ROCKERPARIS

jeudi 18 mars 2010

Alex Chilton RIP 1950- 2010

Menphis music legend Alex Chilton from The Box Tops & Bigstar just died in New orleans.

RIP

Pat McManus with guest Andy Powell from Wishbone Ash @ Trabendo, Paris March 17th 2010

Pat McManus with guest Andy Powell from Wishbone Ash

@ Trabendo, Paris March 17th 2010

Pat McManus

Pat McManus is headlining this blues rock night @ Trabendo, Eric Bell Trio and Taste have just played before ( scroll down for review).
Different style for Pat, the blues is left aside for a moment and the beginning of the set is more Hard-rock, 80's style with lots of guitar demonstration.
Remember his surname is The Professor.
Pat is probably a great fan of Gary Moore , he's doing the same funny faces when he's playing.
Fortunately things calm down a bit ( it was getting annoying after a few songs) when Pat is playing the fiddle or the acoustic guitar.

Andy Powell from Wishbone Ash

It's an Irish night so we had a few covers : Thin Lizzy's "Black Rose", Rory Gallagher's "Out on the western plain" and... NO U2 cover.

Andy Powell from Wishbone Ash is introduced , then things are getting reaaaalllly serious, Wishbone Ash songs were played ( see setlist fro songs) , very cool attitude from Andy Powell with his sunglasses and hat.
Unfortunately as the show was runny very late we couldn't get any encore.
The musicians came straight to the merchandising table to sign stuff for fans.
And once again as Patrice Guino told me after the gig the light engineer should be dismembered alive and the pieces thrown to feed some pigs as Pat McManus played the whole gig almost in complete darkness.

Setlist

Pat & Andy

Eric Bell trio + Taste @ Trabendo, Paris March 17th 2010

Eric Bell trio @ Trabendo, Paris March 17th 2010
St Patrick's day

Today is St Patrick's day, blues-rock extravaganza @ Trabendo in Paris.
Eric Bell ( former Thin Lizzy ), Pat McManus ( ex-Mama's Boys), Taste & Andy Powell (Wishbone Ash) are in town.

Eric Bell the first guitar player of Irish legend rock band Thin Lizzy and one of Patrice's favorite band is opening this festival of blues-rock.
45 Min set of classic blues rock with songs talking about squeezing someone's lemon... you know what I mean !
Lots of bluesy licks like the way we like them, a perfect starter for this long evening.
The show couldn't be complete without the song that made Thin Lizzy famous at the beginning of their career "Whiskey in a jar" here on video

" Whiskey in a Jar":

Irish Band TASTE is next , yes that the Taste in which legendary Irish guitar player Rory Gallagher played in at the beginning of his career in 1967.
I don't know why they call themselves Taste as there's only the drummer left from this trio: Mr John Wilson.

Blues-rock once again with a tribute to the late Rory Gallagher, they're playing original songs by Taste and Rory ( "Messing with the Kid"... )
John Wilson is a great drummer but he's overplaying on all the songs, would be great for Jazz-rock but not the best for a blues rock combo.
The bass player really sounds like Rory on vocals.
Good hour set for this "cover" band.

Next is Pat McManus with guest Andy Powell from Wishbone Ash.
review online now.

mercredi 17 mars 2010

Mohna + Jeanne + St Petersburg @ Scopitone, Paris March 16th 2010

Contact : irockinparis(@)yahoo(dot)fr

Mohna + Jeanne + St Petersburg
@ Scopitone , Paris March 16th 2010

St Petersburg

Mohna played an Oliver Peel session a couple of days ago tonight she's headlining @ Scopitone club situated in the heart of Paris between the Opéra and the Louvre.
Lots of known faces from the folk movement.

St Petersburg is opening, between Nick Drake and Neil Young ( That's what THEY say), short set of laid back acoustic songs in front of a very quiet audience , it will be the same for the other artists.
When the lights go out no one is speaking, a good point for this "trendy" club.

Then we have a last minute addition with Jeanne , playing her accordeon over a homemade projection recorded on Super 8mm film.
Very experimental, you could hear a pin drop during her 10 min "performance", here in its entirety:

Last is German girl Mohna.
She has a very soft childish voice, she's on her own playing the piano.
Call it indie, ambient. It's very special.

mardi 16 mars 2010

Johnny Winter @ Bobino, Paris March 15th 2010

Johnny Winter + A L'Ouest Le band @ Bobino
Paris March 15th 2010

A L'Ouest Le Band

Sold-out show for veteran blues man Johnny Winter in this beautiful théatre in the heart of Montparnasse , Bobino ( 900 capacity).
The opening band, French blues rocker A L'Ouest Le Band is a very cool introduction to the main attraction of tonight's blues rock gig.
Lots of guitar licks on a red Gibson SG, too bad they're singing in French.

8:50 PM , famous french guitar players Paul Personne & Louis Bertignac ( From Téléphone) are introduced to the stage (???!!??? ) to say how much they love Johnny Winter and then the band comes on stage to play a song before Johnny Winter takes his seat in front.
First time that I'm seeing him LIVE.
What to expect ? I've read so many VERY bad reviews from all the people who came to see him in concert a few years ago, at this time he wasn't playing (almost) at all and was barely touching his guitar.

From the first song that he's playing, you can see and hear that Johnny Winter is back from the dead , of course he's very fragile and someone is walking him to his seat but he plays the guitar... and very well.

He's is not as fluid and fast as it used to be in the seventies but Johnny Winter proved us tonight that he's still a killer on the guitar considering his age and what he's been going through all these years.

Classic songs are played " Good morning little school girl", "Red House" , "Highway 61" ...
he left the venue straight after the gig to do some interviews in a huge camping car ( no tour bus) parked in front of the venue and he signed cds to everyone inside the bus.
Great night , much more better than we all expected !!!

I 've just found 3 other great videos from the gig HERE.

"RED HOUSE" 7'50"