If we were less than wholly enthusiastic about Lubeck beforehand, we were even less enthused by this one. Our schedule required us to haul ourselves up at the ungodly hour of 7 AM, walk two miles to catch the first train to the airport, fly to Paris, go to the festival, somehow get back to the airport (too late for the last metro, and competing with a few thousand other fans for taxis), sleep on a bench for a few hours if we were lucky, catch a 7.20 AM flight back to Stuttgart, and arrive home some 27 hours after walking off into the morning.
We were already knackered by the time we got to Parc des Princes at 2 PM, and wondering how we were going to survive another 20 hours. In the end, we chickened out, decided to skip the support, and, movie nuts that we are, headed off to see a movie and eat properly. We arrived back at 8.30, just in time to almost miss Sheryl Crow completely.
You have to hand it to the French though. They have a much more sophisticated idea of what the words "Rock Festival" mean than the rest of us. Not for them a day of rolling around in a dusty field. Proper comfortable seats, giant screens, plenty of food stands selling much higher quality food and drink than your usual Festival fare, proper clean toilets (and plenty of them), and a very well-dressed and mannerly audience.
From what we saw of Sheryl Crow, we were glad we'd missed the rest. It looked like pretty standard right-on "rawk", complete with all the cliches, and a sound muddier than the Mississippi. Some stuff sounds fine on the radio, but you don't want to be sat at a concert listening to it. The crowd sat through it all in a stupor.
We thought Sheryl was the main support, so imagine our surprise when Ben Harper came on at 9.30. Seems the French musical taste is as enjoyably independent and eclectic as ever, and refusing to conform to standards in the rest of the world, and Ben is much bigger in these parts than Sheryl. Never having seen him before, I enjoyed him immensely, and the crowd got into him, even those in Bowie T-shirts. He played a bewildering variety of guitars (although someone told me each guitarish instrument actually has its own non-guitar name, like Weissenborn), switching to a new one after each song, and sometimes in the middle of a song. Oh yes, and he was sitting down on a chair, with the guitars (or whatever they were) sitting on his lap, and he was using a metal bar to do the fret work. He sounded like a cross between Jimi Hendrix, Lennie Kravitz and BB King, and musically it was sort of blues-based. He finished with a rousing black power anthem called (I think) "I Will Rise" which really got the brother inside us all punching the air. He went off at 10.20 to a rousing reception, having warmed the crowd up nicely.
Bowie was apparently scheduled to come on at 10.30, but even his super duper crew couldn't get it together that fast. Instead, he came on at 11. The significance of this was that he had to be off at 12.30 at the latest (the stadium is located in a bourgeois part of central Paris, and the French police take their noise pollution laws very seriously), so he had to rush his set.
Bowie made his now customary entrance, alone with acoustic guitar, to do "Quicksand". This didn't work as well as in London or Lubeck though - Bowie seemed very tense and perhaps flustered by the time thing. He seemed to flub the start of the song badly, and it came as a relief when the band came in to steady the ship. It also took him a few songs to get his voice warmed up properly, and mixed up properly.
After Quicksand, he launched into "Strangers When We Meet". It then became apparent that the giant screens would not just relay pictures from the stage for the benefit of those of us seated at the back (as they had for Sheryl and Ben), but would be used as part of a full scale multimedia show. The screens started showing clips from the "Strangers When We Meet" promo video, as well as new previously unseen material, all of it apparently mixed live and to good effect. In fact, throughout the show, I often found the onscreen stuff so interesting that I found myself watching that rather than the stage.
Reeves was dressed in his white parachutists outfit, and both Mike and Zack were dressed as at the other shows. Only Gail Ann was dressed differently - she was a pony as in the Dead Man Walking video.
As well as the video screens, the white backdrop that had been used in Lubeck was used here to project video images onto, and at different points in the show, the side walls of the stadium had a giant silhouette of Bowie projected onto them. Along with the giant eye balloons (which for some reason Bowie never threw out onto the audience) and the Oursler heads, it all made for a very impressive multimedia show.
Next came "Dead Man Walking", played straight, as per the single version. The addition of this (the current single) and "Strangers When We Meet" (a reasonably well-known single from the last album), coupled with the dropping of the techno version of V-2 Schneider, seemed to indicate that Bowie has decided to cut back on the risks with the festival audiences, and give them more of what they know and want. Bowie's voice still hadn't hit top gear (but was much improved), but the band had. This was the first song to get a very enthusiastic audience response.
"I'm Afraid Of Americans" finally saw Bowie get his full voice, and the video that accompanied it was the most impressive of the night. Starting simply with the American Stars and Stripes projected onto the screens and the backdrop, the image gradually darkened and took on a more menacing air. Then we had the hackneyed cliches of Hollywood America. War movies, cowboys, musicals, shiny happy people. Bowie has told us in many interviews what he likes about America (the rebels and outsiders that corporate and establishment America rejects). Here he was showing us the things about America he despises - the lowest common denominator cliches, Hollywood musicals, the mainstream. Interweaving these images with the flag, and then back to the flag alone. After a while, the flag took on a more menacing shape, the shape of an American fighter plane. Flashing to reveal that this was no ordinary fighter plane but the Enola Gay, it proved the perfect visual accompaniment to Bowie's screamed words: "I'm afraid of Americans/I'm afraid of their words/I'm afraid I can't help it".
Next up was "White Light White Heat". Before this, it was apparent to me that Reeves was in the best form I'd seen him in on the tour. After this, it was obvious that Reeves was in the best form I'd ever seen him in. His guitar on this was breath-taking.
"Battle For Britain (The Letter)" was next, and once again reenforced the fact that the new Earthling stuff is every bit as strong live as the old classics, and if anything was drawing a better reception from the very young crowd (this was by far the youngest crowd of the four concerts I saw). The video footage that accompanied this was the La La Human Steps stuff.
On "Seven Years In Tibet", Reeves let rip and reminded us he was in top nick. This song drew the most enthusiastic reaction to date in the concert, with people leaving their seats to dance in the aisle near where we were sitting. The video footage showed a smiling Dalai Lama face dissolving into fractal patterns.
On "Fashion", Reeves went one better, turning in his best ever live work on this song, as he deconstructed the riff and reconstructed it in his own image. The accompanying visuals mixed in a screaming face pinned to the ground with two figures of indeterminate gender apparently having sex in a bed, and rapid-fire almost subliminal porn. Mireille thinks that some of the porn may have featured Bowie himself - it was too quick to be sure. Whatever, it caused some embarrassment to one couple seated with their young daughter in front of us, who made feeble attempts to get their daughter to avert her eyes. For the more adult members of the audience, it was a fascinating spectacle - the guitar, ahem, thrusts of Reeves accompanied by thrusting of a different kind on the video screen. Will America get to see these visuals, Dave?
After a good version of "Fame" (maybe the best I heard, and the visuals were very Warholesque - a banana, tomato sauce bottle and so on), Reeves again excelled himself, recreating that amazing solo on "Looking For Satellites" much more successfully than he had in either London or Lubeck.
"Telling Lies" was a beautiful quiet moment. Bowie followed this with a quick band intro, at the end of which he attempted to get some audience participation going by having us all shout our names all at once.
"Under Pressure" was a sop to the general fan, and on "Stay", Reeves finally, finally, in the nick of time (this was my last concert for now, so thanks Reeves!) pulled out the killer version I knew he had in him. Ripping the riff apart, improvising over it, playing at amazing speed, while keeping the essence of the riff, this was the best guitar work ever on a Bowie song, IMO (although Reeves himself came close to topping it later on Scary Monsters). The crowd got excited, and Bowie summoned Reeves to the edge of the stage and the central spotlight, and at the end, the crowd rose to Reeves.
Reeves then left the stage (presumably to towel down) while Gail Ann went through "O Superman". She gave a good performance, but again it re-enforced the point to me that this works much better in the smaller Bowie-only shows than with a Festival crowd. Still, I was relieved it hadn't been jettisoned (like V2 Schneider was), as for me it's one of the highlights. Bowie sang more on the song than he did in the other three concerts.
The Jean Genie got the usual treatment, followed by All The Young Dudes. Mireille remarked how many of these older songs were not having the same impact on the crowd as the newer stuff (in sharp contrast to London). "Hallo Spaceboy" followed - a killer version which had the crowd jumping around. One of the best versions ever, I think. The visuals were basically the promo video, but with the Pet Shop Boys excised.
Then came the very best version I've ever heard of Scary Monsters. Bowie's voice was in mint condition by now, and Reeves hit a new high. Rather than play it straight, he started playing wonderfully effective staccatto stun-gun bursts, allowing the reverberations to keep the thing going. Meanwhile, Zack was doing the most amazing drums I've ever heard, causing Mireille's mouth to drop open ("Is that the drums? How is he doing that?"). Even Bowie seemed awestruck by Reeves on this one, stopping to watch him, and then summoning him to the centre of the stage again.
"Little Wonder" ended the show, although the crowd reaction to it was not as ecstatic as Lubeck. It was still pretty intense though - people singing along, pointing at the stage, and Bowie looked very happy. The crowd stood and shouted for an encore, but it quickly became obvious we weren't going to get one, as we had passed 12.30.
All in all, a great concert, certainly the best Festival show I've ever attended. The fact that Bowie got on late and had to rush the show was a real drawback, as he felt he could leave no time for the audience to show their appreciation between songs, or to even talk to the audience. As soon as one song finished, the next one started, and rock audiences clearly aren't used to this.
Another ramification of the late start was that, in time-honoured Parisian fashion, many people left to catch "le dernier metro". In fact, people started leaving about half an hour into the Bowie set (to catch the last metro which would connect with major trains, like those going to the airports), and by the time the last metro had left, so had about 20% of the audience. This sight of people streaming out was very discouraging and distracting.
Reeves restored my faith in him as the greatest Bowie guitarist ever, and Zack was in top form (as he was on all four concerts - he doesn't seem to have bad days). Gail Ann again had troubles with the sound - the giant screen caught her screaming at the sound dude a couple of times. Mike Garson is another guy who doesn't seem to be able to have an off night.
As we were coming out of the stadium, the Bowie bus pulled out by us (we waved of course). Quick getaway.
By the time we got to the taxi rank, there were thousands there, so we went to get something to eat. Then we got a taxi to the airport, found a bench, and off to sleep.
Never fly Air France unless you have absolutely no other alternative. They cancelled our flight, apparently because it was under-booked. Instead of being honest and admitting this, they told us that there were technical problems with the engine and we should consider ourselves lucky that these were discovered before take-off. One wonders about the marketing acumen of "Instead of telling them we dicked them around cos we're crap at selling tickets, let's just say that our planes are in bad shape and have bits falling off them". So instead they flew us to Strasbourg and bussed us the rest of the way (whch meant we arrived there three and a half hours late). The bus driver told us this happens several times a week. No refund, nothing - basically, we paid a normal airfare for a one hour flight, only to take 4 and a half hours to travel (half of it by bus). We arrived home some 30 hours after we had left, but it was worth it.