vendredi 17 juin 2011

Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon @ Théatre de la Ville, Paris June 17 2011

Neil Hannon from Divine Comedy "Piano solo" @ Théatre de la ville
Paris, June 17 2011
First time ever that Rockerparis was going to the Théatre de la Ville, it's just the Théatre opposite Le Théatre du chatelet where we saw Marianne Faithfull , with Wayne kramer on guitar, twice in March.
Sold-out show and upmarket audience.
From the outside it's as beautiful but from the inside that's completely different, it looks like a 70's concrete building (meaning it's awful) even though the concert hall in itself is not bad.
The inside of the théatre du chatelet is still with its original "Italian" style and is stunning.

Anyway we're not here to discuss decoration but to talk about Neil Hannon's solo performance on piano.
He already played like this last year @ the very posh Salle Pleyel on July 07 2010 (click for review with Pics & videos).
He's still promoting "Bang goes the knighthood" his latest album so Neil is playing this record in its entirety for the first part of the show, mostly on piano and a couple of songs on the acoustic guitar.

After a 15 min intermission he's back behind the keys to play a best of... from his catalogue.
The Setlist will be posted here shortlty and on his french website : A short site about The Divine comedy. Check the Forum too.
  1. Down In The Street Bellow
  2. The Complete Banker
  3. Neapolitan Girl
  4. Bang Goes The Knighthood
  5. At The Indie Disco
  6. Have You Ever Been In Love
  7. Assume The Perpendicular
  8. The Lost Art Of Conversation
  9. Island Life
  10. When A Man Cries
  11. Can You Stand Upon One Leg
  12. I Like
    entracte
  13. The Pop Singer’s For The Pollen Count
  14. Everybody Knows (Exception You)
  15. Songs Of Love
  16. A Lady Of A Certain Age
  17. Perfect Lovesong
  18. Geronimo
  19. Generation Sex
  20. Our Mutual Friend
  21. National Express
    encore
  22. The Booklovers (part of)
  23. The Frog Princess
  24. Tonight We Fly
    encore 2
  25. Sunrise

No need to tell you that it was great, when you have very good songs you don't need pyros , just an acoustic guitar or a piano and that's enough.
Neil has also a great sense of humour so he's always acting a bit funny or telling a joke on stage.
No big difference with last year's show but once again we had a very good time.

We were lucky to be invited to a small party with drinks and canapés afterward but Neil didn't turn up.

La Conciergerie from the théatre