David Bowie at le Zénith in Paris on the 25th. Picture by Celine.
On peut être un héros, Pour juste une journée…
As promised yesterday, here is the assistant editor of Rock & Folk, Jérôme Soligny’s, excellent review of David’s shows at le Zénith in Paris on 24th and 25th. BowieNetter Celine’s very tasty pictures illustrate the piece, so I’ll sshhh now and pass you over to Jérôme…
——————————————————————————————————————————
Bowie plays Paris (Again!) ? An Occasional Dream (Part 2) by Jérôme Soligny
What is art ? What is pleasure ? Who is David Bowie. Pretty huge questions, uh? After 30 years of devotion to the music of L?homme qui venait d?ailleurs (french title for The Man Who Sold The World), well I still didn?t know. The answer to the last question finally came to me, yesterday evening (early this morning actually), driving home safely through the darkest night. What happened at le Zénith in Paris during these two nights is not easy to describe with words. For people like me who try to spend their life going from one excitement to another (providing them most of the time and succeeding quite succesfully, thanks), another David Bowie gig is never another David Bowie gig. The Elysée Montmartre in 1999, Glastonbury in 2000, The Olympia this year (to cut a long list short) have been real treats as we all know.
But these Zénith shows were close to my idea of a communion, whatever it still can mean in a world staggering between lack of belief and dodgy references marks. I can tell you, as we can all hear him sing in “Everyone Says Hi”, David Bowie is definitely into sharing. What he gave his french audience is massive and I know what he and the band received is quite something too. Even though he probably knew hardcore fans who couldn?t be at Meltdown or in Berlin were eager to hear the whole of “Low”, David chose to go for the golden best of with the nicest slices of “Heathen”.
But wait, we?re talking about David Bowie here, not your usual rock star touring Europe, selling out and cashing in. David really offered himself to his public, pushing the known boundaries of what I would call emotional commitment. First (and Mike Garson agreed with me), I?m not sure I heard him sing better than this before. It?s something I already wrote this year in Rock&Folk, but you?ll have to blame him for repeating myself. And we could think on the first night, he had reached some human vocal top, starting with splendour on “Life On Mars ?”, going through “Slip Away” and “Heathen” like an imperial swan, tearing the venue down with “I?m Afraid Of Americans” and “Hallo Spaceboy”. Nope: he sang even better the second night. We were breathless, he didn?t seem to be.
No, it’s not the Andrews Sisters, it’s a montage I’ve knocked up using Celine’s
pictures from Tuesday night. Bowie triplets though… the mind boggles don’t it?
On the 24th, we could think he was moving, laughing, joking, chatting, dancing like never before… Big mistake, he was even better on the 25th. At some point, he was even toying with “Space Oddity”, singing the firt line, Stylophone in hand, and acting like a naughty boy who did something wrong. Regarding the choice of songs for the first night (see the setlist), one could have thought it was a great selection : “Life…” for starters, the great “Breaking Glass” very early in the show, “5:15” right after “I?m Afraid Of Americans”, a nicely revamped “Rebel Rebel”, the exquisite “A New Carreer In A New Town” to start the encores and “Ziggy” to call it a night… Nope again.
Second show was… “different” he told me before leaving yesterday evening. We call it “over the top” here I answered. The introduction of some “newies” (“Alabama Song”, “Look Back In Anger”, “Absolute Begginers”, “Moonage Daydream”) made the night pure delight. And the band… a few words about that dream team who?s really kicking now. From left to right (audience view). Earl is the dark crow, more incisive than ever and staring in front of him like a Sergio Leone cowboy when he doesn?t play. Mike, my dear friend, used to tinkle ivory in the 70?s. He now destroys keyboards in some foreign cities, far from home.
Mark is nothing less thant excellent, swapping guitars (hell of a bass player), checking things and looking cool. Sterling is more powerful and groovy than a few years back and the rhythm section he forms with Gail is one of the tightest around. Gail. What a bird. Lovely, sweet, fantastic looking, great musician. A star in her own right and the mascot of the band (many jokes about her non-hair on the first night). Cat is new to the team but seems to have been around it for years (David joked about that on stage). Spaced out, in his own world but very inviting, Gerry spin its electric web like a white spider from… well you all know where. And that singer who introduced himself yesterday evening : “I?m David Bowie”. Well we did know.
It’s rude to point. Bowienetter Celine gets to where
the action is with another great shot from Wednesday.
And I know better now, who the hell this guy/kid really is. Such a kaleidoscope of pure happiness, it?s impossible here to list every great moment of these shows, every charming move, every moving glance, every breath David took… To most people present at the two gigs, they start to melt down like one huge moment of pure enjoyment, quite close, I must admit, to the most sexual climax. David Bowie wasn?t in Paris, he was Paris and looking as happy as his audience (“We slept under the stage last night he said”) and we can?t wait for him to be back. Quite long enough here, I can?t say much about the words we said after the first gig (he believed he never played the Zénith before and I told him he actually did with Tin Machine ten years before – Coco said “I told you Jérôme would know…”), or his kindness with my family and I, or the exclusive moment I lived, sitting in an empty Zénith during the rehearsal yesterday, thanks to his french promoter and close team (hi there, you know who you are).
But I have to say that the audience was hot and the fantastic fans with the “Everyone says Low” banner only waved it once because they knew they were experimenting an amazing moment. But Dave (oops, surprisingly friendly here…), I know now who you are. After 30 years of private and public investigation. The answer came to me, driving back home, my eyes full of tears for many reasons, ranking from real happiness to too much fatigue and various forms of pressure. You?re not a superman or some alien sucking brains. You?re a bloody human magician. Turning art into pleasure. Mr Bowie, that?s who you are. A magician who has been doing so much to keep us warm and dry for the past 30 years. See, I?m signing, here and now, for the next 30 ones.
Jérôme Soligny 09/02
——————————————————————————————————————————
Here’s some more foreign language reviews (to me at least) from Paris and Berlin for your bilingual pleasure:
We are currently buiding a home for all the online reviews so that we don’t lose the links, and you can still view them in years to come.