All photo credits go to Sophie Jarry, whom we cannot thank enough for providing us with those exquisite live pictures throughout the festival. She totally delivered and braved the high decibels of some acts to bring back a close insider look into what went down during the event that took place last weekend in Paris. Hope you enjoy them and recount the good times like we did ! And please go ahead and follow her her online profiles :
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[title subtitle=”by Sophie Jarry”]The Pictures[/title]
[title subtitle=”Saturday, November 2nd”]Review[/title]
Saturday afternoon, my limbs are strating to feel the crunch here. It’s only been two days and roughly 18 live gigs later, we headed back to the Grande Halle de la Villette for more action. We got there relatively early, and it was already pretty packed with avid festival goers. Being the last day of the festival, we believe people came in early to check on as many acts as possible and get the most out of the last day.
The last day is usually a little more chill, people know their way around, know where and how the token system works but they also pretty much figured how to and when to get their food & drinks. It’s amazing to see how we learn very quickly the essentials when faced with a crowd of thousands. We adapt. We miss out on a beginning of a performance or simply skip one all together to get vital fluids and solids. In festival terms this means, queuing, for a overpriced burgers, hot-dogs and warm beer.
We will not forget the great music of Majical Cloudz, dark and moody, insecure and shy. As he said, this was probably the first time they played in front of so many people. So they had to take some time adjusting to that. It only reinforced the beauty of their tracks. And the vocals were just mesmerizing. We had high hopes for Youth Lagoon, and he certainly met our expectation with a beautifully sounding set, we got into his music with the Noah Hyde remix of “Daydream” and was really into his set !
Download : Youth Lagoon – Daydream (Noah Hyde Remix)
However, it’s not until Omar Souleyman, the Syrian phenomenon, hit the stage that the crowd decided to heat up and go absolutely mental for his Middle-Eastern (Syrian) traditional music produced by Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet. The floor was shaking. People suddenly realised it was time to dance. Taken into a swirl of Arabic beats and high-octane tempo. Really felt like I was transported back to Dubai once again. In the middle of a sandstorm of some sort, helped by the orange lighting. Nothing much was happening on-stage. Omar Souleyman, dressed in a traditional Abaya, was happily clapping and singing to the audience. But the music was really well received. This guy is HUGE live. Don’t really know if I could listen to a whole discography at home on the hi-fi though. I tried.
Another highlight for this last day was Hot Chip who banked on Yo La Tengo and their set to send the crowd in a clubbing frenzy. Hot Chip are a fantastic live band, and churn out some real dance-floor hits. They got the lights, the crowd and a whole bunch of some of the finest musicians around, including Joe Goddard, to play with. And they sure did tonight. Kicking off with “Don’t Deny Your Heart “and closely followed by “Over & Over”. You knew instantly why you stayed on the premises until midnight : HOT CHIP KNOW HOW TO MAKE YOU DANCE !
They even covered The Velvet Underground‘s “Pale Blue Eyes” with a cameo by Georgia Hubley and Ira Kaplan from Yo La Tengo to square things off nicely. It was heartfelt and just on point. A great tribute song for a legend. RIP Lou Reed.
After that performance we finally came to terms with our fatigue and made the wise decision to hit the road home for some well earned sleep. Along with plenty of cool memories and bands to check talk about… However the show went on with Glass Candy, Todd Terje and A-trak until the wee hours of the morning for those intrepid lunatics… I apparently missed out on some crazy deck wizardry by both Todd Terje and A-track. Will have to content myself with some Youtube videos as well as witness accounts… Until next year !
[title subtitle=””]Best of the Rest[/title]
- Pegase
- Panda Bear
- Empress Of
- Majical Cloudz
