Review of Yann Tiersen in Concert at the Mod Club (April 19, 2009)
by Shawn on Apr.20, 2009, under Concert Reviews
I have a lot on my plate, so the blog hasn’t seen many updates lately. For that, I apologize. Tonight, I had a night to unwind. For the past 3 months, I’ve been looking forward to seeing Yann Tiersen, the composer of my favourite movie soundtrack of all time, Amelie. La Valse D’Amelie and Comptine D’un Autre Ete are two of my favourite songs, period.
Unfortunately, Yann decided to take it in a different direction. Instead of beautiful, soulful piano/accordian/violin, we got a bunch of loud unexpected “rock”. I’ve never been more disappointed during a concert. One song from the Amelie soundtrack during a 15 song set. What’s worse is that, being close to the stage, we were able to see the set list and saw that “Amelie” was written as a second encore. What Yann didn’t realize (as he didn’t bother wth a second encore) is that it’s hard to get a crowd into a show/excited enough to cheer for a second encore when all you do is stretch out long guitar notes in the middle of wtf-inducing songs. I can’t be the only one who expected a laid-back parisian type of night. Instead, we got loud j-pop mixed with My Bloody Valentine in “Asobi Seksu” (who weren’t bad, but definitely didn’t fit in with the Yann Tiersen vibe we were expecting, also, annoying vocals) and Yann rocking out with a guitar, another guitar, and a violin. “Sur la fil” was the obvious highlight as it was the only song he played from the aforementioned soundtrack.
I know that artists (re: Smashing Pumpkins) look back on their successful songs with disdain. They want people to hear their new shit, they’ve written new shit and the people should know about it. They don’t want to live in the past, they feel that they’re better than before.
We don’t care. Play the shit we want, the shit we know and love. The shit we paid to hear/see.
For the record, here’s what would have gotten the crowd into it:
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April 20th, 2009 on 4:34 pm
Yeah, it was disappointing. The only good thing about the night was the company. :)
April 20th, 2009 on 9:46 pm
I’m not entirely sure why everyone keeps expecting him to play music from a soundtrack he wrote 8 years ago. He has other material that he would like to push instead of playing the same songs. If you’ve ever seen his “On Tour” videos, you can see that he rarely plays the piano or accordian by himself. He’s been using a full band for the majority of his shows.
April 21st, 2009 on 12:00 am
Fucking right man, fucking right…
April 21st, 2009 on 3:50 am
@Matt
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness came out 14 years ago. 1979/Zero/Bullet With Butterfly Wings are still what the people want though.
April 22nd, 2009 on 1:14 pm
I agree 100 percent with your Yann Tiersen review. I was anticipating hearing the music of Yann live for 5 years now. When I found he was touring the US, I was so excited. I too had learned about him though the soundtrack of Amelie . Then uncovered much more of Yanns earlier music all VERY amazing. But not one bit of it loud Guitars. …and I mean LOUD. I came prepared since I read your review and brought ear plugs, and I say at the venue in Chicago (Logan Auditorium) there were plenty of disappointed people. A few left early, there was hardly an effort to call an encore, I think many just wanted the noise to end. Yann had played I would say 2 songs that were of what I would guess most people went to see him for. I now understand the audience reaction ive seen on film when Dylan changed from folk guitar to rock guitar. The people protested. This was worse. Changing from something closer to classical(violin, piano, etc) to super loud run of the mill guitar. Lastly I could not see, but I think there was a therimin that was played. This was cool in the first 2 songs to hear, but then it became comical because it was use on every fricken song. What a Joke. I am and remain Yann Tiersens biggest fan. My daughters 20-yo who are accomplished violinist were so excited as I was to see him. They are 20, so they were not bothered so much by the music, but were very disappointed in not hearing some of the more familiar. In short, BIG DISAPPOINTMENT. If I want to hear loud banging run of the mill guitar work, I can go any night to any of a thousand venues around the city. Yann I though was going to bring something different. Did he think he was going to unveil loud obnoxsious music to the motherland of loud obnoxsous music.
April 22nd, 2009 on 2:21 pm
If you really like that sort of music Chris, I find that Beirut does it really well and is still doing it really well. I’m not sure if he’s on tour around where you are, but check him out: http://www.myspace.com/beruit
April 22nd, 2009 on 4:18 pm
WOW. What someone didn’t get the memo. We left after a few of his songs. Though there were some warning signs. brought to you by the Empty Bottle. and the screaching opening act.
I’d say 50% of the people who showed up were expecting something else. On the way out, some guy sitting at a little table was taking counts of the people leaving. Tick, tick, tick… there where alot of marks on that piece of paper.
Next time. I’l do more homework before attending a “performance”, i mean concert.
April 22nd, 2009 on 8:24 pm
I was at the Chicago show last night and thought it was great. It was exactly what I expected. If you are a big enough fan, you have probably heard his album “On Tour.” A good majority of the songs on this album were played last night. This is just the type of music he plays for shows, so I don’t understand why everyone is so suprised. Also, I have to disagree with those saying the Chicago crowd wasn’t into the music. Of course there are going to be people that leave because the show isn’t what they expected. But the people that stuck around til the end gave a good effort for the encore and seemed to enjoy the music. I saw a quite a few people dancing towards the end and a lot of bobbing heads. So, listen to his album “On Tour”, and you will see that last nights show was not out of the ordinary for him.
April 22nd, 2009 on 10:27 pm
While I understand that any artist will want to unveil new music, I think they need to grasp the fact that people often buy tickets based the things they heard before and liked, not the music that just came out… People at the Toronto show were shouting out song names and begging him to play some old songs, all to no avail. I feel that there were many people who won’t buy a ticket to another one of his concerts in the future.
April 22nd, 2009 on 11:52 pm
You know, Amelie was made a long time ago. He’s very prolific, you can’t expect him to just play the Amelie soundtrack.
April 23rd, 2009 on 4:25 am
Not just amelie. What about le phare? rue de cascades? l’absente? hell, even most of les retrouvailles. it’s not a lot to ask for a certain genre of music (doesn’t have to be specifically amelie).
April 23rd, 2009 on 4:52 am
[...] to go and good times at shows to be had! In some of my preliminary research, I ran across this review of the Yann Tierson April 19 show at the Mod Club. People were yapping and overtly pained by the [...]
April 27th, 2009 on 6:01 pm
i went to the show in chicago, and was absolutely blown away. that show ranks on my top ten, and maybe even top five shows i have ever seen. i love yann tiersen- everything he does is brilliant. this was hardly run-of-the-mill rock. im a musician myself, and am quite active in the music community here. i can think of only a couple of local bands that have the talent and vision to be able to put on a show like the one he did.
regarding style, i guess it just didnt bother me that he didnt play what people expected to hear. i had read a review of the new york show, so it wasnt a complete shock to me. i was actually prepared for it to be awful, based on the review i read. but what i saw wasnt awful, or ever mediocre. it was stunning.
i have a million times more respect for yann tiersen now as an artist. its incredibly brave to play a completely different style of music to an audience who is expecting something else. ive probably been to a thousand shows in my life, and ive never seen so many people leave a show so early, and so angry. for myself, going to shows now is run-of-the-mill. it takes a lot for an artist to really wow me. i actually couldnt believe what i was seeing- that i was at a show so incredible- and half the audience hated it.
but you know- they rioted when ‘the rite of spring’ was played for the first time. and dylan had little empathy when he first changed his sound. and now those things sound completely normal or even bland to us. great artists push the envelope for their time, and are always trying something different. the reason that radiohead will still be listened to in 200 years is because they didnt just cash in on ‘creep’ and call it a day. truly influential musicians are often those that hardly anyone understands while they are alive. its funny how we have all this knowledge of history, and yet when something else brilliant comes along, we often fail to grasp what we are seeing. years from now, i do believe that yann teirsen will be held in even greater esteem than he is now, precisely for the same charges being levied against him at the moment.
April 27th, 2009 on 9:17 pm
I’m going to see him in London next month. I hope he *does* play some new stuff – like the Tabarly soundtrack – but I may too be disappointed and I get a repeat of the concert he gave exactly two years ago :(
May 5th, 2009 on 4:04 am
I agree with the review. I was at the Chicago show and was deeply disappointed. (It was a bad sign to walk into the auditorium to find no seats– with the kind of music that is on Yann’s CDs (I own them ALL), you don’t expect to stand). When I think of Yann Tiersen, I think of beautiful and haunting piano melodies, violin, playful songs with accordion, toy instruments. I expected something like the LIVE album “C’Etait Ici”. This was Yann’s first visit to the U.S. and I imagine most people who are even *aware* of Yann Tiersen know him by the music I’m talking about. One would think that he would have the sense to realize that. And, yes, I do believe that artists have a certain degree of responsibility to provide music a paying audience wants to hear.
Secondly, I am into all kinds of music– including hard rock, avant-garde, experimental, metal, progressive, classical, world, you-name-it. What Yann Tiersen performed was not particularly interesting or engaging. Maybe if you’re under 30 (I’m not). It was dull. Nothing revelatory. Anyone who claims to be “blown away” by what he did in Chicago doesn’t have very high standards.
I did buy Yann’s new soundtrack CD “Tamarly” (the only disk of his I didn’t own). And guess what– it’s all beautiful melodic piano music with violins… haunting and melancholic. Just what I expected.
Personally, I thought the opening act Asobi Seksu was far more interesting.
May 6th, 2009 on 1:32 am
so, since you own all of his cds, you must own the ‘on tour’ cd, which he drew a lot of the material for this show from.
i think its awesome that he did what he did. if you hadnt been so disappointed, you might have been able to see the show for what it was, instead of what you wanted it to be.
the songs he played were beautiful and haunting in their own right.
i am also into all types of music, well over 30, and loved the show that he put on, even though i, like everyone else, expected something different.
if this was indeed his first tour of the united states, then what he did was obviously a conscious choice. if i were to guess at his motivations, i would say he was attempting to show people that hes a lot more than just the guy who did the amelie soundtrack. if he ever does tour the states again, he may play to smaller audiences, but the people who go to see him will be those who truly support him as an artist.
May 9th, 2009 on 9:18 am
I saw him in Edinburgh last night – I’d never seen him before and knew little of his material. I thought it was fantastic! Very moving and exciting in places….we had no chairs either but it was cool – people just sat on the floor and chilled out until they felt like dancing. It was at the end of a long week and was exactly what I needed — a very affirming evening :)
Impressed.
The support band Remember, Remember were excellent too.
May 11th, 2009 on 9:24 am
I am with the majority here, as after attending the show in York last night, i was left feeling severely ripped off. Like most people, i was looking forward to the odd lament and not an entire showboating extravaganza.
For one, i was FAR too loud and ended up at the back of the venue watching on a monitor as it was to much for my little ears to take. I am very aware that artists move on, but by doing what Yann has done, you leave a large percentage of your fans behind you. He is an incredibly competent musician but this was not displayed at his performance last night.
His new stuff can be bundled up with the hundreds of guitar driven epic rock acts that are scattered all over these days. Nothing particularly new or challenging, unlike the fantastic support act Remember, Remember who blew Yann out of the water.
He did not engage with the audience and certainly did not come accross as the humble guy i expected him to be. I have, never, in the many many gigs i have attended, wanted to leave early. I did, however, stick it out. His sudden change of direction is understandable, wanting to move on, but to only play his new work and nothing of the music which your fan base is built on, is just ridiculous.
Is he gripped in an “i am a rockstar” mid life crisis? I know of many people who would not disagree.
May 19th, 2009 on 7:47 am
[...] quick google the day before the gig revealed a lot of disappointed gig reviews. The general consensus seemed to be that, while, on record, the music he makes seems [...]
May 20th, 2009 on 8:43 am
Saw him in Brighton last night. One of the most disappointing gigs in a long long while. Yann – if you’re reading this – keep your midlife crisis to yourself. Please. You’ll never be Mogwai.
May 24th, 2009 on 5:29 pm
This review really disappointed me. I can’t understand the attitude. I saw Yann play in this style two years ago. I’d heard ‘Le Phare’ the ‘Amelie’ soundrack and a few other CDs and was a huge fan (still am). The performance was a complete surprise, and a wonderful one. Instrumentation doesn’t inherently change anything. Yann’s music is beautiful, complex and moving whatever he plays on, be it a distorted guitar or a 500 year old violin.
That show still remains one of the most exciting I’ve seen.
Even if I didn’t enjoy the change in direction, I have far more respect for him doing that, than I do for anyone who begrudgingly wheels out the hits whenever told to (Smashing Pumpkins keep being brought up on here; I’ve never seen a more egocentric and rude performer than Billy Corgan, even if he plays “the hits”). Musicians and artists are not performing monkeys, to pull out the same tricks night after night. They are humans who can do whatever the feel like. Yes, I know you payed for tickets expecting something, and got something else. That’s his right as a performer. And that’s what makes him more interesting to me than most of the bullshit around right now.
The comment from ‘brackets’ I found especially narrow minded. Playing a guitar doesn’t immediately group someone in with the many mediocre guitar bands of the last few decades.
I would far rather pay to see someone take a creative risk than to watch them rest on their past achievements and be boring to all involved.
Grow up.
August 11th, 2009 on 2:36 am
[...] bands can mix it up and not focus too much on their new material (yeah, I’m looking at you Yann Tiersen). Tracks like “Black Tongue” and “Y Control” spoke to me the most but [...]
September 18th, 2009 on 8:52 am
[...] parts of it. The lack of Yann Tiersen contributions to the soundtrack was also a shame (although, he’s doing his own thing now and I’m glad he didn’t do it here). Most importantly, the similarities to Amelie were great but thinking about Jeunet’s style [...]
January 4th, 2010 on 11:48 am
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