, I was here out of curiosity without any preconceived mind.

They have played songs from the Starship many of them sounding very commercial, a bit like Meat Loaf, typical American Soft Rock from the 80's, some other songs were more acoustic Folk à la Eagles and they ended their 2 hour set with the Airplane, typical 60's sound à la Byrds.

Musically it sounded very good, even if I'm not too fan of their 80's soft rock songs that are sounding completely daté.

Visually they should make an effort, guys are looking like and dressed like my local plumber and the girl on vocals, she has a stunning voice, is from time to time ridiculous with the way she's "playing" the songs.

The acid probably kicked in at the end of the show as the senior audience all stood up for the Encore songs , there were even two guys who jumped on stage before being kicked out by security, funny !

Good show but the feeling of seeing the local band playing at the bar next door.

 setlist

SLASH @ Zénith, Paris Oct 20 2012

 SLASH  @ Zénith, Paris Oct 20 2012

Jesus ! Slash has never been so popular in France, the 6500 seats capacity Zénith is long sold-out and scalpers are selling tickets outside for almost twice the face value. Hard to believe, there was a time ( for the Snakepit records, 1995-2000) when he was only playing the 1500 capacity Elysée Montmartre. Slash has been in France very often these last two years:
 @ Stade de France with AC/DC on June 18 2010

@ Hellfest in Clisson June 19 2010
@ Bataclan June 20 2010 with Alice Cooper as a guest
@ Zénith on July 12 2011.

We didn't catch the support band Ginger from the Wildhearts but had some nice seats in front of the mixing desk dead center. Lightning was ok but the sound was perfect, not too loud and very clear.

We never really took the time to listen to the new album and were not great fans of the first so even though the band is giving it all on stage, can't tell you that the new songs sound fantastic Live.

Myles Kennedy is doing a great job, he has his own little platform on the front of the stage, not too sure about the way he's singing Guns N Roses songs, trying to impersonate Axl's vocals, no one can.

Slash on guitar is faultless maybe I would have prefer a shorter version of "Rocket Queen" (10 min), as the blues jam in the middle was a bit too long.

We had a ballad "Far & Away" (here on video) played for the first time ever Live. so Thanks for choosing Paris for this première.

Lots of young people down the front that are going crazy everytime a Guns song is played.

Glad to hear that SLASH is still playing songs from the Snakepit and Velvet Revolver.

The bass player is singing "Out to get me" and he's rocking.

Great show but we have to say that Axl's version of Guns N Roses sound a million time better on stage.

Cool that we could meet Slash briefly after the show.

setlist

SETLIST with links to videos (Courtesy of our friends @ SLASHFRANCE)

Halo
Nightrain
Ghost
Standing In The Sun
Back from Cali
Been There Lately
Mr Brownstone
Rocket Queen
Bad Rain
Far and Away
We're All Gonna Die
Out Ta Get Me
No More Heroes
Starlight
Blues Jam / Anastasia
You're A Lie
Sweet Child O' Mine
Slither

Fall To Pieces
Paradise City

Suzanne Vega @ Casino d'Enghien les bains, Oct 19 2012

 Suzanne Vega @ Casino d'Enghien les bains, Oct 19 2012

 Yesterday was MUSE playing to 17000 screaming young fans @ Paris Bercy Arena with a loud sound, lasers and an huge upside down pyramid made of dozens of screens, tonight is the other side of the coin with singer-songwriter playing a cozy small theatre @ Casino d'Enghien les Bains, 10 km on the north of Paris, with just an acoustic guitar and the help of Gerry Leonard on electric guitar.
We wanted to get a drink at the bar before the show, as we bought our tickets at the local box office it provided a free entrance for the casino ( usually they are charging 15 euros just to get in, yes 15 euros to get the right to get rob at gambling machines) but couldn't as those bastards didn't like the way we were dressed up : Vans, designer tee shirt, jeans & leather jacket. Fuck'em they won't get our money.

 Anyway we were there to attend Suzanne Vega's concert, last time we saw her live was at the Théatre Marigny 2 years ago. She's now promoting the Volume 4 of her career spanning Close-Up cd. Made of reworked versions of her songs, mostly acoustic. Gerry Leonard (former David Bowie band) is still playing with her helping out on electric guitar and loops. Unlike Muse, Suzanne doesn't need lasers and screens all over the place to catch the attention of people, simply because she has great songs...and a great sens of humor. The only prop was a topper to look like Marlene Dietrich on some songs. 

No need to tell you that we enjoyed the show a lot, even though we would have like more songs from her "Beauty & Crime" cd.

Great night out.