i have just read that the technical equipment was stuck in Portugal (how this can be possible?), so jónsi had to do an acoustic concert at rock en seine!!!
nice initiative, he could cancel... this festival is cursed i think :/
i hope that all will be alright for the concert tomorrow
Fingers crossed someone recorded it :D
yes, i thought about you immediately ;) let's hope!
here is a nice review about his misadventure and great words to talk about his acoustic set:
http://rockcover.over-blog.com/
(scroll down because other reviews are added)
Well, i was there and for me it was a disapointement.
And i wonder if i have seen the same concet as "Alexander" in the comments.
Galicia and Zurich desserve as much as Paris to have a wonderfull set but seen the kilometers and the tight schedule between the three it was obvious the logistic will be diffcult. They preferred to skip the Rock en Seine festival (sold out with between 30000 and 35000 people on the site each day).
The concert was cheap : nothing left at all from the 59 production, not even a stage curtain, only the crappy lights and smoke provided by the festival. Not even a piano on stage. A crappy sound, saturated and with too much bass (thought it was the same for all stages and most of the bands). No "Animal Arithmetic", no "around us", no "grow till tall". They haven't rehearsed the songs in this configuration and there was a lot of errors. I think there were no more than 6 or 7 songs played. The band flew off stage at the end of the last song (Hengilas, a strange choice to end, more generaly there was no thinking about the order of the songs for such circonstances) witout saluting and under unfortunately not much applause from the audience.
It was a sad disppointement because often the bands which does a great concert at Rock en Seine won fans and start a good following in the french audience.
It was a sad disapointement that Jonsi tour management think the french audience doesn't desserve better than this low cost concert.
I wish better concert in other cities to Jonsi and his band.
(i have made anyway some photos and a video of Tornado, missong the beginiing that i will upload latter)
the photos can be seen here :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/la-bo/sets/72157624830655486/
Sorry only for Flickr users.
The video of Tornado will come later.
By the way before the concert, the tour manager announced (in french) that it was "la faute à pas de chance" that the equipment was stuck in Portugal but i still think that they did it on purpose.
Sorry if I sound harch but the sad disapointment is proportional to the great expectation around this concert in Rock en Seine. It is really a rendez-vous manqué with the french audience. The concert was not good.
Anyway there was other bands playing. The highlight was Massive Attack by KO ! Second time in Rock en Seine and second time so f.. excellent ! Second were Queens Of Stone Age. So perfect too. Second time in Rock en Seine for them, and Josh Homme came with the Crooked Vulture last year and sung with Eagle of Death Metal last year too. He loves to play here. Plan B (with one the musician being an extraordinary human beat box) and Two Door Cinema Club were great fun too (and i had to get through their whole concert in the middle of excited teenage girls to get a good spot for Joinsi !).
oups!
so i have fewer regrets not being there :/
yes rock en seine is a very important french festival
usually i try to avoid festivals (standing for hours, see nothing, people often stuck on the first rows for the next band so noisy and direspectful, cigarettes...), this is not going to reconcile me with it...
i hope you can go to a better show in europe soon ;)
I was there too ! (Hi everybody ! First post here)
I agree with La-bo, for me it was a disapointement too ! When the tour manager said it will be an accoustic set, everybody screamed around me, they were happy, I was the only one to say 'Ooooh nooooo', because I immediatly understood that they couldn't play Grow Till Tall, Around Us and Sticks & Stones.
But I still think it was a good performance, it was the first time I was seeing Jonsi, and I really enjoyed it. Kolnidur is the only one I didn't like. I looooove this song, but for me it's really boring when it's accoustic.
And La-bo has already talked about how 'cheap' the performance was and the way Jonsi ended the concert, which was really frustrating.
I tried to have a setlist or something like that but I failed. I remember we heard :
Stars in still water
Icicle Sleeves
Kolnidur
Go Do
Boy Lilikoi
Tornado (woooooonderful !)
Sinking Friendships (Wonderful too, but Jonsi did a lot of mistakes and was chatting and laughing with Ulfur everytime he wasn't singing, and he was very close to the microphone so we could hear him more than the other instruments ...)
Hengilas
+ one more song that I didn't recognized. Maybe 'New Piano Song' or something like that.
Oh, the Massive Attack performance was sooooooo great ! They were wonderful ! The best performance of the day !
And I also went to Two Door Conema Club because I wanted to be in front of the stage for Jonsi, I will never do that again ! I was in the middle of crazy teenagers (I am a teenager too, but sorry, I really can't understand why they need to scream and push everyone like that), I wanted to go away but I wanted to be in front of Jonsi so ... I stayed.
I went to Chew Lips, but I didn't really like it.
But K'Naan was great ! Everybody was singing Wavin Flags with him, it was so cool !
I wanted to see Martina Topley Bird, but she was singing at the same time than Jonsi ... too bad ! Today : Arcade Fire, The Temper Trap and Beirut. Sooo excited !
Thanks La-bo for the pictures ! Hey, were you one of the guys who were screaming "Hoppipola", "Heima", "Vaka", "Jonsi we loooove you" a few minutes before the show ?
Sorry for the lack of replying. On sunday I was at the last day of the festival (Roxy Music do still rock ! and the Fat Freddy's Drop were so good, as well as the french group Success)
I still have a couple of photos and the video to upload.
I was not from the group screaming for Vaka. First row two but a bit on the left. And to had more there were smell of grilled sausages and merguez comming from the food stands nearby blowing in the direction of the stage.
Really it was a difficult schedule time in the festival as a lot of people would leave to see QOTSA. Jonsi would have need is full set and equipment to do a great concert instead of this low cost one. They left the stage not very happy. I still think it is rendez-vous manqué and they didn't bother to schedule another concert in Paris or France in the next months.
I am going to Sacrum Profanum, lets hope it will be better.
i am sure your next festival will be better :)
And to had more there were smell of grilled sausages and merguez comming from the food stands nearby blowing in the direction of the stage.
Too bad he will never return here. The next time will be with Kjartan, Orri and Georg, I think.
I was also at the last day of the festival : it was great, better than Saturday. Beirut, The Temper Trap and Arcade Fire were soooo good !
ive not heard from the management as to what happened with the equipment not turning up in paris, but i'll give a guess as to what happened in relation to the live set at rock en seine:
1. a portion of the equipement didnt turn up - the band have done 100 (?) shows on this tour, they could probably play the songs in their sleep but when you arrive at a festival, realise 35000 people are waiting for you, find out some very important equipement isnt there then you have to adapt - they played acoustic songs - it seems they werent happy with it (with them leaving abruptly).
2. i have to take issue with most of what "la-bo" says. the show in rock en seine wasnt on purpose, equipment didnt make it to paris in time, that stuff happens. if the equipment did make it to paris then you would have had a much different show - have a look at the reviews for festival shows on jonsi.com/concert for the last few months. the lack of the full stage show during the summer tour hasnt hindered the enjoyment of it by fans at all.
3. "It was a sad disapointement that Jonsi tour management think the french audience doesn't desserve better than this low cost concert." sorry but if you knew the amount of effort, money and time that goes in by dozens of people behind the scenes you wouldnt say this. to say it again: what happened in paris wasnt on purpose. no one takes any joy in letting some fans down, these things happen though, the band got on stage and played the songs they could as best they could in the situation.
4: "By the way before the concert, the tour manager announced (in french) that it was "la faute à pas de chance" that the equipment was stuck in Portugal but i still think that they did it on purpose.": let me answer this with one word: NO. (let me answer this with more than one word: i dont know how "la faute à pas de chance" translates properly - but trust me; no one was in anyway planning for that "cheap" show in paris. it was just bad luck that the equipment didnt turn up)
ugh
Hey la-bo, I can understand your disappointment. But I would very much doubt that it was a cost saving measure. I've seen Sigur Rós live three times and Jonsi twice and can safely say they don't try to save a penny on their shows. In fact I find it hard to imagine they make any money off the gigs (although I'm sure they do). Jonsi's show must have cost a fortune - the design work alone by 59 productions should have been out of reach for the size of venues and ticket prices (production designers, video designers, animators etc.), not to mention the extra crew to rig the set at each venue. And I dread to think of the rental on those HD projectors.
The management really don't seem the types to save money in this way, it runs contrary to all previous evidence. I'd say it was a situation that no one was happy about.
digger: yup. i cant imagine anyone being happy at the lack of equipment at the paris show.
@sigurolie
the song you didn't recognize was Saint Naive, i think.
@Digger
the extra crew at festivals are the one provided by the festivals
@Alline
the organic food stand was too far away from the stage :-)
la-bo: any comment on my reply?
la-bo said:"The concert was cheap : nothing left at all from the 59 production, not even a stage curtain, only the crappy lights and smoke provided by the festival. "
Man that is unreasonable & naive.
Anyone who's ever been in the business of touring rock shows knows this stuff will occassionaly happen and when it it did happen to Jonsi and co, the band went on and did the best they could under the circumstances. BELIEVE ME none of them would have been happy to do a show like that, but as the old saying goes, the show must go on. So rather than NOT play, they went on and did their best. That's what touring musos do. Period.
In Australia we didn't get to see the 59prods show, but hey, that's life. And in spite of that, the show WAS AMAZING and you dont hear us whining and moaning like spoilt brats about it. Okay we may have whined *a bit*, but nothing like you're doing..;p)
la-bo:" but i still think that they did it on purpose."
No offence but if you seriously think that then you haven't got a fucking clue how the real world works, man.
I also want to pitch in my two cents here and say that when I saw the boys acoustically it was absolutely awesome. A fresh take on some new songs and it was fun to hear different instrumentation than is on the album.
OK la-bo bashing everyone !
@mikekelley : were you in Rock en Seine ?
There is "acoustic version" and "acoustic version". There are videos on youtube.fr. Check out Sinking Friendship for instance ...
@sodium : you not the best one to tell me to stop whining. the problem was not the lack of the 59production scenery. It was obvious they won't have it for the festivals. and i won't start with you on how many concerts i have seen (thought there are obviously many people who have seen more than me) and not knowing how it works in the "real" world. I have seen bands failling the start of their concerts and ending in triumph...
@Digger : the whole 59production didn't make Australia for money reason.
@Darren :
This a first reply. Hopefully since you posted you have more information from the management on why the equipment didn't turn up in time in Paris ? Bad luck certainly.
1. "they played acoustic songs - it seems they werent happy with it" So in the audience we have also the right not to be happy with these versions. Isn't it ?
2. As i just write to Sodium, the lack of the full scenery was not the problem. It was obvious that in festival all the production wouldn't be here. I totaly agree jonsi could a perfect set without scenery at all.
3. Well other bands during the festival did put all their energy to play as best they could.
4. the coming of jonsi at Rock en Seine was announced the first day the programmation was announced back in April and Jonsi was on promoting posters for the festival. Bad luck is the best answer.
@ la-bo.......hehe, I apologize for being a bit harsh above. That was out of order.
BUTTTTTTTTTTTTTT.......when you say........" not knowing how it works in the "real" world. I have seen bands failling the start of their concerts and ending in triumph..."
Its got nothing to do with bands pulling the fat out of the fire, its got to do with your assertion that Jonsi DELIBERATELY left half his equipment behind that I was addressing.
See, band have contractual obligations when they sign up to perform at shows. And include production values. So Jonsi is hardly going to deliberately turn up with no backline amps, no drums, no keys etc. If he did, he'd get the sued for breach of contract. THAT'S what I was addressing when I said you dont have a clue.
Now if the band did have the shits and put in a less than full performance as result of th lack of gear, then I can understand your frustration, but to claim that he did it deliberately is just plain wrong on *many* levels.
ps Unless Im mistaken, I was the one commenting about Australia, not digger
Photos of Rock en Seine taken by a very good photographer of concerts :
http://www.photosconcerts.com/jonsi-saint-cloud-domaine-national-2010-08-28-festival-rock-seine-4520
Might have been reinvented and improvised but still have the right not to be happy with these versions of the songs.
from the manager... http://jonsi.com/news/tour-diary-4
elsewhere, the paris rock en seine show was also dangerously close to not happening thanks to all crew and a whole bunch of gear being stuck at Porto airport following the previous night’s show at santiago de compostela with muse. this sucked (being stuck not playing with muse), since the last time we came to paris in june it was most likely the best show of the whole year. still jonsi and the boys hunkered down and pulled whatever magic they could straight from the sky; re-imagining the set acoustically, setting up and breaking down their own gear, etc. OK, we are sorry (breaking my own rule of never apologising, never explaining several times here) and of course we would rather have blown your minds with the full-on electric set, but the alternative was not to play at all, which was no alternative at all. still it’s slightly galling to read on the message-board that we did it on purpose to save money. fuck off. have you seen the jonsi show? (ok, if you were in helsinki or rock en seine, obviously you haven’t) but take it look online. why would we go to all the time and trouble and expense of creating something so top drawer only to intentionally leave it at home for one of the most important festivals of the summer? come on, have some nouse. we’re not those guys.
Yes thank you Darren, i had already read it when the tour diary was updated.
A toute chose malheur est bon. At least we have an update of the tour diary. The first one since several weeks.
Let me some time to write a reply in a correct way in a foreign language (english for me).
I still think the concert was not good. I was first row and there were looks on stage that were saying a lot. From Jonsi (since the sound check), from Alex, and from everyone on stage at the end. That why I posted a link to photos of the concert just above. As you wrote yourself above maybe there were not happy with it, and as i wrote too above, maybe we, in the audience, have the right not to be happy with it.
I just went through youtube.fr to find testimonies :
Boy Lilikoi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLFevkED2sc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOEgLreOcvs
Le Bataclan : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3I4dKaQ_R4
Sinking friendship
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PCrMH6QKg8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8prpJL2Gj6U
Le Bataclan : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjA9qZW7NIY
Tornado
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oQ_byZ1ENI
Le Bataclan : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_voJEJ0YBF4
Go Do
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USzdcwKpO3c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRmV65pYOp8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULDY_P57-pU
Le Bataclan : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E77s-DFKV4k
Icicle Sleeves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hJJD_zctd0
Le Bataclan : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYGBPunG4Tk
Hengilas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOahlCf6CAM
(sound has been clean of bass and guitar it seems)
Le Bataclan : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv_CEAM_20g
As I already wrote above too, the time schedule was a difficult one as people would leave before the end to go to see QOTSA (it is how the programmation of Rock en Seine goes) unless to manage to retain them. And Jonsi wasn't given all the best chances with their equipment missing. I don't know, maybe the choice of instruments for an improvised "acoustic" set on this kind of stage in a large festival. But i think the biggest mistake was to add the date in Galicia just before Rock en Seine. It is more than 1500 km, more than twelve hours of bus, and as it was the last week-end of the summer holidays, peculiarly in France, it meant very very busy roads and airports. Therefore logistic problems could have been foreseen.
So maybe it sucked and it was "la faute à pas de chance", bad luck, but a better thinking would have given all the chances to Jonsi to do a second wonderful concert in Paris.
And we were first row at Le Bataclan too.
So I can compare with another Jonsi concert.
Found a photo to illustrate what i try to mean. Its blurry but still.
Jonsi is staring, and leastening, in a not very happy way at his speakers on stage.
http://www.laboiteasorties.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/IMG_0104.jpg
La-bo, I guess I can understand some of your frustration. After all you went to the Bataclan gig, so did I. And I guess we agree that it was above great. I don’t live in Paris but I saw already then, at the metro, the promotions for Jónsi at “Rock en seine”. I didn’t go to the rock en seine festival, but I saw Jónsi and co in Oslo, a week or so before rock en seine, and that festival gig didn’t dissapoint me at all. Of course, they had all their equipment there, and some songs were even better performed in my opinion than they were in le bataclan, due to the practice of course, not to dedication. I was almost dying from happiness there as I was in le bataclan.
But to get to the point, maybe it’s a bit late now cause you’ve read the tour diary and Darrens’s comments and all that, but still: I don’t think you should accuse them for an anti-french attitude, that could cause that kind of attitude perhaps... It was an accident what happened at rock en seine, and they gave everthing to the audience in le bataclan (french audience primarly)!! They played in Zurich the day after and they had played in Berlin the night before, or maybe not that close I dont remember that detail anymore, but the schedule was tight anyway and they gave everything in le bataclan, no “low cost concert” or low priority concert.
la-bo said:"yes thank you Darren, i had already read it when the tour diary was updated....<snip>.......I still think the concert was not good. I was first row and there were looks on stage that were saying a lot. From Jonsi (since the sound check), from Alex, and from everyone on stage at the end. That why I posted a link to photos of the concert just above. As you wrote yourself above maybe there were not happy with it, and as i wrote too above, maybe we, in the audience, have the right not to be happy with it.:
Okay, couple of things here need saying...
1. Those photos show nothing other than a band, on-stage, working hard to put on a show. No 'bad looks at speakers" , no "disgruntled attitudes".....just a band on stage working. Period.
2. You give insults to Jonsi's management and this forum's operators and still whine and complain even after they bend over backwards to try to make clear to you the reality of the situation.
3. You really are a miserable, whiney, little fuck and if they didn't have on already, you are cause enough to give ANYONE an "anti-french" attitude. Get the fuck over yourself already.
HTH, mon ami.
Thanks Bofette for your argumented comment. There is no doubt Jonsi can do a great concert in a festival and that was nice you enjoyed Oslo very much. We can stick to a great memory with Le Bataclan. As for Rock en Seine, it was the last opportunity to see Jonsi in France. If my comments sounded anti-something, it was more anti-ReS than anti-french. They choose for the tour to have tight, and sometime very tight, schedules and when it fails, it fails.
By the way, so far, the only other person who posted on the forum AND was actually in the audience in Rock en Seine was "Sigurolie". Refer to his/her comments. Thought s/he seems to have better liked most of concert than me.
Since the begining, I wrote the concert was not good. I never said it was shit or even bad, because it is not what i think. If one cannot stand to read that a concert of one's musician one's like is not good then one is not really a fan.
I am leaving the church of Jonsi where, for some fans, everything is perfect in the best of the world and the official verb is not to be contested. In a white flash of burning sodium.... Ooops, I disgress. I am leaving to enjoy and share great concerts elsewhere.
la-bo: i am really sorry that you didnt enjoy the concert - my argument with you isnt that you didnt enjoy the concert - its your logic for it being a bad concert. comments like the following:
"It was a sad disapointement that Jonsi tour management think the french audience doesn't desserve better than this low cost concert."
"but i still think that they did it on purpose." ("it" referring to there being no equipment at paris)
comments like this infuriate me and based on the feedback from the management it has the same effect on them - i spent the spring working for the management and i know how much time, effort, planning, money, logistics, hours, sweat etc. went into the show, into the live experience - and then to read that what happened at rock en seine was done "on purpose" is something that is like a kick in the stomach.
la-bo:"Since the begining, I wrote the concert was not good. I never said it was shit or even bad,"
So let me get this straight.....you say the concert was "not good", but you insist you don't say the concert was "bad"? Isn't "not good" the definition of "bad"?
Man if you're gonna slag something off, then at least have the balls to stand by your comments instead of pretending you never said them.
la-bo:" If one cannot stand to read that a concert of one's musician one's like is not good then one is not really a fan."
Oh I can read critique of a concert and not be offended. But when some imbecile claims that Jonsi deliberately left behind half his stage gear because he hates the french, that's when I call bullshit.
la-bo:"I am leaving the church of Jonsi where, for some fans, everything is perfect in the best of the world and the official verb is not to be contested. In a white flash of burning sodium.... Ooops, I disgress. I am leaving to enjoy and share great concerts elsewhere."
So long, pal. Oh and don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.
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