Hi, people.

Yesterday's gig in Paris was great. I'm absolutely convinced that they can be much more impressive, but still, the show was fabulous.

The gig was *not* sold out, so they had to make a showcase two hours before the beginning of the show. I've been there, and it was nice though Tom refused not stand up nor sit on a chair. He'd sit on the floor - and was the only that most people couldn't see (the Fnac Bastille is small and strangely organized). It seemed that they didn't even have their own material and there were endless technical problems. They managed to play *Instant Street*, *Sister Dew*, *Little Arithmetics*, *Magdalena* and *Roses*. The aim of whole this was to sell tickets and records, no need to say they didn't deliver their best performance ever.

Then the real concert. First thing : the sound was bad. Really bad. it was not the good place for this kind of concert. It would have been perfect if they had made it at l'Elysée Montmartre instead - but it's a very small room). The bass was covering everything, the whole room was vibrating and it was difficult to hear every instrument. Plus, the backing vocals were not audible.

Soulwax was ok. I'm not gonna became a fan, but from what I had heard I was expecting much worse. Funny moment when the guitarist began an ode to his Casio guitar.

Finally, dEUS came on stage. Tom said it was their last concert for this tour (!?) and it was a special night since one of the people who had worked with them during the tour was leaving. They started with *Instant street* and immediatly after *Put the freak upfront*. Then they played *Sister dew* and *Little arithmetics*. It was very good but everything was absolutely like expected, and I started to fear that the whole concert would be so "normal" - especially after that all "buy my record-come to my show" thing in the afternoon.

But fortunately, it did not. For me, the show started there. They played an incredible version of *Sam*, then *Suds & soda* - fabulous, full of an incredible energy. Then *Fell of the floor man*. I would have loved to hear the backing vocals but couldn't. It was great, anyway. Then Tom introduced *Magdalena* as a "more quiet, but still, pretty song". It was beautiful... Very different from the semi-accoustic version they had played a few hours before, much more melancholic and moving. Then, to my surprise, an awesome version of *Let's see who goes down first*, which was the only song I didn't love that much on TIC. Now I LOVE it. Then *Roses*.

The atmosphere was getting better and better at each song, an energy, a tension was taking place and the band didn't pushed it, didn't modify the rythm of the process. They gave me the impression of doing just enough to make a good show, but it also to be totally in control, protecting themselves - a feeling I also have listenning to TIC.

So, *Roses* was - of course- very impressive. They finished the first part of the show with a beautiful *Dreamsequence*.

They came back with *Turnpike*, the weirdest moment of the show. Klass came first and performed a strange, robotic dance. At the end of the song, Tom, then everyone, was dancing too, and people from the crowd started climbing onstage. During all this time the band never stopped playing. Tom called Soulwax's singer and they played something I didn't recognize. Danny jumped into the crowd. After a while, there was something like 15 people plus the band dancing onstage, and the situation seemed to become out of control... The fans were pushed back into the crowd by the Security guys.

Then they played a short and amazing version of *WCS*, and then *Everybody's weird*. I must say i didn't like the live version so much. It's in my opinion the only one that is less impressive live than on the album. After this, Tom introduced *The magic hour* as "a quiet one again, but it's better for your ears". It was splendid.

They went away but came back for a last encore. I didn't even hope they would do that, but they did : they finished the show and absolutely incredible version of *Hotellounge*. It will take me weeks to recover from that.

By the way, there will be another concert in Paris (october 18 Bataclan). Do they ever stop touring ? Oh, I'm not complaining. Definitely not.

Ok, I'll go back to work now.

Bye

Elaine

A dOOMED Army : http://divcom.citeweb.net

Showcase @ FNAC LA BASTILLE

Instant Street
Sister Dew
Little Arithmetics
Magdalena
Roses

Concert @ LA CIGALE

Instant Street
Put The Freaks Up Front
Sister Dew
Little Arithmetics
Sam Peckinpah's Daughter
Suds & Soda
Fell Off The Floor, Man
Magdalena
Let's See Who Goes Down First
Roses
Dream Sequence

Theme From Turnpike
W.C.S. (short version)
Everybody's Weird
The Magic Hour

Hotellounge