SPARKS

[*ech*]

A few photos, video, setlist and review by yours truly at the link below:

https://electriceyephoto.blogspot.com/2023/06/sparks-le-grand-rex-paris-june-13th-2023.html

[SteveBoyce]

There is a lovely review here:
https://www.lesinrocks.com/concert/le-soir-ou-sparks-a-retourne-le-grand-rex-572120-14-06-2023/

[Toughest Girl In Town]

Now that this brilliant tour is over, we're all free to post our gig reviews here. So here's mine for Paris:

***

Date: June 13th, 2023
Venue: Le Grand Rex, Paris, France


For my first Sparks show ever, I wasn't disappointed at all, even though my expectations were very high. "My boys" (as I like to call them) were definitely up to the task.

It all started with a dry, warm and sunny day in Paris, which means an overcrowded and very hot Métro (subway / underground) that made my journey to the theatre very unpleasant and extremely slow (anyone who's visited Paris at least once has weird stories to tell about the Parisian Métro...)
Long story short, I ended up showing up late but quickly found my seat and watched the 3 last songs from Mr B. The Gentleman Rhymer's set that were all Sparks covers played on his banjo (or ukulele, not sure) until 8.30pm. That was entertaining and refreshing, but maybe not the kind of thing I'd enjoy listening to in a different context.

During the intermission the lights went on again inside the theatre, so I grabbed the opportunity to take a look at the audience all around me, and it was such a nice mix of different people in terms of age or style. We even saw a young lady in the front row dressed like Cate Blanchett in the video (headphones included), and obviously did the full choreography later on during "The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte" as we all expected. The atmosphere was really friendly and everyone was smiling at each other, and despite being on my own I spoke with many different fans and didn't feel lonely at all. The lady sitting next to me even asked me how I got to discover Sparks since I looked "surprisingly young" for a fan. Well, I'm not that young anymore but she made me feel like I was for a second... bless her.

First, you must know that I chose to look at the show setlist from the first night in Oxford beforehand. I'm not a big fan of surprises and I wanted to know what to expect (and most importantly, what NOT to hope for in vain). A couple of things differed from that setlist, but nothing big: we didn't get "Eaten By The Monster Of Love" and "Veronica Lake" was replaced with "Escalator".
My boys finally hit the stage at 9pm while the intro of "Take Me For A Ride" was playing in the back (my favourite song from their new album), which got me really emotional : so many great things were happening at once in front of me!!! It was a bit frustrating not hearing the full song but at that point it didn't matter that much.

Of course there were many songs from the new album, 7 in total, and all the rest was a nice mix of songs taken from various albums from each decade since the 70's. I still remember the coked-up version we've had of "Angst In My Pants" that really blew my mind shortly after the show began.
It was amazing to see Russell bounce and dance all over the stage without even looking tired or out of breath, all of this while singing with the most beautiful voice : he's such an amazing performer!
Ron looked so happy to be there he even struggled keeping his deadpan looks on. While singing "The Shopping Mall Of Love", or doing his famous shuffle during "Number One Song In Heaven", everyone could tell his smile was genuine. He later said how they both love being in Paris, and hope to be back very soon. So do we, guys, so do we...

Between songs, Russell delighted us with his French speaking skills to introduce songs, sometimes even translated the title which made little sense, but still it was cute and all French-speakers really appreciated the effort and cheered him up each time he did that. At some point he even announced the wrong song, but apologized in French when he realized his mistake while Ron looked at him with a put-on angry pout, making the whole thing even funnier.
"Bon Voyage" was dedicated to Leos Carax (Annette's director) before they started playing it, so we all assumed he was part of the audience on that night, but we didn't see him. It was great to hear the whole crowd singing along until the end of the song, it felt a little bit like a family reunion.

They even got a spontaneous standing ovation somewhere in the middle of the show, I can't remember when exactly, but you could clearly sense a mix of love, admiration and gratitude from the audience. I've never experienced that feeling before, it was unusual and pretty emotional too. From that moment onwards, it seemed like the crowd felt much lighter, and was now up for a dancing and jumping party. From the balcony point of view, I can tell you that "When Do I Get To Sing My Way" got me real scared as the ground was actually moving up and down with everyone jumping and dancing on it. Luckily it didn't collapse so I could enjoy the rest of the concert :)

When I heard the first notes of "Number One Song In Heaven", I knew I had to get my camera ready for Ron's legendary signature move. Let's face it, the "dancing Ron" video I made looks no different (nor better) than any other similar video you may find on Youtube, but this one will always be very special to me though.

After a shortened version of "Gee, That Was Fun" with piano and voice only, everyone left the stage for a minute, and came back for an encore that ended with "All That" which I think was the right choice. We all left the theatre smiling!
Unfortunately the merch stand downstairs was overcrowded so I couldn't really take a look before leaving (remember I arrived late, so I didn't have time before the concert). Hope I'll be able to get some nice stuff on the online shop instead.

The whole show lasted for almost 2 hours, which is far longer than I expected. Lots of talking, lots of music, lots of cheering, for sure my boys played, sang and looked great tonight. It's a Sparks show after all!

[Spyke]

That's a really nice review, and glad to hear you enjoyed the show!
_________________
"but we can hear what others can't hear..."