Yesterday we saw Jarre live at The Royal Albert Hall, performing Oxygene in Concert.
The concert was not a typical Jarre affair, it was indoors, seated, and the stage had nothing on it other than lighting and a plain screen behind Jarre and his fellow musicians. Anyone who's seen a typical Jarre concert (see Paris La Defense 1990 for a great idea) will know that the man specialises in HUGE shows, with lights, lasers, fireworks, and big computer projections that cover sky-scrapers.
But of course this wasn't what he had planned for Oxygene. The album is now 30 years old, so to celebrate it's success and the fact that it's core theme is now very important (environmental issues), Jarre is touring Europe performing the whole album entirely live using the exact same equipment he used 30 years ago.
This is a huge challenge and a very brave step, the equipment is old, fussy, and analogue. They require constant tuning, and are prone to just not working properly, requiring the rest of the team to improvise and cover up while the broken machine is mended real time on stage.
All the songs in Oxygene have 8 tracks, so Jarre + 3 other people (ie 8 hands, 1 for each track) came on stage to play the album. Each musician was surrounded by at least 8 different machines/keyboards (there's a list in the programme I bought, most are MOOGs). After a brief hello + intro, Jarre and co get to work tuning their machines and then kicking off the concert with Oxygene and 3 parts of a Variation to make things more interesting.
And by God were we in for a treat, and surprise! I was worried about this concert - watching just Jarre playing live without all the bells and whistles couldn't be as fun or entertaining, but I was wrong! With every note you can see someone's hand twisting a nob here or there, with every beat there's a person quickly moving from one keyboard to another, Jarre and co rarely had time to look at the audience - they were hunched over like mad scientists over their machines pushing this and pulling that and pressing this and twisting that while coming up with the beautiful music that is Oxygene.
Every now and then each musician would look at the other as if to confirm that all's ok and we can move to the next track, and when one of them is delayed tuning something or another, the others keep on playing to give him time. Remember, Oxygene is a gapless album, so the whole show was live AND gapless.
Midway through the concert, and nearer the signature Oxygene IV, a big mirror suddenly appeared and gave us a second view of Jarre's equipment. As if to prove to the world that he really can play live (the speculation and rumours regarding his large live concerts is that a lot of stuff is pre-recorded, but watching the concert yesterday I don't really blame him!), and perhaps to show us audience the amount of concentration and effort needed to keep the music coming. It was a fascinating thing to watch, and that's when I realised that anything other than basic lighting effects would have counter-acted the whole theme behind the show, the whole audience had to be watching Jarre and co playing live. Watching anything else just wouldn't cut it. Every now and then Jarre would get excited and jump up and down a bit, but looking at his hands carefully you see that they're stuck there on the knob he's twisting, caressing it maybe (he calls the machines Sexy Old Ladies!), never letting go or moving a millimetre, despite the rest of his body jumping up and down!
There's a certain wow-factor to watching big screens and lasers and even choreographed fireworks. You wonder at the setup time, the effort and technique to get it all right, and the technical marvel of it all. Watching 4 people playing some very very old analogue machines live, programming sequences on the fly, tuning and fine-tuning to get the sound just right, and seeing their concentrating and concerned faces as they move from one machine to the other (perhaps hoping that the one they left is still ok, and the one their going to will behave), is a lot more satisfying than the big technical shows.
Jarre finished the concert with Oxygene 12 as a bonus, then came back to encore Oxygene 13 (seems to be his favourite encore, he did the same in Gdansk). The standing ovation the man received was proof that if anything, his music is just as relevant now as it was was 30 years ago.
Unfortunately, nothing broke down or messed up drastically in the concert :) The only little bit of excitement was when one technician quickly ran on stage to close something Jarre had left open. God knows what.
We left the show mesmerised and happy. The merchandise store had a lot to offer (Gdansk only had a lanyard and a t-shirt), so I battled the crowds and bought a t-shirt, a long-sleeve top, a cap, and a mug. Sorted.
