At Paléo, Hubert-Félix Thiéfaine celebrated his musical birthday in style

The singer-songwriter put on a show worthy of his forty-year career in Nyon. A performance hic et nunc featuring stunning musicians and a beautiful setlist. Admired by newcomers and fans alike.

It had to be done: start his anniversary concert with the famous May 22 which turns out to be a joke in his discography. But Thiéfaine had two reasons to open his new show with this track: it's the most monstrously ironic, absurd and funny song ever written, and the music is enough to seduce any music lover. An all-too-familiar masterpiece that expresses the extent to which May '68 - at least for the artist - was experienced as a non-event. We make a big deal of this social movement. So let's make a big deal of this one! Ladies and gentlemen, get your headphones on:

And before continuing with this article, I can't resist the pleasure of sharing the full lyrics of this musical bombshell, released ten years after the (non-)events of the artist's first album, Any living body connected to the mains is bound to be moved. (1978):

May 22

«May 22, 1968
Three o'clock in the afternoon
Spring blossoms again
Makes the tarmac sweat
On the western highway
A seminarian on a motorcycle
I did say motorcycle
Speeding towards an undefined point
On the luggage rack
The Holy Spirit, who until then
Had remained quietly seated
Suddenly jams left wing
In the spokes of the rear wheel
Ah! Ah! Ah! (Three times)
Seminarian loses control of his motorcycle
And hits you head-on
A pylon parked illegally
On the side of the freeway
At the same time, a Chinese man from Hamburg
Disguised as an American tourist
At the wheel of a 22-hp convertible
Registered in Spain
Tells himself he must help this seminarian
But soon the idea seemed ridiculous
Given:
Petit a: doesn't drive on the same highway
Petit b: he doesn't know about the accident
And it was undoubtedly
The most important event of the month of May!»

And the most important event of this Paléo, I'd so much like to write, is this concert given by Thiéfaine on Friday, July 26, 2019. But, small a: the festival still lasts until Sunday - and we'll continue to cover it to the hilt. Little b: I've by no means attended all the concerts (since that's impossible). And, c: I must confess to the sin of subjectivity.

Let me say this once and for all: these days, any journalist who dares to make a value judgment is immediately branded an opinion preacher, or even a blogger. Every human being is constantly judging. Fortunately, these insults seldom reach their targets, and are more likely to honour them. However, pretending to hold not the truth but a sound judgment on the question of the best concert of the festival would not resonate with you. So I'll refrain from doing so. Especially as I loved discovering The Bears of Legend, thanks to one of the editorial staff's finest souls.

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So, what can we say? Firstly, that in his forty-year career, French Jurassian Hubert-Félix Thiéfaine has established himself as the greatest French-language rocker-poet, and this concert proved it. Connoisseurs will know just how difficult it is to combine full-bodied rock with fleshed-out French poetry, on a technical level alone: bringing out a voice that wields alliteration and assonance against a backdrop of saturated electric guitars is quite a feat. I've tried it before, but I can tell you that it's even more difficult in live than in the studio. Secondly, and this was a point on which the audience were unanimous: the band accompanying Thiéfaine was honed to perfection. Of particular note was the originality of the bass saxophonist, at ease Blaise, which managed to give a festive air to an otherwise baudelian-depressive universe.

The scenography was also noteworthy. The musicians were at their posts within a staging based on symmetry and elegance. The organ in the courtyard was answered by the piano in the garden. The electric guitar on the garden side was matched by the electric guitar on the courtyard side. The two cellists, smiling at each other, were matched by the man with the blue bass and a strummer who looked as if he might be the "man with the blue bass". joint cutter wires. In the center, raised, the drums, with their magical sound. And in front, of course, the singer-songwriter. Meticulous and sober, at the service of the music and the lyrics. Thiéfaine through and through.

Read also | Thiéfaine came, we saw him and we liked him.

And then we'll finish as the concert began: with some surprising tracks. The artist has given us plenty. Two or three are enough. That's quite a lot for a concert strictly limited to 1h15, celebrating forty years of songs. So, in addition to the aforementioned May 22, we were able to (re)discover the electrifying Stalag-tilt - God, it works so well to get the audience swaying - and this very funny ditty Locked in cabinets (with the underage daughter of 80 hunters) celebrating cabinet love with underage girls - hello politically incorrect - and even better interpreted by a man who's grown up. And now well and truly of age, in every sense of the word.

Jonas Follonier is the founder and editor-in-chief of the Regard Libre. Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com