I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: February 20, 2025] Alcest 

I hadn’t heard of Alcest before this tour.  I was mostly excited when I saw that Mono was playing Union Transfer.  But when I listened to Alcest, I rather liked them.  Especially their latest album Les Chants de l’aurore, which is the album they were touring.

So Alcest has been around for almost 20 years, although their first album came out in 2007.  After some lineup changes, the band was solely the work of Stéphane “Neige” Paut who played everything.  In 2009, drummer Winterhalter from Les Discrets joined Alcest, after eight years with Neige as its sole full-time member.  Neige still plays everything except drums on the records.

Since 2010, the live shows include Pierre “Zero” Corson on second guitar and backing vocals and Indria Saray on bass.

I was really pleased with my spot near the stage when, with moments to go before the band came out, two women pushed their way up next to me taking up more room than there was between us.  And when the band started she proceeded to either really get into it or was just messing with me as she kept putting her hands through her hair and then raising her arms high and wide for minutes at a time.  I’ve literally never had one person ruin a show as much as this sociopath did.

Fortunately she (presumably) got sick after four songs.  She was clearly very drunk, and then after a couple of songs she seemed to just stop and stare straight ahead of her and then after the fourth song she bolted for the back of the room (to which a guy behind me said, thank god).  Her friend (who was very short) then proceeded to take up enough space for both of them, headbanging in a way that ensured you didn’t want to stand behind her.  A song or two later, she received a text and then headed to the back of the room.  In my mind, the tall one got drunk and nauseous and them ruined the second half of the show for herself and her friend after she ruined the first part of the show for me and everyone around me.

Regardless of them, I was delighted by the simplicity of the stage set.  I was a little further bummed that even when the drunkards left I was still behind a very tall, unmoving fellow, so I never got to see the whole stage as a single entity, but I could see everything just fine in pieces.

The stage was spare with a giant circle of light (a moon, I assume) in the backdrop and two bird sculptures in front of it.  On a raised platform in the back was Saray and Corson (with his massive amount of hair) was up front on the far side.

Niege stood in front of me, stage right, with Winterhalter behind him (with cool orange see thru drums).  Niege was so calm as he sang the songs, often looking out at us and nodding or smiling to people.  Every now and then he would step away from the mic and walk to center stage, while playing and nodding to people.  A guy to my left seemed to be in rapturous joy during most of the songs, which was fascinating.

So Alcest plays a kind of heavy metal shoegaze.  Waves and waves of guitars with vocals that are sung in French, but are quiet enough in the mix (from where I was) that they might as well be simply ahh’s.  Corson’s backing vocals were, I think, just ooh and ahhs.  Occasionally, Niege’s vocals would get dark and kind of growly, but more of a low scream rather than a growl–certainly the most palatable scream I’ve encountered.

Most of the songs are 6 minutes or more and swirl and soar.  All of  the songs have lyrics, but not all that many.  Occasionally the drums would get really intense (some serious double bass drum action) but the songs never really got very fast (and no one slam danced).

They played the first three songs from the new album in order.   About six minutes into the second song L’Envol (so almost 15 minutes into the show), Niege screamed for the first time–it wasn’t guttural, but it was intense.  Especially when a few moments later he returned to the delicate ahhhs that made up the beginning and end of the song.

The songs don’t really have solos per se, but there are lots of melody lines that fit nicely.

After nine songs he told us the next one would be the last one.  I don’t know if there are favored older tracks that people were excited to hear, but everyone seemed pretty psyched for the older songs.  Especially the title track from the first album.  I thought they were all quite good.

I was rather embarrassed for the Philly audience that they could have actually been shouting Encore! to a French band, but instead, we had the standard chants of one more song.  Which is all the more weird when they play two.

For the encore, they played two songs.  The first was from 2012 and the second was the final track off the new album, the perfectly named L’Adieu.  As the song ended, and began to fade, like with Mono, first the drummer waved and left.  Then the bassist left.  Soon the second guitarist followed and then it was just Niege singing along to a looped ending of the song.  He sang a few times through and then stop, allowing the lovely guitar melody to keep looping as he left the stage.

Despite the rocky start, the show ended wonderfully.  If only karma worked that quickly for all people.  I can;t think of a few people in power who need a good kick in the ass from karma.

1. Komorebi ¢
2. L’Envol ¢
3. Améthyste ¢
4. Protection $
5. Sapphire $
6. Écailles de lune – Part 2 €
7. Flamme jumelle ¢
8. Le miroir $
9. Souvenirs d’un autre monde §
10. Oiseaux de proie Δ
    encore
11. Autre temps ∀
12. L’Adieu ¢

 

¢ Les Chants de l’aurore (2024)
$ Spiritual Instinct  (2019)
€ Écailles de lune (2010)
Δ Kodama (2016)
∀ Les Voyages de l’âme (2012)
§ Souvenirs d’un autre monde (2007)