The Brian Jonestown Massacre (BJM) was at the Trianon on June 27, in France for the first time in 2 years. The American psyche and indie rock band no longer counts albums. The latter had explored innovative grounds: whether in instrumental interludes worthy of fantasy films, or a soundtrack of an imagined film, the landmarks were blurred, for better and especially not for worse. Yet it is the songs with the more classic register shoegazing / psyche / dream-pop that the collective led by Anton Newcombe will have approached in this Parisian evening, in front of an audience of informed, between cool babas and pogoteurs stolen from the Dandy Warhols. The sworn enemies had passed through this same room a few weeks before.
"How were the Dandy Warhols?"
This is what Anton Newcombe asks the public, the inseparable ex of Courtney Taylor-Taylor, the leader of the rival group, whose love-hate relationship that ended in a divorce is told with talent in the documentary "Dig". The obsession has not completely passed, but it will have lasted only 5 seconds, when the collective begins this concert which will last about 2 hours. We observe with amusement the tambourine player, whose childish expression betrays either an intrinsic naïve character or a prior intake of hilarious substances. We then listen to these pieces, played with a pout of pleasure, a natural stinging. The formation (Anton on vocals and guitar, accompanied by another guitarist, a bassist, a keyboard, a drummer, and therefore a tambourine player) changes according to the passages and availability of the musicians gravitating around the Newcombe galaxy, but still ensures the same instrumental backs typical of the BJM. Long melodious, repetitive guitar parts, no less heady choruses, orientalizing parts, Americana and country gimmicks. A musical happening with a sensual aspect that will not have escaped the lovely groupies-snakes who sway on the balcony listening to these charming sounds.
"They won't let me smoke my fucking cigarette!"
Anton Newcombe was known for his provocative escapades and irascible behavior, including concerts abandoned after 5 minutes or injuries by throwing glass bottles. It was before, while in the meantime, the man has calmed down, and apart from a mini diatribe towards the middle of the concert against the staff of the hall who forbids the consumption of tobacco on stage, it is an Anton with bonhommie as generous as his hippy look is puffed up by his big rouflaquettes. The scene seems to have been invested by a kind of hedonistic and destructive aura at the same time, this kind of scene where the wires, the many pedals and the bass drum are submerged as the beer bottles are emptied, where the members are arranged as in a rehearsal room without worrying too much about their good visibility on the stage. The vaporous magic of titles like " What You Isn't " or " Never Ever" still operates as an elixir, while high-flying songs, like a potion for pogoteurs. A strange skinny old man in Batman's t-shirt (is it one of those recovered marginal companions that we imagine wandering on the road) will even be an authority, by sharply releasing one of these jumping onlookers who have climbed on the stage.
Nearly 2 hours of show time
We have time with BJM, the pieces are spread over long minutes but we do not need to count, because they lend themselves to self-abandonment, to temporal abstraction. The shamanic themes of the pieces and Newcombe's guru look add a little more to this indistinct spell, because we do not know if the song we hear is the end of the previous or the beginning of the next. Except in what looked like an intermission, with particularly long tunings and settings, the next and final 3 quarters of an hour were a tasty epic, where we realize that the guitar distortion in BJM is rather caressing, where usually shoegazing bands use it as an aggressive compensation for their ballads. The tambourine player's benet air remained intact. As for us, the public, it is almost by flying that we return to our nocturnal activities after the concert. "Gaz hilarant", one of the titles of the album "Aufheben", are undoubtedly the most illustrious words of BJM's music.
Photo credits: Piotr Grudzinski
