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'Black Session', France Inter, Paris - March 9, 1999

Those pictures were taken from Laurent Orseau's site and Electric Light - Thanks!

Review taken from "Electric Light" thanks to Mélanie Fazi

The best Belgian band in the world strikes again! One week before the release of the band's third album The Ideal Crash, French radio station France Inter organized a Black Session with dEUS, the band's second gig this year, as lead singer Tom Barman explained. And from the start you could tell that something exceptional was about to happen. Not only because most of the 250 lucky ones in the studio had never heard the new songs before. Not only because dEUS had not been seen live since 1996. Maybe it was just because the audience was not as quiet and sleepy as usual. Which was so unusual that it had to be a good omen. The terrible thing about Black Sessions is that you have to sit through the whole show. A frustrating prospect when you're expecting a band to perform songs like Fell Off The Floor Man or Suds & Soda. Actually, I've been told that at the end of the '97 Gus Gus Session, people from the front row stood up and started to dance. But hey, that was Gus Gus.

There were obviously quite a few fans among the audience, judging by their reactions when the band walked on stage. As far as I can remember, few bands were ever greeted so warmly at a Black Session. Tom Barman said a few words in French, as he would do before every single song, then the band started off with a brand new number called Sister Dew, followed by another new song, Instant Street, which he presented as the first single. Most of the songs they performed during the Session (seven out of ten, more precisely) were taken from the forthcoming album, which is not the easiest thing to do for a band. It's quite easy to warm up the audience by playing hits and classics, but presenting them with songs they've never heard is always a bit tricky. The crowd turned out to be as enthusiastic about the songs as you could hope. Especially given the circumstances (studio 105 is not exactly the kind of scenery which makes you want to party all night).

It's always difficult to describe the general atmosphere of a concert when you don't know the songs you're writing about. But the new material was catchy enough from the very first time. Nice melodies, rather pop-oriented, sometimes reminiscent of some songs from the previous album, In A Bar, Under The Sea (a real gem, in my humble opinion). Think of Little Arithmetics for example: a lovely melody ending up as a complete sonic mess. Quite representative of dEUS's deconstructive approach: any of their songs contains enough material to write four different songs for any other band. The method seemed more subtle in these new songs, but the dEUS spirit was always there, lurking from some hidden corner.

The show also had some kind of messy quality which made it often unpredictable, with Tom speaking French, Dutch and English at turns, yelling at violin player Klaas Janzoons every five minutes, with new member Tim Vanhamel acting like he had just fled from some looney bin. Anyone who has ever attended an Ultrasound show will understand what I mean. Except for the music, of course. An Ultrasound show is fun to watch as long as you don't pay attention to the "music".

Later came Roses with its obsessing chorus (Thank you for the roses, for the roses...), just perfect to end the gig. We knew it had to be the last song, because this is the kind of thing which bands always keep for the end, to build a climax before they leave the stage. You know, the kind of song which leaves you drained and empty, but happy and eternally grateful. The kind of song which makes you yell for an encore until you have no voice left to shout. The only time I saw the audience going wild like this at a Black Session was for Yo La Tengo, in December 1997 (the only show which ever made us forget that this was not a real concert, only a radio session). They just couldn't refuse to come back, could they? So they were back on stage three minutes later.

Tom did the talking as usual. He really has a great attitude on stage and a good deal of charisma. "We're going to do a cover of Alain Souchon", he announced, and actually I'd never noticed that he looked a bit like him (never mind if you've never heard of Alain Souchon, you're not missing anything). But instead the musicians began to play the intro from dEUS's ultimate classic Suds & Soda, what a blissful surprise. An unmistakable intro with this haunting violin sound going on and on like a scratched record. But the song only started two minutes later: while Tom was struggling with the capo of his guitar ("I've been traumatized by these things", he explained), the others just went on, waiting for him to join them. Their rendition of Suds & Soda was simply perfect, as thrilling as if we had not heard it 10,000 times. This was to be the only encore and the show ended after only 45 minutes. Before they left for good, Tom Barman couldn't help but advertising their next show in Paris, which is planned for June. And it was all over. When we left the studio, even the skeptics among the audience (I know there were some) seemed ready to convert to the cult of dEUS. I wouldn't be surprized to meet them at the concert. Some bands just have a trick to turn you at once into faithful worshippers. Don't forget the band's name is dEUS.