Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon @ Théatre de la Ville, Paris June 17 2011

Neil Hannon from Divine Comedy "Piano solo" @ Théatre de la ville
Paris, June 17 2011

First time ever that Rockerparis was going to the Théatre de la Ville, it's just the Théatre opposite Le Théatre du chatelet where we saw Marianne Faithfull , with Wayne kramer on guitar, twice in March.
Sold-out show and upmarket audience.
From the outside it's as beautiful but from the inside that's completely different, it looks like a 70's concrete building (meaning it's awful) even though the concert hall in itself is not bad.
The inside of the théatre du chatelet is still with its original "Italian" style and is stunning.

Anyway we're not here to discuss decoration but to talk about Neil Hannon's solo performance on piano.
He already played like this last year @ the very posh Salle Pleyel on July 07 2010 (click for review with Pics & videos).
He's still promoting "Bang goes the knighthood" his latest album so Neil is playing this record in its entirety for the first part of the show, mostly on piano and a couple of songs on the acoustic guitar.

After a 15 min intermission he's back behind the keys to play a best of... from his catalogue.
The Setlist will be posted here shortlty and on his french website : A short site about The Divine comedy. Check the Forum too.

1. Down In The Street Bellow
2. The Complete Banker
3. Neapolitan Girl
4. Bang Goes The Knighthood
5. At The Indie Disco
6. Have You Ever Been In Love
7. Assume The Perpendicular
8. The Lost Art Of Conversation
9. Island Life
10. When A Man Cries
11. Can You Stand Upon One Leg
12. I Like
    entracte
13. The Pop Singer’s For The Pollen Count
14. Everybody Knows (Exception You)
15. Songs Of Love
16. A Lady Of A Certain Age
17. Perfect Lovesong
18. Geronimo
19. Generation Sex
20. Our Mutual Friend
21. National Express
    encore
22. The Booklovers (part of)
23. The Frog Princess
24. Tonight We Fly
    encore 2
25. Sunrise

No need to tell you that it was great, when you have very good songs you don't need pyros , just an acoustic guitar or a piano and that's enough.
Neil has also a great sense of humour so he's always acting a bit funny or telling a joke on stage.
No big difference with last year's show but once again we had a very good time.

We were lucky to be invited to a small party with drinks and canapés afterward but Neil didn't turn up.

La Conciergerie from the théatre

Duff Mc Kagan's Loaded @ Splendid , Lille June 16 2011

Updated June 17 with more videos (GNR songs)

Duff Mc Kagan's Loaded @ Splendid
Lille June 16 2011

setlist, Pics (C) Madame Mime

From what "Motley Mime" (our reporter) told us, around 300 people in the club.
Overall Good show but nothing special. Lots of fans waited for Duff after the gig outside
Duuf & Loaded will be opening for Judas Priest @ Zénith in Paris on monday June 20.
Rockerparis will be there

"10 Years" + "Attitude"

Guns N Roses ' "So fine" , Dust & Bones, It's so easy + Loaded's "dead Skin" , videos for ya all

The Blue Van @ Divan du Monde, Paris June 16 2011

The Blue Van @ Divan du Monde
Paris June 16 2011

After attending a great gig with Arctic Monkeys @ Cigale we went to the nearby Divan du Monde club, to see Danish heavy rock band The Blue Van.
We just arrived for the last 4 songs, there wasn't a lot of people but these Danish mother-fuckers were smoking.
Great band !

Arctic Monkeys @ La Cigale, Paris June 16 2011

Contact: irockinparis((@))yahoo(dot)fr
Updated June 17 with links to MORE videos

Arctic Monkeys + Concrete Knives @ Cigale

Paris June 16 2011

Concrete Knives

This is our second Arctic Monkeys' show in two days, yesterday they've played a private show in front of a selected audience of 200 people at the Album de la semaine.
Once again we were a bit disappointed by their shitty attitude as if they didn't give a fuck.

Will it be different tonight ?
First we have French electro-pop-rock band Concrete Knives: they're sounding very 80's, this is not our cup of tea but they were entertaining. The singer did a bit of crowd-surfing on the last song.

It's 8:45 pm sharp when the band is getting on the stage to the music of Steppenwolf , the sound is loud and clear, there is a powerful white lighting on Alex Turner for most of the gig.

The Cigale was sold-out almost instantly when the tickets went on sale a few days ago, in fact it sold-out in two minutes. (They've just added another show in the south of France in a couple of weeks).
The atmosphere is hot, lots of pretty girls down the front screaming their lungs out.

Tonight Alex left his" fuck it" attitude that he had last night for the Canal+ tv show, he's smiling a bit and is talking much more (not enough though) and that is changing everything.

I haven't seen them a lot on stage but this one was the best I've been to.
Songs are rocking, Josh Homme is probably responsible for turning them into a more American band with heavy guitars and that's the shit that we love @ Rockerparis.
Almost a "stoner" band.
Yesterday was more orientated on the new album tonight it's more of a best of (we'll get the setlist soon).
We have a bit of everything fast (the old ones) and slower songs (the recent ones), once again the first single is terrific live, probably the best song on the new album

setlist:
1) Library Pics 2) Brainstorm 3) This house is a circus 4) Still take you home 5) Don't sit down... 6) Pretty visitors 7) Teddy Picker 8) Crying Lightning 9) Brick by Brick 10) Reckless serenade 11) Cornerstone 12) The view from the afternoon 13) I bet you look good... 14) She's Thunderstorms 15) If you were there beware 16) Do me a favour 17) That's where you're wrong 18) Whe the sun goes down Encore 19) Shalala 20) Fluorescent Ado 21) 505

You can see that Alex is the main attraction, he's getting most of the light maybe the others should get more involved in the show but they're doing their job perfectly

With 4 albums under the belt 75 min can be considered a very short gig but we enjoyed every fucking minute of it.
GREAT gig !

Pas sheet & Merchandising

setlist soon

Arctic Monkeys @ L'Album de la Semaine, Paris June 15 2011

Arctic Monkeys @ L'Album de la Semaine for canal+
Paris June 15 2011

setlist

Well, We really like Arctic Monkeys @ ROCKERPARIS but we have to admit that in concert we were disappointed the last time we saw them @ Zénith in Paris in November 2009.
The music has change a lot with slower songs and the guitars are more heavy which is what we like: HEAVY
We cannot consider them as an English indie pop-rock band with up-tempo songs as they sound now like a heavy American band with slower songs.Thanks to Josh Home from the QOTSA.

Nevertheless if we like the music, LIVE there's a problem, all the guys in the band are looking so bored, it's a misery.
Even when Alex Turner is saying hello to the audience he's looking at his shoes and doesn't seem to bother at all.
They have the best job in the world, they're sellling lots of records they have the credibility and they have the fucking attitude of a coal miner going to work @ 5:00 am.
What the Fuck is wrong with them !

New songs sound good specially the single that's terrific, glad with have an old up-tempo song "teddy Picker". Only "Brick by Brick" is sounding like 60's English pop-rock, the rest is very 'American'. see setlist above for details

Good 42 min set but it could have been so much better.
A first @ L'Album de la Semaine in more than 4 years of recordings : the band left the stage to go straight into their cars ?!?, like Elvis did in the old days.

Come on guys !

Check our reviews of The Last Shadow Puppets @ Olympia on August 26 2008 & @ Album de la Semaine for Canal+ the day after