Hello to all,
back from Monaco and it was really a great show! I really would rate it his best concert in years! And be sure, I have been very critical to some things he did in the past.
I really can't understand some people here. Always complaining. If he doesn't play live, they say: "Oh, he's miming!". If he plays live, they say: "Oh, it´s not perfect, he should rather do playback!" Never to be satisfied. Telling that the Monaco concert was crap without having been there is simply cheeky. You can't judge from an online broadcast, you have to be there.
I was there and it was simply great! It really, really brought back the real Jarre concert feeling: the gathering audience at dawn, first lights on the stage, ambient music... Btw: Waiting For Cousteau kicked in only 10 Minutes before the concert started. Before there was a strange kind of ambient music played, sometimes sounding like Cousteau, sometimes like Vangelis, sometimes accoustic, sometimes ambient-electro...
The towers reminded very much of Europe In Concert. After many years a Countdown again and then... Chronologie 1! The perfect concert opener! The string sound missed some Reverb and of course it was too short, but hey...
Chronologie 4 is also back. I liked the new version of Industrial Revolution 3, but I think he should not play single parts of it. To me Industrial Revolution belongs together, including the Overture... I was standing far away at the promenade, so I didn't even realise that he was climbing on the tower.
I never liked Teo&Tea, but I always said that Vintage is the best composition on it, although the sounds are cheap. But I was really surprised, how well it worked live and it rocked the audience. And I don't care at all, if he played live this time or not...
The skytrackers were placed on 16 hoisting platforms around the harbour and they lit up the sky! Some of the spotlights from the towers lit up the buildings around in various colours. The circular lights on top of the towers looked like the eyes of the Equinoxe men...
And then the fireworks... tons and tons of it! That was really impressive. The "official wedding fireworks" the following night couldn't really compete with it.
Although it was an exhausting weekend, I'm really very glad that I witnessed this concert. It was amazing - fullstop.
Best regards
Matthias
