RIO Festival Sept 2010 - Le Garric, France

It's bad enough not being able to get away (the start of the academic year is impossible for those of us who work in education) but missing Art Bears with Dagmar - !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Day One (Friday):

- GENEVIEVE FOCCROULLE: Definitely a bit of a bore and out of context of the musical scope, she played the piano works of Braxton, when most expect s the sax works. I didn't stay to the end of the concert.

- CASPAR BRÖTZMANN MASSAKER: Did the guy (Caspar) realize that the following morning was Hendrix' 40th anniv of his passing away??  When seeing and hearing his show, all I could think of was Jimi, or to a lesser extent the first two Guru Guru albums. Guitar heroics and histrionics and hysterics.

- SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM: They were one of these that I’d had meant to check out for a long time, and their special instrument (that sort of tree trunk to play ultra-bass notes was intriguing), but I enjoyed most of their stuff. Vocal-wise, I wish that the girl could sing all of the time, coz the cookie monster metal vocals really turned me off and do a great disservice to their music. 

Day Two (Saturday):

- AQUASERGE: A real discovery. I wasn't expecting much, knowing their French pop singer back-up past, but they were quite good - they used the double drummer for the first time, placing them front-centre stage, facing each other, while the rest of the band was around them (this hampered the sound engineer, because I didn't really hear all of the instruments, where I was sitting). For their credit, they were missing two players, and one of the drummer was a guest, just for that show, so apparently, it was experimental set-up.

Bought both their albums, and I find them better on discs than that live show

- THIERRY ZABOITZEFF: My fave concert of the festival, despite the one-man show and a lot of play back - this got him a lot of slack, but it was the first standing ovation by the other half of the audience. Good stage presence, despite doing it all alone. Three or four Art Zoyd tracks, all superb. The man told the crowd in the conference, that he chose to never be in a band again, hence the solo appearance. Privately, I suggested him that he just hires two musicians for concerts only, in order to avoid the slack of the sampler-playback issues - he said he'd think about it, but didn't seem convinced (or cared enough).

- FULL BLAST: Free jazz, and more free jazz - had a hard time with this constant aural assault and a drummer doing 200 bps (not bpm), even if in the quieter moments (two or three minutes in the set), they were quite enjoyable. Also left before the end to buy cds.

- GONG: Saw them some 15 times since 94 and this was the third time since Hillage is back. I personally think they're a oparody of their former selves since Steve and Miquette came back. Daevid was his outstading self, but Gilly really seems bored. Hillage was good, but Miquette is an atrocious musician.  Outside these four, the rest of the band is just not up to par to the veterans... I even miss Travis (whom I'd started to consider as a legit GonG member), and with Howlett gone, the show is much less interesting. I hate the video showing behind the band. They simply played too much of their latest (and poor) 2032 album... I left before the end of the concert (almost disgusted), for a short snooze, before their conference, which was definitely the best interview session, though. Daevid is the funniest clown I've ever met.

Day Three (Sunday):

- MIRIODOR: Wow, these guys were my main reason to come to this festival, and they certainly did not disappoint.... They deserved a better slot on the program, but they were as outstanding, as their reputation that precedes them indicates. They are now a quintet and featured mainly their latest album Avanti, which is less Gypsy/Manouche-inclined than Jongleries or Mekano were.

- RATIONAL DIET: I didn't like the album I had and they confirmed it on stage, despite playing most of their latest album. Weird stage set up (drums on the extreme corner) and crappy sound, the chick singing definitely out of tune at the start of the concert. Some interesting moments, bur at times it all falls apart (Blasquiz, Denis and some others agreed, but Trigaux loved it >> I think it was his selection and felt obliged to defend it) but these guys just perform their music, they don't live it. Apparently two musicians were absent from their normal line-up (maybe they didn't get their passport from the Belarussian PolitBuro)

Easily the most boring interview section as they simply don't master english and the main composer tried his French, but it wasn't much better

- JANIK TOP's INFERNAL MACHINA: what an insanely fitting name for that sonic assault, just one track lasting 15 mins than his planned slot. Interesting Zeuhl, sometimes bordering on metal music, with Blazquiz and this Bulgarian polyphonic singer fronting the group (Janik also vocalizing). Unrelentless assault, where Janik lets the group express themselves enough, but no real solos. they got some slack from part of the audience for the keyboards playback, despite having one on stage) and also the recorded choirs. I was rivetted to my seat.

- ART BEARS SONGBOOK: I was never that much a fan (I much prefer the News From Babel following adventure), but the audience was won-over well before the start of the concert. Enjoyed it enough, but had a tough time remaining awake after three days of festival. Cutler is definitely the most entertaining drummer alive (saw him seven times before), Frith was good (only saw him once before), Dagmar worked her ass off (after some 20 years of inactivity), but the other main singer obviously covered her, if she didn't mange. Their conference occurred at the start of that third day, so their only encore closed the Festival around 2AM.

I missed Saturday the showing of the Romantic Warrior DVD  about the US scene (I'd seen it before) and visited a few of these medieval villages perched on hilltops , but Sunday's viewing of the Rocktime organization  documentary was quite interesting (French only, though)