AMAZINGLYBLOG: Live report: THOS HENLEY(UK) + THUS:OWLS(SWE) + BROADCAST 2000(UK) at Flèche d'Or, Paris

jeudi 4 mars 2010

Live report: THOS HENLEY(UK) + THUS:OWLS(SWE) + BROADCAST 2000(UK) at Flèche d'Or, Paris

(ok, I tried to write in English for my non-French readers, sorry in advance for the grammar mistakes. Thanks to Grouh who corrected me in some parts :p! )

I knew about this concert 2 days ago... Fortunately I had nothing planned that night. I thought I was late when I arrived after 8:30PM, because la Flèche d'Or is quite far from metro stations and you need to walk for a while. The place was a bit empty, around 30 people at that time. I met some friends there.

Since I am usually shy, it took me a while to go talk to the lead singer Joe Steer from Broadcast 2000 who was at the merchandising place. I knew him via Rod Thomas/Bright Light Bright Light, who is one of his friends. Joe Steer is also a good friend of James Yuill who remixed the tracks 'Rouse Your Bones', 'Don't Weigh Me Down' and 'Get Up And Go'. Joe is very nice and lovely, and handsome too.

At 9:10PM, was Thos Henley on stage. THOS HENLEY(UK) aka Thomas Henley is a young folk singer-songwriter from Southampton. He now lives in Paris. I heard of him on Les Boutiques Sonores's website and also on Konzert Tagebuch, because he made a Oliver Peel Session in May 2009. Watch a video of him, courtesy of zerockerparis. I was very interested to see him perform then. And he was really good, alone with his guitar. The audience, not many people, was very attentive. Some people seated on the floor and others were standing in a circle.

Setlist: Thanks Oliver for the setlist! ;)

So English

Final Farewell

Henrietta

Oldest Tree In Netley

Keeper Of My Breath

Darling You

Then were the turn of Thus:Owls to play at around 10PM. Thus:Owls is a Swedish band with the chorist Erika Alexandersson from the band Loney Dear and with Simon Angell, the guitar player for Patrick Watson. I saw that many people mentioned them on Twitter and on music blogs. I don't know them well, great songs and nice performance, but not the kind of music I'm used to listen to. Maybe should I listen some of their songs again. I saw that Erika's beautiful face and voice made the male audience admiring.

Finally at 11:10pm came Broadcast 2000 on stage. It's a London-based indie folk band. Neither violin, nor female members that night on stage, but 3 musicians: Chris Banner on drums/percussion, Joe Steer on guitar and Tom Andrews on glockenspiel. I thought that it wouldn't be as good as a complete line up...but NOT AT ALL!!! They are great performers and Joe Steer interacted well with the shy audience making them sing along! People were very attentive and supportive as well! People in the first rows didn't dance much, but moved heads especially. They performed the song 'That Sinking Feeling' with the cello player of Thus:Owls and did a cover of the song 'Us' by Regina Spektor. They changed the setlist on the paper sheet, so I guess the one below is the right one. As you can see, they mainly played songs from the new album 'Broadcast 2000' released on 15th February 2010 and recorded the help of Eliot James (who worked with Kaiser Chiefs and Bloc Party). It also features violin by Noah and the Whale's Tom Hobden". They played many songs from the previous one 'Building Blocks' released in 2008. The songs are joyful with nice melodies and with energic percussions, guitar and glockenspiel. It's the kind of music I listen to. By the way, they will play this month at the SXSW event in Austin, Texas, then in California and in Germany. I can't wait to see them again in Paris.

Setlist:

Run

Over Soon

Get Up And Go

Your Own Worst Enemy

Us (Regina Spektor cover)

All Is Said And Done

Rouse Your Bones

That Sinking Feeling (solo)

The View

Don't Weigh Me Down

[encore] Everybody & Me

And I bought the great album of Broadcast 2000 for only €10! It's the cutest and nicest album I've ever bought! The lyrics, all the artwork and drawings are soo nice!!! :D So, it deserved some pictures!