A review of 2023 from WECB without its dose of Bruce Springsteen? But you have not thought about it ! He will not have been alone in exalting our evenings, far from it.
Bruce Springsteen
Paris, La DĂ©fense Arena, May 13 and 15
We can tell ourselves that it will no longer work every time, that a drop in speed will eventually catch up with it, that we will end up being disappointed one day. It will be for another time. For two evenings (and two profoundly different sets), the Boss once again took everything in his path, generosity slung over his shoulder and his E Street Band on hand.
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Montreal, Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, July 7
It was the “attraction” of the last day of this 2023 edition of the Montreal Jazz Festival. She will have exceeded all expectations. Because if the complementarity of the voices of one and the other are no longer to be proven after two albums… miraculous, the obvious pleasure of diving back into part of one’s Zeppelinian heritage will have carried the evening to the firmament.
The Murder Capital
Paris, Trabendo, February 13
Paris, Cigale, October 17
In the wake of their Gigi’s Recovery, a striking second album, our Irish will have recalled how nothing seems to stop them in their deconstruction-reconstruction of a new wave which only appears to be it, juggling between punk fervor and emotion at skin flower. The rest, quickly!
PJ Harvey
Paris, Olympia, October 12 and 13
Her latest delivery, I Inside The Old Year Dying, is not exactly the most accessible that Dame Polly Jean could have offered. That she devoted more than half of the concert to it since it was played in its entirety (before a “best of” in the second part) could have cooled things down. None of that, because between staging as sober as it is careful and natural aura, she will have shined.
DeWolff
Paris, Leather goods, February 28
Our friends from the other country of cheese, according to an old advertising slogan, have got into the excellent habit of transforming each of their live releases into a bubbling of scathing and groovy vintage rock at the same time. Started with your foot on the floor, the conflagration will never have taken your foot off the accelerator pedal…
Stephan Eicher
Paris, Cigale, January 20
With its automaton instruments and its treasure chests, the great musical craftsmanship of the Swiss bard and former Camargue resident by adoption (if we followed everything correctly…) will have once again captivated us, between conviviality never forced and cold humor for pack it all up. And at the same time a unique repertoire carefully rearranged, shaken up, enlivened.
Theo Charaf
Cognac, Château, July 6
All alone with his guitar, in the darkness of the Salle des Estates, the Lyon troubadour will have quite simply captivated his audience – a good part of whom were probably unaware of their existence before settling around the stage set up as stage. His cavernous voice and his bone-crunching folk-blues will never have sounded so well under the ancestral vaults.
Louise Attaque
Paris, Accor Arena, September 9 and 10
A reformation that we would not have even suspected two or three years ago deserved to result in three evenings with great fanfare, first at the ZĂ©nith in Paris then throughout France and finally in the Bercy arena with central stage and platforms going up and down, a first album performed in its entirety before beginning the rest of a journey which will have taken us to the wind more than once…
Ben Harper
Paris, Olympia, June 30, July 3, 4 and 5
Ben Harper’s meetings with France, especially the Parisian scenes, are frequent, and it’s an understatement to say that we never tire of his regular reunions. This year, his trip to the capital will have taken the form of four evenings and four different setlists where all the house registers will have been magnified, from lap steel to a cappella flights. Great art.
M
Paris, Accor Arena, June 1, 2 and 3
Mathieu Chedid’s shows are a fireworks display of color, warmth and enthusiasm. The 2022-2023 collection, launched under the auspices of the Parisian Folies Bergère and enhanced by the precious presence of Gail Ann Dorsey on bass and vocals, will not have escaped the rule. Quite the opposite, with these three evenings at Bercy as the highlight before the start of the festivals.
Xavier Bonnet
Find this selection of the best concerts of 2023 in our issue 158, available on newsstands and via our online store.
