Review of concert from 2002-09-19: Paris, Grand Rex - with Imposters
- Joyce Slavik

 

Paris Concert, with Steve Nieve trio as the support act

Well, we heard the King Of America *and* Blood And Chocolate yesterday in their entirety!!!!! Well, I'm not sure if anyone is reading these reviews anyway but I'll still clarify - we played these in the car on the way down to Paris ;-). After the great Amsterdam show, Wouter, Ken and I came back to Krommenie (well reknowned World Leader in Linoleum as I'm sure everyone knows) and stayed up much later than we should have chatting and snacking. We were up early for the drive down to Paris. We headed over to the venue around 4ish, grabbed a bite across the street from the venue. The Rex is normally a beautiful movie theater and there was not a single sign anyway indicating that Elvis would be playing. During dinner, we watched as a car burned only a few meters/yards from where we were supposed to be lining up for the show. At the same time, our snotty French waiter treated us like crap and tried to rip us off. Already a full evening ;-). After the car fire was doused, we got in line. We received a full nifty freebies - postcards for Steve's Mumu album and announcing (incorrectly) the time of his opening for Elvis. Also some leaflets for EC's show. Poor Davey wasn't even mentioned!

We were front and center in some kick ass comfy seats when we got in. We were amazed that there weren't any Steve CDs for sale in the lobby as Ken hoped to buy his copy there. Steve's set went about 35 minutes. Very entertaining. He had a bass clarinetist and a guitarist. He premiered two new songs, including one on a new instrument that he had recently picked up. I really enjoyed that song called Pandemonium. I'll get a setlist on that at some point if Ken doesn't post it (assuming he hasn't finally lost Steve's handwritten setlist for good finally ;-)).

The venue was not very crowded at all. A bit disappointing but not surprising considering there wasn't even a single sign outside the venue for the show. Not sure how else it might have been promoted. At the start of EC's set, the press photographers came out and then almost immediately the crowd headed for the stage. We jumped up and ended up in front of Elvis. Elvis had a few problems during the show primarily with microphones. The show was fabulous. I admit that as I read through the setlist from where I stood, I was really disappointed when he skipped over Poor Napoleon and So Like Candy. Argh. Nonetheless, we received plenty of treats so I can't complain much. I'll Wear It Proudly, Clowntime is Over were terrific to hear. I always love to hear Deep Dark Truthful Mirror too. 15 Petals is absolutely wonderful live. I was thrilled to hear Episode of Blonde for the first time this week as well and God Give Me Strength was a great surprise. Elvis cut the first part of the show pretty short which didn't seem very good. We figured it was either to fix a technical problem or because he had too much water ;-). When Elvis introduced the band, he gave an extra kudos to Steve's "excellent" opening set.

The crowd, although small, was pretty loud and enthusiastic. Thankfully, almost nobody smoked during the show too. Yay.

When Elvis came out after the show, he took off pretty quickly. He signed a few things for people. We said a quick hi to Pete. I told him how much fun he is to watch ;-). Never did see Davey leave. I've been thinking he looks a might bored up there on stage.

We saw Steve for a bit. He was standing with Muriel/Mumu. While Muriel chatted with someone, Ken and I told him he needs some help with the marketing considering his CD wasn't for sale. I told him I would have sold discs before and after the show myself! He mentioned that he thinks they'll be selling them during the shows in the States. I mentioned it was nice that he was home for awhile but he mentioned it would only be for a day. He was nice to sign the cool postcards we had as well while we told him how we enjoyed his opening set. He was nervous about playing the new instrument and thanked us.