At last I find time to write a review.
First and foremost, let me say that the show was great, and that myself, my wife and the 4 friends I brought along were almost in tears by the end of the show. This is not questionned the least by the (small and constructive) criticisms I will make later.
I had the chance to meet with Tunnel85 prior to the show. Very nice guy, quite different from his avatar
And very sweet, he brought me a quality seat for the show in Clermont saturday - will enjoy meeting you again over there, Tunnel !
The atmosphere was great. We were second row at the floor, center stage, MK a few meters from us. Not a bad spot at all, but Bercy is not my favourite venue by any means. It is huge, cold, designed for sports rather than music, its accoustic is average. Nothing to do with Royal Albert Hall, for instance. For instance, I had the impression that some instruments were very loud (Mark's guitar) and some not (Jim's piano for instance). Maybe listening to the stick that I ordered will change this impression, but it would be quite ironical than the recording of the concert sounds better than the concert itself, don't you think ?
).
Ruth Moody did a great job as an opening act. Great musicians, and superb voice. But realizing this also led me to frustration later, with IDUAD and Seattle: as in Amsterdam and London, she could bearly be heard, as if she did not dare showing off here beautiful voice in front of Mark... too bad !
Mark was in a very good mood, even if he looked a bit tired at times. I was quite interactive with the audience this time. He repeated several times how happy he was to be back in "beautiful Paris" again. As usual, he tried a few french words, and called Richard the french way. When he introduced Ruth he did something that I think he has not done before - he briefly mentionned "That record that we did with Emmylou". So be reassured - he is not angry with Emmy and did not dump her for younger Ruth
He was quite joking too. Prior to Gator Blood, somebody in the audience shouted "I love you Mark". He answered back: "I love you too....well, here is a song about somebody I
don't love".
My wife was filming, I warned her a few times about the infamous "finger of death" which we have not seen in 3 years, but still... anyway, plenty of people were filming, and he did not seem to care. For some reason it seems that he gave up on that. Maybe because youtube videos look better today that they used to, thanks to better technology ?
An incident happened involving me and Isaac during the now famous "'run of bulls" at the end of Speeday. I had already shaken hands with Isaac who happend to be exactly in front of me (same seat number in row 1). The moment the run started, I really rushed to be in the front. Still, he tried to do it with manners and to not push everybody. Everything happened so fast, I don't quite remember everything, but I think a guy pushed me and have me land.... on Isaac's previously injured hand ! Isaac did not appreciate, pushed me back and started to shout at me, before realizing it was me. We both apologized to each other, nothing was intentionnal. Later I invited Isaac for a drink and he was kind enough to accept to spend some time with me and my friends, despite other prior commitments with his own friends. Very nice guy indeed !
After that... what can I say ? the emotion of seeing Speeday and TR one meter away from Mark is just magical. Telegraph Road... my favourite song of all times.... played just in front of me. And played very well indeed (albeit shorter than in RAH). Anyway you don't care about the details when you are at the show - you just live it. Maybe later, listening to the stick, I will say that the performance of TR was (slighly) less good than in RAH or Gotthenberg... but when you are there, it is just perfect !
As for the setlist... well... when you are at the show you don't care that much that your wishes were not fullfilled. My only moment of real frustration was when I realized (with the white guitar) that Gator Blood was going to be played and that it was game over for Sultans. I would have loved so much that Paris would have been the city Mark would have chosen to ressurect it. SMSing the live set list to Dutchessy, I reflected this frustration with a smiley: "Gator Blood
". But well, I've heard Sultans many times, and I had never heard Gator Blood, and it was well played indeed, so let's not complain ! My wife was disappointed that BIA was not played, as it is her very fovourite DS/MK song. Why BIA is not part of the fixed set, and why Mark prefers to play SFA instead of BIA is beyond me, but this is his choice. Anyway I even enjoyed SFA, it was well played. And Piper as the last encore was great. Usually I prefer the studio version which seems to me better than the "slow" live versions, but in this one the licks seemed quite energetic.
I was very happy to hear Postcards from Paraguay. I missed the 2008 tour and I really love the song, with the fantastic band intro. Only regret: no more "Paraguayiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii !".
I noticed my friends, who are casual listeners, prefer to hear songs they've never heard before. Last night with 8 new songs compared to 2010 they were highly satisfied !
I always thought that this year I would get at least either YTC or KOG. I got neither. RIP YTC, I'm quite sad, to me that was the best song on the album, and ever better live. But getting IDUAD instead was really sweet. I cross my fingers for saturday, hopefully he will play KOG tonight, IDUAD friday, and KOG again saturday in Clermont !
At the end of TR, the girl in front of me tried to throw flowers at Mark. She missed, the flowers just reached the floor. I think Mark saw it but chose not to get involved in this... too bad for her
Anyway, Mark did it again, whatever we say, everybody I spoke to in the venue was just suffocated by the quality of the music. It is not easy to fill Bercy, 12,000 people seated, and Mark dit it, just like Johnnny Hallyday (the #1 french local artist for 50 years) !
Now, heading to Clermont on Saturday !
Cheers
