Jason Lytle (Grandaddy) & the Young Rapture Choir @ Gaité Lyrique, Paris Dec 14 2013

Jason Lytle (Grandaddy) & the Young Rapture Choir @ Gaité Lyrique, Paris Dec 14 2013

Winter Camp festival

Jason Lytle from Grandaddy fame is in Paris to promote his second solo album "Dept of Disappearance" released last year. It is the last day of the Winter Camp Festival and this show is a special project.

 

Jason is alone on the acoustic guitar + a drummer, bass player, 2 piano players, a classical quartet (cello, violins & Oboe) and the teacher of the school class on elecric guitar; and of course a choir of kids.

They have done a couple of shows last year after contacting Jason Lytle. Tonight the whole band is playing re-orchestrated songs from Jason Lytle solo album and a couple of Grandaddy's with some classical arrangements.

It's just amazing, the choir with 20+ kids is singing some of the verses on each song, they know all the lyrics and everything including the young  musicians is faultless. Which probably took sleepless nights and a LOT of work but it's worth it.

The result is amazing and the audience, with probably many parents attending welcome them to rousing applause.
Probably the most moving show we've attended this year enhanced by some classical arrangements to to the beautiful songs of Jason Lytle.

setlist and video below

Here's a great version of "He's simple, he's dumb, he's the pilot" (from Grandaddy The Sopthware slump" album) recorded that night.

 setlist

Archives:
Grandaddy @ Rock en Seine 2012

Walking Papers @ Le Petit Bain, Paris Dec 13 2013

Walking Papers @ Le Petit Bain, Paris Dec 13 2013

with Duff McKagan (Guns N Roses, Velvet Revolver)

Barrett Martin ( Screaming Trees, Mad Season)

For the 3rd time WALKING PAPERS is playing a club show in France, after playing the Nouveau Casino in Dec 2012 and the Fleche d'Or in May 2013 now WP is playing on a boat: "Le Petit Bain".

Devil Named Jones is opening with some blues rock.

Then we have Walking Papers, they do have some dedicated fans, mostly GNR fans even though the music they're playing has nothing to do with GNR. They do sound more like Seattle 's cult band Mad Season.

First 3 songs are really heavy then the band is playing more ambient songs from their debut album, we'll also get a new song. see setlist above for details

As usual Duff is the main attraction for the girls who still can't believe that they can touch him when he's  getting close to the edge of the tiny stage, he's playing with it getting the girls excited.

The band is having great fun playing all those songs and Barrett behind his drums is like a kid,Jeff Angel will even get as far as the bar at the back of the club to sing a tune.

All of this in a very friendly atmosphere.

After the set , the whole band is going to the merchandise table to sign stuff for fans, nice. 

from our friend Slash2baz

Archives:
WP @ Nouveau Casino Dec 2012
WP @ Fleche d'Or May 2013

Exposition "les 50 ans des Rolling Stones" @ Galerie Nikki Diana Marquardt, Paris Dec 12 2013

Exposition "les 50 ans des Rolling Stones" @ "Galerie" Nikki Diana Marquardt, Paris Dec 12 2013

From Dec 13 to Jan 12 2014

free entrance

Vernissage de l'exposition des 50 ans des Rolling Stones dans un grand espace entre la Rue de Turenne et la Place des Vosges.
Plein des très belles photos, environ 80, en grand format pour la plupart, de photographes tels que Jean- Marie Perrier, Michael Putland, Bob Gruen (et d'agences) avec cependant quelques tirages qui frisaient la correctionnelle.
Grosse soirée avec buffet et stand de merchandising pour environ 400 personnes dont 90% ne devaient certainement pas posséder un seul album des Stones.Point positif plein des jolies filles.
Universal qui organisait l'évenement n' a certainement pas jugé utile d'inviter des membres du fan club français ou des fans, ce qui montre le peu de respect de ces gens là pour ceux qui achetent les disques et qui les font vivre.
Heureusement que je suis tombé sur 2 amis archi-fans des Stones...on a pu passer la soirée tranquille à se raconter nos souvenirs d'anciens combattants.
Malheureusement aucun membre des Stones n'a fait le déplacement, superbe petite soirée cependant, à 23h30 c'était encore noir de monde.
A la sortie petit "goodie bag" comprenant le parfum du sponsor, un casque audio, un cd single de remix et puis le badge qui servait de laisser-passer pour aller fumer sa clope dehors.

-Merci à Philippe M.-

Nice goodie Bag with headphones, cd single, perfume & badge

Elton John @ Olympia, Paris Dec 10 2013

Elton John @ Olympia, Paris Dec 10 2013

Elton John is playing 3 sold-out shows @ Paris' Olympia theater, tickets prices are really silly once again with the best seats going for 280 euros.He will be back next year in November 2014 @ Paris Bercy with prices from 80 euros for the shitty seats at the very back, up to 280 euros for the best seats,. WOW !!!
We arrived a bit late, he started at 8:15pm, so we've missed the first 4-5 songs.
7 musicians including 2 cellos that couldn't be heard at all  , 4 girls on backing vocals and Elton all dressed in blue on the left on the grand piano.
Nice lightning , the sound is perfect and not too loud.
As you can see on the setlist below , lots of old songs, everything is perfect, too perfect. In the middle of the set Elton is playing a couple of songs solo on the piano.
Between each song he's standing up to thank the audience and having a cold drink which is a funny routine.
Funny also to see the audience quietly listening to the songs and standing up and erupting between songs.
Lots of catchy songs specially at the end with all the classics.

setlist: ---( from the first show on Dec 09, I guess he played roughly the same set tonight)---

1/ Funeral for a friend / love lies bleeding 2/ Bennie and the jets 3/ Candle in the wind 4/ Grey seal 5/ Levon 6/ Tiny Dancer 7/ Holiday Inn 8/ Sorry seems to be the hardest word 9/ Believe 10/ Philadelphia freedom 11/ Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 12/ Rocket man (i think it’s going to be a long long time) 13/ Hey Ahab 14/ I guess that’s why they call it the blues 15/ The One 16/ Oceans away 17/ Someone saved my life tonight 18/ Sad songs (say so much) 19/ All the girls love alice 20/ Home again 21/ Don’t let the sun go down on me 22/ I’m still standing 23/ The bitch is back 24/ Your sister can’t twist (but she can rock’n’roll) 25/ Saturday night’s alright for fighting 26/ Your song 27/ Crocodile rock

merchandising

Jane Birkin @ Théatre du Chatelet, Paris Dec 09 2013

Jane Birkin @ Théatre du Chatelet, Paris Dec 09 2013

We had a very busy day but we could secure some time off to see Jane Birkin playing a one-off concert @ the beautiful Théatre du Chatelet.
Not sold-out so we have a great seat on the left, French actress Isabelle Huppert is not too far from us.

The show started very slowly with Jane, all dressed in black, singing a few songs with just a piano player, then the musicians came in for a 90 min set of mainly re-orchestrated Serge Gainsbourg songs. As she's playing the "Arabesques" show we have the Arabic musical arrangements to go with.
She left the stage one moment, the band played an instrumental, to come back with this beautiful red dress.
Music was good but between songs there were too much talking: she explained us how the "Arabesques" shows came out (ok) but she took several minutes to introduce the musicians which is a good thing but who cares about knowing who is the manager, the lightman, the soundman and so on...also had a bit of a chat about Amnesty International for a petition... would have prefer less talking and two more songs...Anyway ...
We had songs from "Melody Nelson" and songs Serge Gainsbourg wrote for her or some other singers. the set ended with "la Javanaise".
Overall good show. Could have been better.