Rock en Seine...(26/8)

A decade of waiting is worth a lot perhaps. It was a moment of dream-comes-true. Music is a way to gather people, right, and so here came the live of radiohead in Rock en Seine 2006...much expected as of the other 57,000 audience on the field, I witnessed the show in great content with my mobilised iron lung. The band simply had their musical world melted in silence and applause around me. Being the forwarder with releases and songs credited with all-acclaimed comments, their music is always in advance and style. Truly is it a classic group like them in our era, their live was just performed on another level, and no wonder they could play in the same chic manner for my iron lung and everything's in its right place, or 2+2=5 and Lucky. Without much consciousness to their progression in assimilation of music of years, their sound in every tune lasts as young as it was a decade ago. Karma police was magical, and paranoid android was stroked. There was no more excess except the nice atmospheric music and prolonged echoing. Without any astonishing set up on the stage, the scattered TV screens as the backdrop was much impact though. Pairing with the outstanding lighting design on the stage, the projected images from nearly 10 cameras caught the pulse of the move. There was no need for extras.
The band played 4 new songs in their yet-to-be-released album. Still catching up the beat of their previous trilogy of Warp-based albums, the element of guitar chord appears to revive, but yet, it's still the tune of their journey to electronica rock. So this is it, perhaps a once-in-my-life.


A wrap up of my Rock en Seine:
- the live performance of Beck teamed with puppet shadow, and as classic as it could be, he played loser as a start up in his session. Cool.
- The Dead 60's got stronger. There was significant improvement when they played live when compared with the gig I saw a few months before. The riot radio was much more powerful. Watch out!
- Skin...a soulful and charismatic performance.
- DJ Shadow, always the guru of dj-ing, produced an interesting night session on Day 1. The show was just a bit short and the performance was less than what I expected.
- Morrissey. Sorry, I didn't make it to meet you again...but nevermind, as you would never be alone. A miss of the Dirty Pretty Things, Phoenix, Broken Social Scene etc. too. Oops, the world lacked perfect.
- Kasabian just lost their guitarist, and well, I guess the band was not in form. The new guitarist was not in collaboration with the band I guess. Their show was quite disappointing as it lacked some vividity. Hope they can get well soon.

The Dead 60's Live @ Trabendo...(27/3)

Finally I saw a live concert at Trabendo...my story about Trabendo began from an attempt to see a live performance of Arctic Monkeys last month. Without realising the exact location of the venue, I spent more than half an hour wandering in the Parc de Villette last time with a friend. My downloaded map indicated that the Trabendo should not be far away from the Zenith, but then there was never any structure identified by us as the venue-to-be. Indeed, the live venue is a subtle small structure next to the bushes and the carpark in the parc. Looking from the outside of its back, the structure simply looks like a water tank, a storage room or simply an electric power backup station. This is especially true at night. Hardly could I have regarded it as a venue for concert...but well, it is. The image graphics of the venue look very similar to those of the graphic design of the Unkle. I did not succeed in getting an on-site ticket for the show of Arctic Monkeys, and shortly after their show, I identified this show by another UK group the Dead 60's who came out to the scene last year. It's been a while since I have seriously heard of some new band sounds, and perhaps this would a chance. Without knowing too much about the band except some plugged singles, I bought the ticket for their live show in the evening. While entering the Trabendo, my feeling, as its outer appearance suggests, is a good and cosy venue for gigs with power chords and noises. It fits much the sound of the Dead 60's. The music of the Dead 60's reminds me a lot about the music of the Coral, but the songs of this band contain much element of the root of reggae sound and acid jazz tunes. The vocal of the band, Matt McManamon, has an outlook quite alike Gaz from the Supergrass indeed. The show was fine, and all in all, it's a relaxing time with new music. Of course, the climax of the show would be the moment when the Liverpool band played their anthem song of 'riot radio'.