Bashung on tour
It was at the Cirque Royal in Brussels and the Aéronef de Lille that Alain Bashung began his new tour. The man is not prolix of public appearances. Almost nine years without seeing him on the boards, would the wait be worth it?
(B2) Lights, images, sounds, texts, when Bashung comes on stage, it's not by chance. Everything is regulated like clockwork, to the delight of the eyes, ears and senses. On the two rectangular screens, placed on either side of the stage, scroll the images of the videographer Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. Lots of water and rocks. Lunar, desert landscapes, arid hills, trees dried up like love… When living beings are found there, they are counted individually, male or female, sometimes together, but often alone. The human is elsewhere. Located to the right and left of a kind of sloping floor, the musicians leave it to the Alsatian to occupy the space left empty, downstairs near the spectators. They are seven on stage. Adriano Cominotto on keyboards, Arnaud Dieterlen on drums, Brad Scott on double bass, Geoffrey Burton on electric guitar, Jean-François Assy on cello, Nicolas Stevens on violin, Yannick Péchin on guitar deliver a set to the nines, chaining and intermingling slid strings - violin, cello - and struck or electrified - guitar, bass - linked by a generous battery that knows how to accompany a rise in power. All bathed in a real highlighting, orchestrated by Alain Poisson, who is not satisfied with a simple sports hall lighting but gives the songs all their color, and lets taste all the flavor of the songs.
Dressed all in black, soft leather jacket and pants, black waistcoat, dark glasses, Alain Bashung radiates darkness. The hand often placed in front of the face as if to protect oneself from others, or the finger thrown at some imaginary sky. Very rock'n roll attitude. Within easy reach, a steel bistro table stands proudly displaying a glass of what could be half-empty whiskey and an ashtray, vying for the premiere of the front of the stage. We can see a tribute to the deceased lyricist or highlighting the membership of this Gainsbourg tribe of the bar, the cigarette and the biture, old tradition of French rock song if there is one.
The whole of his repertoire tumbles according to a skilfully dosed alternation: old and new, wise or rock, strange or playful. The artist draws from almost everywhere, mainly from his albums “Novice” (Strange Summer, Light Thinning) and “Military Fantasy” (The Night I Lie, My Prisons, Angora, 2043). “Osez Joséphine”, “Chatterton” or “Russian Roulette” are also used. Sometimes there is a more disenchanted atmosphere like in those westerns when all the fighting has stopped, when cowboys and Indians have retreated, and only a few charred ruins, a few frightened women and children remain. Old reference to this America of which he often dreamed of failing to venerate it. But it is above all the youngest, "recklessness" which dates back barely a year, that Bashung is fervently defending, sprinkling his two and a half hour show with his finely chiseled, often touching, always perfect texts, around its fundamental muse, love. "My arms knew the threat of the future, the delights that are amputated for the love of a bitch" (my arms). "You will irradiate me for a long time, long after the end" (a Sunday in Chernobyl). “Our bodies played. Played so much touching each other, no one saw anything, let's make people want to the point of disgust… Let's stay alive, let's stay there” (Let's make people want). "Vertige de l'amour" (from the album Pizza) closes this first part. End of an era. A translucent curtain is interposed between the artist and the room.
At the resumption, Gaby and Mauricette come to shake up a somewhat ankylosed audience. The curtain is tinged with red lines. A plastic bubble descends from the ceiling, from the hangers of the theater. Inside, coiled up, a woman, in high heels. Plastic or real? Comet or duo? The bubble ends up sinking into the ground to let out a beautiful one, its beautiful. "It's Chloé my wife" he announces, like a young communicant coming to present his bride to his parents. After the bitter and the passion, here is the sweetness. A voice, raspy, which chants rather than sings. With some languor. But the interpretation of the “Song of Songs” is moving. Souvenir since this biblical hymn to love and eroticism was also their wedding song celebrated two years ago in Pas-de-Calais. A last tasty jerk: “Madame rêve”, “My small business”, “Bijou bijou”… It is 23:00 p.m.! Time to go. Bashung puts his hat back on, straightens his coat three-quarters over his shoulders and comes up the stage, theatrically, to disappear into the darkness behind the scenes. Flawless
Nicolas Gros-Verheyde (in Lille) - article published on RFI Music
> Bashung will be on the 16th in Strasbourg, the 17th in Geneva, the 18th in Montceau-les-Mines, the 21st in Voiron, the 22nd in Clermont-Ferrand, the 23rd in Marseille, the 24th in Villeurbanne, the 19th in Toulouse, the 20th in Bordeaux, the 21st in St Etienne, the 22nd in Villebon, from November 24th to 27th at the Bataclan in Paris, then the whole month of January on tour which ends on January 30th at the Zénith in Paris.
