It was frankly chilly this year at the Grande Halle, and festival-goers had an interest in finding something to warm their soul and body. The 3 days did not lack opportunities for this. Small glimpse through some concerts.
Day 1: Thursday, November 1
Over the years, the Pitchfork Paris Music Festival has established itself as the autumn event not to be missed and has once again invested the Grande Halle de La Villette. On the program, we are promised the best of alternative music, newcomers as well as established artists. It must be said that for this seventh edition, Pitchfork has bet on bold headliners. In addition to the names that are usually found on the summer festival circuit: Mac Demarco, Kaytranada and Bon Iver.
It is with a feeling of déjà vu that we arrive at La Villette for this first day of the festival. We are greeted by street-food stalls, ultra-sapped people, the predominance of British accents per square meter and beers a little too expensive. On the pink scene, Rolling Blackout Coastal Fever are active, making their guitars squeak and swinging with solar energy pop-rock hits unfortunately quite dispensable.
The rotation between the two stages from one end of the festival to the other is ruthless and meticulous. As soon as the Australians finish their set, Yellow Days begins his. The teenager of only 17 years impresses with a sound between neo-jazz and blues.
Etienne Daho: the crooner 80s
Time for a visit to the karaoke booth and it is already the turn of Etienne Daho. The 80's crooner, whose name seems to have been lost in the middle of this programming. The artists of the hexagon are rare, and he honored us. The live arrangements are unanimously dancing and Daho demonstrates an undeniable charisma in an impeccable scenography. In a crowd of millennials, it seems that the irredeemable dandy has managed to reconcile generations. He manages to become a timeless figure in the landscape of French song. Highly anticipated group of this evening, it is in front of a roaring audience that The Voidz take possession of the stage.
Julian Casablancas acts as a disdainful leader who seems to have no trouble putting a crowd so far very – too – polite in the pocket. "Maybe they'll slip in a song from The Strokes, it's possible, huh? " we hear among the low masses of festival-goers.
Missed. The setlist of ten songs alternates between dissonant tracks, starting with M.utually A.ssured D.estruction or Black Hole, and more accessible like the more recent Leave It In My Dreams. Disconcerting for the uninitiated, sometimes approximate in execution, The Voidz have succeeded in the challenge of moving the Pitchfork festival with timid mosh-pits blooming here and there and we salute the effort.
Mac Demarco: a quiet evening with friends
It is on the synths of On The Level that the crowd rushes to attend the concert of the headliner of the evening. The soaring rock that is now the signature of Mac Demarco announces the color for this end of the evening.A cool and relaxed atmosphere, a bit the soundtrack that we would play during a quiet evening with friends. Moreover, in a corner of the stage, you can see tables, chairs and people sipping beers. While enjoying the set of the Canadian. Everything unfolds without a hitch and is similar to flat calm, it must be said that after the sawtooth show of The Voidz, it is as if the soufflé had fallen.
However, the end of the concert reassures us, Mac Demarco has not lost the grain that usually animates him. While he brings a young fan on his shoulders, he leaves the microphone to his guitarist who drops the T-shirt and launches into covers of the Misfits. An absurd moment that gives way to the unifying Still Together to close this first day.
Day 2: Friday, November 2
Fight – Dream Wife – Pitchfork 2018 – cr. photos Céline Guignier
The next day, the Grande Halle de la Villette seems a little fuller. However, this is not felt from the first sets of the evening, from the energetic concert of the female rock trio Dream Wife – and its singer lookalike of Amanda Seyfried asking to say "fuck you to gender norms" before the unifying "Somebody" – to the more soaring Lewis OfMan and Car Seat Headrest.
Fighting: overexcited
After incessant back and forth between the two stages, it will be necessary to wait for the arrival on stage of Bagarre to see the audience move a little. The audience of the Pitchfork Music Festival Paris is mostly English-speaking. And that's understandable when you see the programming.
As excited as usual, the French delivered a beautiful best-of of their discography: the edgy "Béton armé" and "Danser seul (ne suffi)", the hymn to female masturbation "Diamant" or the oldest "Le gouffre". Perhaps a little too excited for English visibly disturbed by the show, repeating "what is that? ». And what about this finale… explosive. No offense to them, it was surely one of the best concerts of this Friday night.
Blood Orange: we want to stay until dawn
Enough to make up for the disappointment and embarrassment left by CHVRCHES just after. Like his third album Love Is Dead, which the Scottish group had come here to defend. It is therefore a majority of titles of this last essay to which we were entitled. But the live does not catch up in any way with the studio versions. Even the old, much better songs – "Clearest Blue", "We Sink", "Leave A Trace" in the lead – turn out to be soft and poorly executed. Between two incomprehensible monologues of the half-drunk singer, the Palme d'Or of embarrassment will still be the interpretation of "Under The Tide" by member Martin Doherty…
Much less dismaying but still a little soft on the side of Blood Orange. Five years after his only French performance at the same venue, the English singer is now armed with two more albums. And he gave pride of place to the latter two – from "Augustine" to "Charcoal Baby". Between soul, jazz and r'n'b, Devonté Hynes more than captivated festival-goers. And we hope it will continue for a long time.
Midnight sharp, it is now time for the grand finale with Kaytranada. "You're experiencing Kaytranada live" could be read many times on the big screen behind the producer, and we could not have found better to say. Between DJ-set and live, between world exclusives – this famous unreleased track featuring Kali Uchis – and appearance of Shaun Ross, the Quebecer made dance to the other stage, located on the opposite. So much so that we would have liked to stay until dawn, like on Saturday.
Day 3: Saturday, November 3
To close this 2018 edition, the Pitchfork Paris Festival offers us a Saturday that starts slowly and ends on more danceable auspices. All in a Halle quite frosted by a sudden cold. We tell you through some concerts that we were able to attend
It is unfortunately late that I go to the Halle, however early enough to listen to a small monument of indie rock: Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks. Well, it still deserves a little presentation: leader of the group Pavement, Californian lo-fi group of the 80s, without turning jacket to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
A bit less fans (to say the least) for these fans of Sonic Youth and Pixies, with the nonchalant side of Dinosaur JD and Weezer. Tonight, he unrolls some recent tracks of his side project The Jicks , pleasantly played, without forcing.Even if it means relying a little too much on their achievements. The few aficionados will still have for their nostalgia.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra: mix of psych rock, RnB and jazz
It's a completely different atmosphere that starts with Unknown Mortal Orchestra, an American-New Zealand collective that offers us a mix of psyche rock, RnB and free jazz. It moves so to speak much more, it goes noticeably in the treble, in the crescendos and in the accelerations. The overall tone is soulful, the atmosphere is that of a jazzy group, without ever repeating the rhythm more than 2 bars. Certainly enough to groove this cold week.
Bon Iver: the baroque highlight of the evening
Here is one who does not like to repeat himself either. Bon Iver, who started by tearing the heart with "For Emma, Forever Ago" several years ago. In this series of ice cream picks, he lays himself bare with his guitar. More sufficient: in "22, A million", the American will surround himself with ghosts and unidentified rhythms, the folk pattern is too boat for him. He wants to jump without warning in electro countries, decline his fiber towards more successful, more baroque songs. It is in all cases with fairly dense musicians that he performs. Here a keyboard / sequencer constantly alert, there brass in just-in-time. The whole exudes solemnity, mastery and voluptuousness, a mixture of power and sweetness, certainly the highlight of the evening.
Not that we are bothered by a level of BPM for the moment quite low, quite the contrary, but it is still Saturday night. The Halle was then converted into a giant double dance-floor, first for Jeremy Underground.A DJ from the My Love Is label… Underground, which will make us a remix, logically… underground. Well, although the mix produced tonight is in itself a pleasant moment of joy danced and that the talent is clearly audible, the underground he hears simply means "a (or even two) notch above David Guetta", but for the followers of the real underground, we will go back.
DJ Kôze: then we dance
Or we will wait until DJ Kôze (pronounced Kozé) right after, since beyond the underground characters or not, it is still a sacred freak of the house that we have to do there. In his productions, so much wealth and extremism, so much elevation of house. This guy is the kind of treasure that you can stumble upon by chance, as well as a staple of Berlin clubs: he will create emulators and at the same time never disappoint his fans. It reinvents itself just as much as it confirms itself. That night at the pitchfork, the hovering audience gathers together and falters with him, in an impressive party. The other highlight of the evening.
Writing: Simon Brazeilles, Céline Guignier, Piotr Grudzinski
Photos: Céline Guignier, Piotr Grudzinski and other credits specified
