BACK.
Man, what an awesome show. I'll skip the opening bands because they're not important. The first, Elf Fatima, was a decent post-rock act that sounds ALOT like Explosions in the Sky. The second was a group of guys who just literally made noises and played with electronics the whole time, like a wannabe Bass Communion or something. Alcest is the important part, though.
Setlist is a blur, might be in the wrong order, but I'm pretty sure this is what was played unless I'm forgetting something or getting confused:
Le Secret (opener)
Les Iris
Summer's Glory (new)
Escailles de Lune pt 1
Printemps
Souvernirs
Solar Song
Peirces de Lumiere
Encore:
Elevation
The show itself was fucking awesome. It was great seeing Alcest's tunes come to life, especially since sometimes the studio quality is less than perfect. I had chills down my spine the whole night. The heavy moments were particularly awesome, with Peices and Elevation being the highlight. Neige's live harshes are really incredible. His singing is good too, but the harshes really have such a power to them that sounds really amazing live. Unfortunately, with my phone I could only snag a couple blurry pictures of them playing so I won't respost them here.
The audience was into it, really moving a lot and all-around having a good time. Were lots of different people there, too. Was surprised to see so many ladies. This was not the sausage fest I'm used to prog/rock/metal concerts in the states being like.
Afterwards, all the guys came out and I got pictures with everyone but the bassist. I asked Winterhalter if he could tell me anything about the new album, and he just smiled saying that it was a combo of everything. Then I asked Neige the same question, and he said "What do you want to know?" He told me it was 50 minutes long, and a combo of everything Alcest has done before. He told me that it was about being near-death, on the verge of the afterlife, etc... He told me that the next album after Voyages will contain no metal and be all "clean." A girl asked him about the lyrics, and he told her that he couldn't begin to explain the lyrics without explaining the concept of Alcest first. Being the daring one, I asked him what that was, and he told me that the "music" of Alcest is only 10 percent of Alcest, and the most important thing is the concept of the "spirit world", or "alternate dimension" which, he stressed, is not fantasy but very real. He seemed genuinely happy to talk to people interested in what he had to say about all of that stuff, and was very engaged about it all.
Afterwards, me and another guy chatted it up with him about the tour and whatnot. This was the last show, and he said that he and the band were exhausted. He said that this tour had been the biggest they had ever done, and told me they were going out again next spring or early winter with Les Discreets (I think) throughout Europe. He said his bandmates love to party (they'd been drinking while performing all night) and asked me if I knew any good bars around. Unfortunately, there were none. The gig was literally in the middle of an industrial park.
After chatting with him for like 15-20 minutes, he left to get ready to go and so did my new friend and I. But not before taking these pics with the band:
With Neige
Winterhalter
Zero
Topic: Alcest (Read 21353 times)
