pacificlectic : concert reviews & eclectic music news

(that’s unnatural)

So, I was soooo stoked about seeing French musician Yann Tiersen for the first time.  His albums are quite delightful.  I, like many people in the States, first heard of him via the soundtrack/score to Amelie.  But then based on the Brooklyn Vegan (photo credit above) and photobear 2009 tour reviews, I got a little sad.  No accordion, very little violin, and Yann on guitar for most of the night!? Pardon my French, but… viens m’enculer!? Viens m’enculer!?

Well, I didn’t know how it would turn out; so I figured it’s still a rare occasion to see Yann in the U.S.  I already had the tickets, it was only 2 hours away… so… I gotta go.  No photos allowed at the venue.  Boo.

The opener, Skinni Dip yogurt (on Burnside – downtown), was awesome.  The opener (at the venue), Asobi Seksu, played far too long.  I’m having a bad streak of uninteresting / painful openers.  Sorry.  Just didn’t like them at all.

Yann Tiersen and his band came on around 9:45pm, and the first two solid songs were rock numbers that had very little resemblance of a Yann Tiersen song.  The 3rd song was finally one I recognized, but only vaguely as it was turned into some sort of messy, too fast rock blast.

No try on the set list… it’s too difficult to remember song names originating in a foreign language to mine.  Also, the set that we caught didn’t even seem to be a Yann Tiersen show.  I mean, I have 95% of his catalog (all but the latest Tabarly soundtrack)… and the songs were completely foreign to the crowd.  Had I wanted to go to a decent/mediocre rock band play a poorly mixed show, I would have gone to my local rock venue and paid $3 to see what was going on that night.  I went to see Yann Tiersen’s songs in a live setting.  Unfortunately, we really didn’t get that.  I mean, I’m all for artistic expression, and the artist doing what they feel is their artistic direction versus what the fans “want” – – but to some extent on a live tour, you’d expect to give the fans what they expect… again, at least to some extent.

Maybe this was his French way of pulling a prank on us stupid Americans.  It just makes you wonder.  Oh well… if he comes back, I’m not buying tickets until I read some reviews with more mention of accordion solos. :)

The Appropriate Linkage:

• http://www.yanntiersen.com/
• http://www.myspace.com/yanntiersencomposer
• http://www.asobiseksu.com/
• http://www.myspace.com/asobiseksu
• http://www.wonderballroom.com/

~Dan – np: Celldweller – Symbiont -EP- & then… O.S.I. – Blood

To cleanse the palate… here’s what I was hoping for in a Yann Tiersen show…

(or)

(or, from Amelie)

Sigh. Maybe next time.