Last weekend's event was the tenth edition of Rock en Seine festival, which was held in the Domaine National de Saint Cloud. Back to School is not that bad after all! Throughout the weekend festivalgoers, which this year were more than ever, could vibrate to the rhythms of The Black Keys, Placebo, Green Day, Foster The People, Mark Lanegan, Noel Gallagher, Sigur Ros, The Shins, The Bewitched Hands, The Dandy Warhols, Bloc Party, Eagles Of Death Metal, Social Distortion, Agoria, Grandaddy, Little Dragon, Friends, Lissie, Dionysus, Stuck In The Sound, Frank Ocean, C2c, Caravan Palace, Get Well Soon, Brodinski, Gesaffelstein, Deus, Maximo Park, The Black Seeds, Ed Sheeran, The Bots, Granville, Hyphen ...
Rock en Seine is also, parallel to the concerts, events and exhibitions. To name a few: Rock'Art Exhibition, with the festival's lineup on posters made by artists, Rock'n'Roll Circus, a circus, Legends Exhibition, collecting posters of all editions of the festival as well as spectacular projections of lights during the night (trees and buildings).
To be honest, last week I was still on vacation so I could not get to the site until Saturday afternoon. Therefore my report will mainly focus saturday night and sunday' concerts.
Samedi 25 Aout :
Under the end of the afternoon's sun, dEUS took over the main stage giving us a set mixing catchy melodies and more energetic songs. Despite a good performance of the band, those who monopolized my attention this evening were Noel Gallagher and The Black Keys.
Noel Gallagher may be a great composer, he often gives the impression of being bored on stage, at least during festivals. It seems difficult to determine if he is really bored or if he hides his feelings. I venture to think he is not very comfortable in the spotlight and preferred his guitarist position in Oasis that was quieter.
Anyway, I think Noel is one of the music genius of our century and I like his catalog so much that it is always a pleasure to see him live. I actually think his performance was better than the one at the Hultsfred Festival I attended last June, particularly due to the presence of Whatever on the setlist and a good atmosphere.
Having been highly compressed in the first rows, I could guess than many people came to see the excellent The Black Keys! From Howlin' For You, the first song, the atmosphere was boiling. They gave us a set of 17 songs, 4 more than Reading and Leeds Festivals, where they were also playing this weekend! The setlist was quite varied as they played songs from all their albums except The Big Come Up. Special mention to the energetic Dead and Gone, the sweet Your Touch, not to mention Nova Baby, Everlasting Light, Thighten Up and Lonely Boy have finished conquering the public!
Dimanche 26 Aout :
Bombay Bicycle Club opened on the main stage accompanied by the singer Lucy Rose. Very nice time with them, the sun and a great the atmosphere. The audience was certainly not as big as it was during the evening but everyone seemed to enjoy the gig, applauding a lot, which was nice to see. Judging their smiles, the band seemed to be enjoying too.
Parisians of Stuck In The Sound then arrived on stage, draining an impressive crowd. I attended their performance from a stumble allowing me to have a general view on the audience and the stage, it was quite astonishing!
Moments of nostalgia with The Dandy Warhols returning with a new album, The Machine, after 4 years of absence. I was surprised to see We Used To Be Friends as the very begining of their set !
Then, rendez-vous with the Californians of Social Distortion, combining rock'n'roll from the 50s and punk. Formed in the late 70s they were the oldest band of the festival. I must admit that I had never heard of them before the Festival. Anyway, they received a warm welcome and included a cover from Johnny Cash to their set, Ring Of Fire, which was really cool!
The event of the day was unquestionably the long awaited Green Day performance after 2 years of absence, and I have to say that they don't do things by halves! A huge amount of people came to attend to their return, we could easily see hundreds of Green Day tee shirts in the crowd. The Festival beat its attendance record that day by welcoming nearly 110,000 people, wow!
Hearing the crowd singing or I should say screaming "Hey oh, let's go" from Blitzkrieg Bop by the Ramones just before the concert started, we were warned, the atmosphere would be hot! The concert opened with Welcome To Paradise, thus giving the tone. Followed by a bunch of hits, Know Your Enemy, Holiday, Longview, St Jimmy, When I Come Around, King For A Day ... To name a few. Not to mention Basketcase and American Idiot! They dedicated 2000 Light Years Away to "Old school Green Day fans."
Billie Joe was unchained, encouraging singalongs between each song with a lot of "Oh oh", running from the right to the left and doing the clown. He offered us his "Freaking dance"and that was very funny! The crowd meanwhile, was inflamed, singing in unison on every song. What a great moment when Billie Joe left us sing the half of Boulevard Of Broken Dreams, contemplating us sat down !
The concert did not lack of animation: invitations to come onstage, antics of Billie Joe and his mates (French accent, dances, watering, throwing of toilet paper and darts with plastic guns) and unexcpected covers. Lying on the floor, Billie Joe went into a delirium by singing bites of We Are Young by Fun, Stand By Me by Ben E. King and Hey Jude by The Beatles accompanied by the public.
At the end of King For A Day each member came disguised singing, Billie Joe replaced them on guitar, bass, drums... It was very funny to see!
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