Day 5 – Saturday July 26

 

Frànçois and The Atlas Mountains, Le Détour, 5pm-6pm

Singing in French as well as in English they bring joy through their music. Signed to Domino Records, the same label Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand are signed to, they take the audience on a trip through multiple sounds. They have great choruses, the singer Frànçois Marry is echoed by the keyboarder and the guitarist. These five guys are pretty much all multi-instrumentalists, the singer plays guitar as well as keyboards, the bassist also plays the African drums, … Their indie pop sound drifts into mysterious melodies when they play weird instruments like a bell made out of keys reproducing the sound of rain. They also play a Moroccan song about the sun.

 

Verveine, Club Tent, 6pm-7pm

On stage it is only a girl and her synthesizer (including a keyboard). On the background, a screen projecting leafs drawings and such. She records live her voice which is then played and reworked through the synthesizer. Her round and delicate voice clashes beautifully with the sound she makes on the synthesizer and keyboards. Close your eyes and you’ll feel as if you are in a forest at sunset and let yourself be cuddled by its beauty.

 

Pablo Nouvelle, Club Tent, 8:15pm-9:15pm

Pablo Nouvelle is a DJ but of a different sort, he doesn’t sing but the drummer and guitarist do. At times their voices are recorded so that the DJ uses them and changes them according to the effect he wants to give them. It is not really like a DJ set, more a DJ who is also good for chilling as well as partying. The fact of having someone with real instruments playing for him gives it that touch to reality. He invites a guest on stage: Fiona Daniel, a young singer from Zürich who, with her pure voice, adds power and a dream-like atmosphere to the music.

 

James Blunt, Grande Scène, 12pm-1:30am

What should the audience expect from a blue-eyed English man with an angel face and voice? Certainly something big! James Blunt and his band’s entrance are preceded from nothing else than the Space Odyssey soundtrack, which is used also by Green Day and other bands, accompanying a video footage of the moon landing in honour of his last album Moon Landing! The musicians enter the stage, they are all wearing grey/green astronaut suits except the drummer who wears an orange prisoner suit. And here comes James Blunt in person disguised as an astronaut as well. He plays songs taken from all his albums, he starts off with “Face The Sun” a new song then plays a couple of songs in a row from his first album Back To Bedlam. During the Slade cover “Coz I Luv You” he steps off from the stage and gets in front of the audience and then just crowdsurfs on people, brave man and funny moment! He then plays a slow song for which he asks the audience to take out their phones and make light, the Asse plain looks like the night sky covered with thousands of stars.If you think his songs are cheesy you should try and see him live, he is great with the audience and the songs are more lively! For the encore he comes out dressed as a green astronaut this time wearing also an helmet. He then plays the catchy and folky single “Bonfire Heart” to which the public sings along and which is accompanied by a nice visual support providing the lyrics in a creative mode. The concert ends on the notes of the nostalgic “1975”. I always feel personally involved in this song although I wasn’t even born in 1975, but it may be because of the lyrics containing my name: “Simona you’re getting older…”.

 

 

Simona @TakeMe2aConcert