ROCKERPARIS

vendredi 3 juillet 2009

Peter Von Poehl @ Institut Suedois Paris july 3rd 2009

Peter von Poehl + Olle Nyman
@ Swedish Institute Paris July 3rd 2009

The Swedish Institute is organising festivities to celebrate the Swedish European Presidency.
Tonight is free event in the gardens of the Swedish institute in the Marais district, the sun is shining and there are LOTS of people queuing in the street.
I don't think they expected that many people.More than a 1000.

Swedish artist Olle Nyman is opening the show with his cool Pop-folk. Soulfull voice à la Paul Rodgers. He's on a french label Fargo ( with Peter , Alela Diane , Joseph Arthur... )

Olle Nyman (on the right) & friend

Peter Von Poehl and his band ( 7 musicians: drums , bass , keys ,brass & cello ) all dressed in white are taking the stage at 8:30 PM for a smooth and relax 80 min gig.

I'm not too familiar with his catalogue, another swedish playing pop-folk-rock.
He has a funny way of singing and probably listened to Nick Drake a lot in his youth.
His songs are nice and soft even though he sometimes gets a little crazy with an electric guitar , headbanging a bit.

He's making the effort of speaking in French, I think he's living in Paris.
Nice atmosphere in these gardens in the heart of Paris with lots of beautiful girls , not all swedish, I've also noticed that the cello player is also hot as hell.
I don't think there was a better way of getting into July ( who ? ) with this very bucolic gig.

Peter , nice....

... guitars

The cute Maeva on cello & setlist

Mick Taylor @ New Morning Paris July 2nd 2009

Mick Taylor @ New Morning
Paris July 2nd 2009

Rehearsals

Kuma Hurada on bass ( left )

Tonight is a special concert as it's been recorded for a future DVD.

We arrived there early to see the rehearsals, Mick was already drinking and was walking very carefully, he played a couple of songs and went back to his nearby hotel.
He has lost a bit of weight since last time I saw him and has made an effort to dress decently.

A French guitar player ( or by the way he's called Joël Daydé , sorry ) opened the show with a few blues songs on acoustic and electric guitar singing mostly in English and a couple of songs in French.
The guy did a good job but some of Mick fans were calling their idol on stage, morons.

Mick came on stage late ( around 10 PM ) doing strange movements with his arms , had a chat first then took his guitar and started playing " Secret affair" .
He was in high spirit tonight speaking between songs, always with a nice sense of humour.
His guitar playing is far from being as fluent as before, it's like he's playing in slow motion and the voice is sometimes weak. Nevertheless there were some very good moments.
He even took requests ( " alabama" ) as he didn't know what to play next.
He left the stage after 4 songs ( 10 min each ) leaving his guitar player sing the next one : " Burial Ground" .

Complete setlist :

Secret Affair
Twisted Sister
Alabama
Losing my faith
Burial Ground (without Mick )
Blind Willie Mc Tell ( with Bits of All Along the watchtower )
Can't you hear me knocking
No Expectations

We were lucky to get a Bob Dylan song that he recorded for -Infadels- that wasn't used and ended on a -Bootleg series- called " Blind Willie Mc Tell".

He left the stage after 1H40 Min and came to sign a few cds to fans without forgetting to get a drink at the bar first.

" Can't you hear me knocking"

mardi 30 juin 2009

The Dead Weather @ L' Album de la Semaine Canal+ Paris June 30th 2009

The Dead Weather @ L' Album de la Semaine
Paris June 30th 2009

Setlist & Allison + Jack L on left

Last recording for the season before the holidays for the famous Canal+ TV show " L' Album de la Semaine ".
The studio is packed , around 200 people , lots of fans who were at the Cigale the day before ( see Pics and review + Videos HERE ). Thankfully it's not as hot as yesterday.
The band opened the set with the same song ( "60 ft all" ) which I think is not the best choice to start the gig with.
Anyway the band is on top form and after listening to the songs for the first time yesterday night live, I'm really getting into it and I have prefered this private show.
They 've played 10 songs ( see setlist above ) for 45 min.
They ended the gig with Jack on guitar on " enough water".
We could meet them briefly after.( see Pic )

The Dead Weather @ Cigale Paris June 29th 2009

The Dead Weather + Aqua Nebula Oscillator
@ Cigale Paris June 29th 2009

Aqua Nebula Oscillator

First on stage in a Hot & Sweaty Cigale ( Sold-Out along time ago ) is french Doom-Stoner band Aqua Nebulla Oscillator , This guys are heavy , the sound is messy but the music is really heavy and psyche : Hawkwind meeting the early Queens of the Stone Age. cool

9:00 PM the Dead Weather are playing the first notes of their concert, slow song to start with, maybe not the best to get into a gig.
Jack White is on drums & Vocals, Alison Mosshart ( from The Kills ) on vocals , Jack Lawrence ( from The Raconteurs ) is on bass and Dean Fertita ( From the QOTSA ) on guitar and organ.

I won't tell you anything about the songs as i've never heard anything apart from the single and I've just listen to it before the gig.

With Jack it's not really Chorus + Verse + chorus type of songs, they seem to be destructured , it's working on some and not on others.
It's a Blues orientated band like in the White Stripes but less heavy .

You can feel that it's Jack's new project even though he's on drums for the whole gig apart from one song that he's doing on guitar and vocals ( with Alison ) while Jack Lawrence was on drums .
This guy knows how to rock on guitar , there's no doubt about it.