melle_chantilly

Perfume

Black Orchid again.

Music

I was waken up at 7:30 by a hungry cat (uuugh) and tried to go back to sleep in vain. Math slept rightfully quite late and went to get pastries when he woke up. :3
We listened to Autoclav1.1, during which he stumbled by accident on a French interview of Laibach which left no ambiguity regarding their political views (he hasn't listened to them much and needed a bit of convincing) and told me: okay, fuck that, I'm coming tonight! (I had offered before he join Clémentine and I but he was on the fence still). And then he was like : let's listen to Spectre to revise. :D

Then I put some Gazelle Twin, Oil 10, Poordream and some Mlada Fronta to wake myself up because I was feeling the short night and didn't really have time to nap.

Concert (be aware that I digress a lot because I almost started a fight with several people)

I took my crutch again and we hopped into a taxi at 7pm. When we arrived, people were still queuing outside and being admitted, and Math spotted Clémentine right away. We joined her and I asked people behind if it was ok for us to cut and they laughed kindly because of my crutch making jokes about how terrible people they were. To which I said “I'm asking because we're not savages. …. Well, yes, maybe a bit lol”. People nodded and giggled, it was all in good spirit.

We got a beer and watched the venue get more and more packed and we decided to go watch the show on the balcony, where the view is quite good. And hey, there are couches and chairs! Perfect.

There was no opening act, which didn't really surprise me after reading the Cocksure statement a week or so ago. There must be a hella fucking pressure opening for Laibach, so it's probably better this way.

Laibach made a dramatic entrance and everyone cheered when Milan made his entrance. They played pretty exclusively songs from Spectre. Their performance felt really genuine and on point, especially given how poppy and more accessible their latest output feels, like the gravitas has taken the backseat to leave more place to a disarming sincerity. Mina has a great stage presence (and I must confess I am slightly in love).

Unfortunately, it seems like Spectre didn't really catch off with the French fans. I was amazed at how the crowd below, even in the pit, stayed motionless, during the whole fucking show. I heard people next to me saying at the beginning of the show that they hoped they'd play old classics. Yeah, I can get that, but to the point of not enjoying the new thing? It sucks, man.

We were all expecting it, but Math was the most affected at the sight of a few people sporting nazi regalia. Way to miss the point, guys. Still, it's pretty chilling to be partying in the same room than these people.

There was a 10 min intermezzo in the middle of the concert (after probably 45 min) and people shuffled to the bathroom and to the bar. I had been in the back, missing most of the view so I took my chances and found a spot against the railing. Then this exchange happened with the man next to me who suddenly stared at me:

Me: “It's going to be nice to finally see something.”

Him: “Yeah. Well, it's too bad, I'm saving this spot for my friend. She'll be back soon.” (Seriously, the people who “save spots” for their friends need to DIAF. And on the FLOOR?)

Me: “Yeah, too bad for her.”

Him: mumbling

Me: “Don't you think it would be nice to let people that were in the back enjoy the view a bit now?”

Him (looking around): “Well, no one is being nice like that now, so why should I?”

Me: “SERIOUSLY? That's how you're justifying your actions? You must be proud of yourself.”

And I. didn't. move. one. inch.

Clémentine also managed to get a spot against the railing close by. And yeah, being in the front rocked. "Eurovision" was a highlight of the show, and Mina performed “Eat Liver” on the front of the stage. The drummer was also very impressive. I've heard many times that acoustic drums for live electronic shows rarely work, well this was a counter example if there ever was one. But Laibach isn't your average electronic music band either.

Some people were disruptive in the back of the crowd near us and a couple next to me was getting at the end of their rope and they finally snapped and told them to shut up. I was grateful not to be the only one to be pissed at people who think a concert is a tearoom, and not to be the one to have to be the mean one for once. I don't get people who do that. Same thing happened at Carpenter Brut. The sound was overwhelmingly loud, yet two girls were chatting at the top of their lungs right in front of me during entire songs. I don't know how I didn't explode. If you want to chat, go to the bar or get the fuck out.

For the encore, the band played "Love On The Beat", which kickstarted the crowd a little bit, then they switched to "B-Mashina", and then as they just began "Tanz mit Laibach" people went WILD. It was crazy but at the same time, it sorta made me sad. Because to me, that's how a crowd should be like. And it's not like the band was putting on a bad show before, far from it. It must be quite depressing as a band to only be able to move certain crowds with hits from over 10 years ago. And I don't know if they were trolling or what but after the first chorus, everything stopped. And the band left the stage. A good minute or two passed and they came back and resumed the song.

Then they did a second encore, a trumpet player came onstage and they played "Leben Heißt Leben" and "Geburt Einer Nation". And by then they had played for almost two hours, of a brilliant, spotless performance. And you know what, I'm not even a huge Laibach fan. I just respect them immensely for what they're doing.

So we parted ways with Clémentine, and then more fun with assholes ensued.

Math went to queue for the cloakroom and I found a cozy spot on a couch to wait for him, with my crutch on my lap. People were in a hurry (because people are always in a hurry) and a lot of them were drunk. So my feet got stepped on more times than I can count, by oblivious people who didn't even notice me. The first time I just winced. The second time, I swung my crutch into the guy's ass. He turned around, furious, and then saw my crutch and said “I'm sorry, I didn't see you.”. “Yeah, I could tell.”

Third time I got stepped on, fourth time, it's not like there wasn't time to walk by, and just say something if you need more room.

Fifth person was a guy, obviously slightly high and in a great hurry, who really kicked me, and went on this merry way. “Hey asshole!” I screamed. “Asshole!” He turned around, looked me up and down and was like “Oh come on, I didn't see you, I'm sorry, okay?” “No, not okay. You should have been sorry BEFORE I asked you to, douchebag.”

So yeah, I was pretty riled up by then. But also proud for standing up for myself, you know. Math arrived with his coat and we exited the venue. And right outside was a young goth handing out Hocico flyers and brace yourself, he was wearing a Combichrist tshirt. (Math told me he spotted him and though “uh-oh”) The guy actually looked nice and friendly. He offered me a flyer and I told him, not aggressively in the least, rather amused if anything: “No thank you, I don't talk to people wearing Combichrist tshirts.” He was a bit confused. He still tried to pitch me the Hocico concert to which I replied: “Yeah, I listened to this 15 years ago.” A girl behind me burst out laughing. The guy was rather amused too, I don't think he had an idea of what was happening to be honest, but it still felt good and silly. I chatted about music with the laughing girl for five minutes and pitched her Haujobb and then we hopped into a taxi.

Photography

During the time frame of the concert, I received 4 messages relative to my Relevant Flesh project, some of support, some of people telling me that it actually helps them. It felt incredible. It's just really new and to be honest I started it for totally selfish reasons, as a way to help myself understand my issues and heal. For maybe a day (when I posted about it for the first time on FB and got so many comments) it felt a bit overwhelming, but this has passed now and I really feel immensely grateful. I don't plan to do things differently now that I know people read me for real. I don't know if I'll manage that but that's the goal. It's my journey and if other people are on board, the more the merrier. I think the dermatillomania post (again, no wounds or bloody pics, but a photo of scissors on lips that might be a bit scary) really struck a chord in a lot of people and I might do a follow up post soon, because I have it in so many forms.