Brother & Bones + Lianne La Havas + Ben Howard @ La Cigale (30/01/2012)

Into a Cigale that was still filling up, Richard Thomas came on stage with his guitar saying "It's amazing to be in such a beautiful place !". He's from the English band Brother & Bones and explained to us that usually he's not the only one on stage, he is with the rest of the band and that the music is a little bit heavier. Still, it was a cool discovery. I really liked listening to him,  the sound of Brother & Bones can be compared to Mumford and Sons, it's a mix of folk, blues, rock. Worth the listening ! If you wanna find more about them: Brother & Bones.  

Then came a little lady that bewitched some of the boys around me, Lianne La Havas. She was really smiling and sweet. She came straight from London and introduced some of her material in French, which the crowd appreciated. She was sympathetic on stage explaining the meaning of her songs such as Forget and Gone written on her ex-boyfriend. Her music is folk and soul. If you wanna find more about her: Lianne La Havas. 

Ben Howard arrived with his musicians around 9pm in a Cigale full since it was sold out. He sat down and started the first notes of Depth Over. It was a good introduction song as it was a bit mystical. Ben had his guitar on his knees and he produced music by beating it and by touching the chords. 

The crowd was into him from the begining to the end of the gig. I must admit that I was surprised to see the whole venue sing along with Ben Only Love ! It was a bit shy at first sight but then the crowd started to feel more confortable and we all sang together at the end of the song. It was easy to feel more confortable because Ben is simple, sympathetic and talkative on stage. He spoke a lot about being in Paris, giving personal anecdotes and thinking the public. He even said that usually they fuck up Paris but not this time ! 

He performed almost all his debut album Every Kingdom. His voice was impressive live, even better than on his recorded materials ! Of course, The Wolves and Keep Your Head Up were well expected and  everyone enjoyed these songs. He did a long version of The Wolves and when he was over, the crowd kept singing along the "Ooh oh oh oh". He has been joined by Richard Thomas on guitar for Keep Your Head Up and they finished the song by a guitar duet with complicity.

He came back on stage under tons of applause, screamings and noise to play Move Like You Want and The Fear. Then he and his musicians thank once again the crowd that has been amazing and very enthusiastic all the evening long. There was a real complicity between Ben and the crowd, people didn't hesitate to scream out loud what they wanted to say. 

The concert lasted around 1h25 which is pretty good since he only has one album. I had seen him when I attented the French TV show Taratata last september but he only sang 2 songs so it was pleasant to see him on his own tour. He said that he keeps coming to Paris doing venues bigger and bigger so there is no doubt we'll see him again soon. As usuall I filmed some songs and you can watch them on Youtube. Here is the setlist:

Sunday Song: Wind Song by Revolver

On this last sunday of January I chose to present Wind Song by a young French band called Revolver. The song will make you feel happy even with this bad and cold weather ! Not enough new articles last week, but it was the calm before the storm because I'm gonna see Ben Howard, Indochine and Miles Kane + Arctic Monkeys this week. Stay tuned !

Sunday Song: Brother by Matt Corby

I took the time to travel the world through iTunes this week. I visited at least Canada, UK, Irland, USA, Korea, Japan and Australia to see what they are listening to these days. I have to say that they have some hits in common with France's top 10 songs (Foster The People, Coldplay, Adele, Goyte, Lana Del Rey...). I discovered a very cool singer from Australia, Matt Corby who became famous with Australia Idol in 2007. He doesn't have an album yet but he released 4 EPs that you can listen to. Here is Brother, his last single and also the song I fell in love with at the first listening. Hope you'll enjoy it !

The Ting Tings @ La Flèche d'Or (18/01/2012)

After several years of waiting, The Ting Tings are finally back this year with a new album called Sounds From Nowheresville, that will be released on February 27th in UK and USA (march 5th in France). I liked their debut album We Started Nothing so I must say that I've been desperately waiting for a new album !

They stoped by Paris last wednesday at the Flèche d'Or. Their show was initially planned at the Nouveau Casino but it has been moved to allow more people to come. Still it was more like a intimate and "private" gig for the promotion of Sounds From Nowheresville since the venue wasn't that big.

Positive point, there was no opening act but the waiting in the venue was long anyway. They finally came on stage around 9pm with Give it Back. People including me started to take pictures with cameras but we have been forced to stop, even if we weren't using any flash. I think they wanted to avoid their new material to end up on Internet. I don't blame anyone, but still what's the point of playing gigs before the release of an album ? I mean, Coldplay had no problems this summer playing new stuff even if their album was released 4 months later. So you'll understand the lack of good pictures and videos on the article, I only could use my phone. 

Anyway, let's focus on the gig itself. They seemed happy to be in Paris, Katie White even said a few words in French to present the show and came close to us several times. They were energetic and played with the crowd. The atmosphere was great and in the middle of the gig, the crowd started to wish happy birthday to Katie (even though her birthday was supposed to be on March 3rd according to Wikipedia). Jules De Martino alternated synthetizer, guitar and drums and Katie, syntetizer and guitar. At the end of one song, Katie threw one of her guitar up in the air and broke it. Later I read on Twitter a Tweet from Jules saying: "Last night was rocking! K split her Gibson Eye in two, my fav guitar of hers now dead! Thank you Paris. J".

They played songs from their debut album such as Great DJ, Fruit Machine or We Walk and some new songs like Guggenheim, Silence and Hang it Up, their new single. The remix they did to Hands was really cool ! I enjoyed it as I enjoyed one of their new songs, Hit Me Down Sonny, I look forward listening to it again now ! Of course they played their biggest hits Shut Up And Let Me Go and That's Not My Name, we all had fun singing the lyrics with Katie on these two songs. 

In brief the concert was great but a little bit short in my opinion. It lasted less that an hour. I regret that they did not sing Be The One. I have no videos to show you this time but if I remember well, I think I've seen a video camera filming. So maybe with luck we'll see the live footage later ? 

Here is the setlist of the show:

Sorry for the delay, I've been busy. This article won't interfer with the Sunday song that you'll discover later today.

Sunday Song: Pioneers by Bloc Party

This sunday I chose to present to you Pioneers by Bloc Party. I'm currently watching (one more time) The OC and this song was in one of the episodes I saw this week. I had put Bloc Party somewhere in my head and It made me wanna listen to them again. Have a good week !

Playlist: What are your favorite covers ?

I really appreciate artists covering other artist's songs. I have to admit that the result is not always good but it's part of the game. Sometimes we can be suprised to listen to a song with a different arrangement than the one we are used to. This is what I like about covers, to rediscover songs that I like and to discover songs that I usually don't like with a new angle. Here are some covers that I enjoy listening to:

Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd) coverd by Sparklehorse & Thom Yorke

Running Up That Hill (Kate Bush) covered by Placebo

Enjoy The Silence (Depeche Mode) covered by Nada Surf

Crystalised (The XX) covered by Gorillaz

Smell Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana) covered by Tori Amos

Lovesong (The Cure) covered by Adele

The Man Who Sold The World (David Bowie) covered by Nirvana

Rolling In The Deep (Adele) covered by Linkin Park

Here are some covers that we would not have thought about, they are quite unexpected and funny sometimes but they are not that bad ! Pop song covered by rock bands and vice versa. It's impressive to see how a song can change depending on the way it is sang:

Viva La Vida (Coldplay) covered by Lady Gaga

Womanizer (Britney Spears) covered by Franz Ferdinand

Last Friday Night (Katy Perry) covered by Snow Patrol

We Found Love (Rihanna) covered by Coldplay

Miss You (The Rolling Stones) covered by The Black Eyed Peas

The Sweet Escape (Gwen Stefani) covered by Kasabian

Of course when we talk about covers there are also Muse - Feeling Good, Jimi Hendrix - Hey Joe, Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah and more but I wanted to focus on some not too overheard covers. 

And you, what are your favorite covers ?

English version & Sunday song

Hello to all of you, English readers !

As you can see I finally set up a proper English version of my French blog, aLive. It allows you to read my articles instead of just watching the pictures. I hope it's gonna be usefull for you. As I've said on the right sidebar, my english may not be perfect all the time, please be comprehensive. I'll do my best to avoid making mistakes. 

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I decided to propose you a different song every Sunday. It's gonna be a song that I listened all week, a song that marked me or even a song that is totally new. 

Today, let's start with My Delirium by Ladyhawke. It's not a new song but I discovered it this week when I heard it on Xfm, an English radio. So here it is: