LIVE REPORT: Noel Gallager @ Casino de Paris, Dec 6th

Pour les francophones, mon live report sur Sound Of Violence

Providential bellyaches happening mid-afternoon, family problems to solve rapidly or urgent gastro-enteritis, yes, there were a lot of totally weird excuses given by Noel Gallagher's fans to their bosses to be in front of the Casino de Paris around 4:30 PM. The Chief's concert, which had sold out within five minutes in September was the event one should not miss. Prices of the tickets on the black market rocketed at 120 euros just before the gig started.


As a bunch of old friends, we arrived at the Casino de Paris around 5:30, meeting Russell Pritchard, bass player for the High Flying Birds trying to avoid the colossal masculine crowd waiting for Noel Gallagher at the backstage door. In the queue, people were either getting freaking cold, drunk or arguing- Team Noel vs Team Liam-but also about The Electric Soft Parade who would be opening the concert. Though the band is quite famous in the UK, it remains pretty much unknown in France and a large part of the audience seemed to be doubtful and disappointed with that choice as some had hoped for Miles Kane.


As usual, Phil Smith, branded « Oasis official DJ » but who is most evidently a Britpop and mod sounds aficionado, was already officiating when the doors opened. When the five members of The Electric Soft Parade came onstage, it was in a real freezing atmosphere, the audience not responding at all to either the songs or the band's humour. Though the band tried their best to insufflate some warmth to the crowd, they appeared helpless in front of such a chilly ambiance. The parisian audience obviously wanted to live up to its reputation. Only Misunderstanding did get some applause. For those who didn't know anything about The Electric Soft Parade, they seemed like a hybrid of Dodgy and The Thrills, nice and sunny but not good enough to be the support band for Mr G.


When at last Noel Gallagher walked on stage, it was in an orgasmic explosion, as if the 1500 persons in the theatre had been holding their breath since 2009. We do have to admit that the mancunian knows how to take us right by ...the feelings starting with a stripped-down version of It's Good To Be Free. Next to me, a fan who was not even 5 when Oasis was at their climax was in tears. Among twenty songs on the setlist, almost half of them were Oasis's. Wonderwall and Supersonic played acoustic, Talk Tonight, Half The World Away, Noel Gallagher and his band know how to cater for each of our Oasisian needs. Here and there, some people tried to shout « Angel Child », « Whatever » or « Slide Away », which were brushed aside by a smiling Noel. The songs from the new album are already classics and Everybody's On The Run, Dream On, If I Had A Gun, The Good Rebel and The Death Of You And Me , sung one after the other, are biblical. For sure, the older of the wild Gallaghers knows how to compensate for the absence of his infamous brother. There's no denying though that Liam is missed.  Anyway, the very classic and expected Little By Little and The Importance Of Being Idle and a poignant version of Don't Look Back In Anger hammered two royal hours of rock n'roll


Both ecstatic and sad. We do applaude the lad we've always loved while missing the band he led. But, hey, « don't look back in anger » as we've heard him say.