Info Setlist
Date: 2001-08-23 
Country: France 
City: Paris 
Venue: St. Chapelle 
Other: 8.30 pm. ticketprices: 500FF 



01. Intro: harp solo by Zeena
02. Unravel
03. Frosti
04. Aurora
05. Generous Palmstroke
06. Undo
07. Pagan Poetry
08. Possibly Maybe
09. All Is Full Of Love
10. Cocoon
11. It's Not Up To You
12. Hidden Place

encore
13. Anchor Song
14. Its In Our Hands
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Ronds de jambe à la Sainte-Chapelle
Concert décevant de Björk, événement plus mondain que musical.
Par ALEXIS BERNIER

Le 25 août 2001

La queue s'est formée une bonne heure et demie avant l'ouverture de la Sainte-Chapelle. Les caméras et les micros n'ont pas tardé non plus, interviewant à la chaîne quelques fans exhibant leurs billets comme des trophées, sous le regard jaloux de ceux qui cherchaient encore le précieux sésame. 350 places, artistes et invités compris. A en juger par le nombre de VIP au mètre carré, ils ne devaient pas être plus d'une grosse centaine à avoir acquis leurs tickets (450F, 68,5 ?) sur Internet. Bashung, Zazie, Yves Simon, Noir Désir au grand complet, Manu Chao, Isabelle Giordano (de chez Canal Plus-Vivendi-Universal), Jack Lang, Catherine Tasca, sans oublier Lionel Jospin et une brochette de personnalités, messieurs au look de chef d'entreprise et dames entre deux âges, visiblement peu habitués des événements rock. Jeudi soir, le premier des deux concerts de Björk à la Sainte-Chapelle était un événement plus sûrement mondain que musical.

La mise en scène elle-même manque pour le moins de simplicité. Intimidés par la munificence de la chapelle royale, serrés sur des chaises inconfortables, d'où il est difficile d'apercevoir grand-chose passé le sixième rang, les fans commencent par se faire sermonner Chemise blanche et mains jointes comme un séminariste, le patron de Garance Production, organisateur de la tournée, croit même bon de rappeler, comme lors d'un concert classique, d'éteindre son portable et de ne pas bouger pendant le concert. Les lumières s'éteignent. Et, dans un silence religieux, l'icône pop se fait attendre comme une apparition divine. Sur l'autel, des enfants de chur en tee-shirt marine terminent les préparatifs au son d'une boîte à musique chimérique. La chorale d'Inuits arrive en procession par le côté de la nef. Zeena Parkins s'installe à la harpe, puis le duo électronique Matmos au look de moines branchés. L'impression d'être à la messe saisit les agnostiques réfractaires.

Sourire enfantin dilaté jusqu'aux oreilles, l'elfe islandais arpente alors l'allée centrale. L'assistance se pâme. Le récital peut commencer, tout entier centré sur sa voix, d'autant que, problème d'acoustique, on entend à peine les musiciens. Chantant principalement des extraits de son nouvel album «Vespertine», Björk charme sans vraiment convaincre. Le personnage occulte ses chansons, dont la transposition pour harpe et chorale laisse un peu perplexe. Un chroniqueur perfide plaisante: «C'est la Mylène Farmer de la gauche caviar.» Les privilégiés qui ont assisté aussi au concert du Grand Rex confirment leur déception. Ce qui n'empêche pas une standing ovation finale par un public plus séduit par le charme de la chanteuse que par sa prestation. Pieds nus, vêtue d'une robe de mariée découpée dans un cygne mort, elle a chanté une heure et quart, avec et sans micro, confirmant son talent pour les vocalises. Autant que les minauderies.

/ALEXIS BERNIER - 3414
1st Ste Chapelle gig / WARNING: SPOILER

Poor inuit choir ! it was really warm inside the chapelle, and they had to deal with the spolights, and their traditionnal costumes ! Hard times for them there, i guess.

French Prime Minister was there, with some of his staff (Catherine Tasca from the Culture, Jack Lang from Education, R.Forni Parlement president...), and french singers, writers, journalists as well....

the place is beautiful, kind of "baroque", high coloured windows, high ceiling, the room is not wide but long.
first rows were full of fans, we seated at the 3rd, Jospin was 2 rows behind us, and "vieilles pies" (pronounced VIP) were in the back. they tried to skip the line but we were pushing them away at the gate. joga and andrea were seating on the right side bancs along the wall.

at 9pm, a guy from the staff turned the crank of the big music box, and we waited about 7 mins listening to it, until Zeena came in. then she played a beautiful blue harp, don't know the name of the song,
but this was gorgeous. them Matmos came and the choir as well.

we were so close we could smell the "lys" flowers bouquet on the left side of the stage (we were on the right side - bad smell IMHO)

Unravel started and Bjork came in, wearing a white swan dress, all gliterring, made of pearls. she stopped in front of the central alley, not on the stage at all, microphone was behind her. and the songs kept going,
and she didn't get the microphone, i was like "Ho my god, now it's to late for her to grab it, and she's just 2 meters far from us !" and she started singing, such a pure voice, so close to us, and walked trhu the alley. "OH my god (yes, again),she's now half meter from us, right beside my friend", who didn't dare turning her head, because Bjork was SO close, very impressive, she could have kissed her. words were jumping from Bjork's mouth right into our ears !

and she kept walking slowly to the back of the church, and at the end of the path, it was time for the choir to answer her "when you come back,we have.." a perfect and REAL stereo effect: Bjork in the back, her voice sounding far away, and the choir in the front, replying to her : the BEST moment of the gig,IMHO, GOD, SHE knows how to MOVE you, to touch you, right in the heart, right from the beginning. i was almosts shaking, it was so intense, how CLEVER to do it that way. after 15 gigs, she still surprises me. i'm spoiled
rotten.

After Unravel, she walked on the stage, sat on the white chair, put beautiful glass shoes on (audience hada laugh cause these shoes are so feery tale style), grab the little music box and played (Frosti i guess).

then she took off the glass shoes, stand up and behind the microphone started singing Aurora while the tallest guy from Matmos walked, hands in his pocket, into some stuff which makes the beat and sounds like walikng in snow. but even with the microphone, we were so close from the stage, that we could here her voice "acousticly".

Generous Palmstroke
UNDO, in the central alley again, just few steps, lucky us, she stopped at the 3rd row, and we were seating at the 3rd one. perfect sound since we are less than one meter of her mouth: i don't know how it could be better than that ! i felt like she's our friend and sings in our room, whispering into our ears. this is so "raw" and she's so talentuous !

Next song, i'm not sure about the title, it goes like "she loves him, she loves him..." i didn't listing to the CD yet, but i'm kind of used to these Tour songs now.

Possibly MB is the next one. i've never seen her tatoo from so close AND for such a long time ! this is my favorite song of Post, as Unravel is my favorite from Homogenic. the swan dress (stockings) got a hole at the left knee, and is totally open around left foot. we could see her toes.

AIFOL, beAutIfOL, almost pure acapella, walking in the alley again.

MOUTH, from a boy :)

It's not up to you : as this audience were not enough into music, they didn't wait the real end of the song, just like on Saturday Grand Rex gig. what else to expect for the "vieilles pies".

Hidden Place was the last song of the set.

BIG APPLAUSE, STANDING OVATION

Encore = Anchor Song
same as the Big Rex one, with this old keyboard wooden instrument. it seems that's really tricky to play, cause Zeena got to pedal fast on 2 levers to activate a kind of winding device, as for an accordeon, while pushing the keys. the sounds stops immediately when she stopped "pedaling". may be it's some kind of harmonium.

last song: In our hands

END of the gig, lights on, some stupid ppl shortly "booo" in the audience cause they probably tought it was too short regarding the money they spent.

after 10 minutes, we were pushed outside by the security, too bad i saw Jeremy Scott too late to speak to him. then Girls from Orange gave us the poster and we said "again!" and the guy behind us also said "again!" so funny

/Mick Ouli - 3413
Dear Meester Fly/Mad Web Carpenters,

We, the brothers Desmarets (Maxime and Julien) from France, were among the 200 or so happy few people admitted at the latest Björk gig in Paris' Sainte Chapelle. This concert went splendid although it wouldn't have hurt if it could have lasted a bit longer (OK it never hurts but that one was actually rather short.)
Here's the detail:

About the artists: Björk was wearing that now famous lovely white swan dress only this time it was embroidered with pearls, her hair was loose, she wore little if any make-up and in the trivial department there was a gaping hole in her stocking at knee level (this one is for the pop-up video authors ;o) ).

The sober but efficient Matmos were backing her as well as Zeena Parkins and the choir from Greenland.

About the atmosphere: The Björk gig in the Sainte Chapelle was obviously the place to be seen tonight in Paris. The narrow medieval chapel (a major day-time tourist attraction) was so crowded with some of Paris 'beautiful people' (and those not-so-beautiful but with influence.) that we actually started to wonder how we had landed there (and more worryingly how we could access a good seat.).

French premier Lionel Jospin and his wife arrived at the last minute, closely followed by former culture minister Jack Lang (now in charge of education). Several prominent national pop music celebrities could be spotted as well: Zazie, Benoit Quentin from rock band 'Noir Désir', writer/singer Yves Simon. The media were not missing with Isabelle Giordano (movie reporter for pay TV channel Canal+) and numerous other TV journalists of the Parisian intelligentsia (Frederic Beigbeider, the author of the best-selling novel '99 Francs' may be more internationally renowned).

Last but not least: THE SONGS
As already mentionned the show was pretty short but all the songs were beautifully performed in that exceptional setting. On a few songs Björk sang a capella without any amplification and actually walked bare feet along the central alley among us! This only added to the sense of religious gathering. As usual, she lost it on one of the songs (this time Hidden Place) but it was more charming than detrimental to the song.

Unravel (a capella - no amplification)
Frosti / Aurora
Generous Palmstroke
Undo
Pagan Poetry
Possibly Maybe
All Is Full Of Love (radio mix)
Cocoon
It's Not Up To You
Hidden Place -- Standing Ovation
The Anchor Song -- Standing Ovation
Our Hands

That was our modest report from the Sainte Chapelle gig. Hope you'll find it
useful.

/Max & Ju - 3412

saintechap01.jpg (171450 byte) saintechap03.jpg (123220 byte) saintechap02.jpg (218079 byte) saintechap04.jpg (234837 byte) saintechap05.jpg (255585 byte) saintechap06.jpg (85723 byte)

Photos by Bjorkounette (bjorkounette@caramail.com)



Sainte Chapelle ticket.jpg (163863 byte) Conciergerie After invitation.jpg (63385 byte)

Scans of ticket and Conciergerie After invitation by Julien B.





Björk shaking hands with French prime minister Lionel Jospin after the gig



SainteChapelledoron.jpg (317663 byte)

Scanned by Dorontheos




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