It was in the beautiful theatre of La Cigale that Sierra Veins came to promote her new album, In the Name of Blood (review), with Le Périscope choosing to organise this new Paris concert there after the packed Trabendo show a year and a half ago (remember?). The opening act was Ghost Dance: after having the honour of being the only guest on Sierra Veins' latest album, he is once again her guest, this time sharing the bill. It's worth noting that Sierra Veins, unlike other artists she could be associated with (Carpenter Brut, Perturbator, etc.), continues to have artists from the electronic scene as her opening act, a strategy that perhaps allows her to continue to exist on several scenes (gothic, metal, techno, etc.) and reach a varied audience, avoiding being pigeonholed.
GHOST DANCE
Ghost Dance has little space: a thick curtain conceals most of the stage. Fortunately, he doesn't need much. We're not going to lie to you and pretend to be super familiar with his work: quickly browsing through his discography before the concert, we come across a variety of things, quite a few collaborations... In short, we're not quite sure what to expect.
The good news comes quickly: first of all, Ghost Dance has taken care of the visuals: aggressive rays of light pierce the darkness and the red curtain adds a welcome touch of gothic fantasy. Then, well, we get our asses kicked. There's no polite way to put it: the sound is ultra heavy and immediately engaging, grabbing us and dragging us by force into a storm of boom-boom. Between rave fervour and the heaviness of bass music, Ghost Dance doesn't hold back. More than dancing like spectres, his music makes you want to mosh among the graves like hungry zombies. Remove the ‘g’ from ‘graveyard’ and you'll get an idea of the atmosphere.
So we won't hide the fact that after forty minutes, we would have liked the more atmospheric melodies and touches to have had time to immerse us a little more in this universe, to add a little breathing space to this very rhythmic approach, a little more soul to these muscles and this skeleton! But we also understand the artist's approach: he's opening the evening, you have to hit hard to be heard, there's a crowd that needs warming up, so Ghost Dance gives it everything he's got to make an impression on both our eardrums and our retinas. In that respect, mission accomplished, and we come away wanting to discover more of the artist's work, because we can sense that there are layers of depth behind the power of the assault.
SIERRA VEINS
The curtain of La Cigale finally vanishes, revealing the illuminated structure overlooking the stage as the concert begins like the album In the Name of Blood: with its title track, full of contained tension, while the room is bathed in green light. There is something that gives the impression of an explosion in slow motion: the tempo is slow, it's heavy, but there is already this boiling thing that quivers, this palpable nervousness. The information piles up: the stage design is magnificent, but we are immediately struck by the presence of Annelise Morel. Little by little, we have seen Sierra Veins grow and evolve, becoming more and more assertive. Gone are the slightly timid speeches that still gave the impression that the artist was braving the crowd: this time, she takes over the space and her audience, fully embracing her role as frontwoman. Sierra Veins asserts herself with a demanding rage that can be found as much in the music as in her stage presence, which is closer to the audience.
And then, as mentioned, there is this incredible structure above her. Two things have always set Sierra Veins' concerts apart: the intensity she puts into them, striving to physically embody her electronic music, but also the always meticulous lighting effects. This tour marks a turning point: the lighting is the work of Maxime Rocher (Enjoy Lights), assisted tonight by Loïc Senée (LS Light Design, whose incredible work with Shaârghot, for example, is already well known). The setup is intriguing: it's as much like a fairy-tale princess's bed, as it is like the disturbing machines of a mad scientist, something both dreamlike and cyberpunk, at the centre of which we find the musician in a role somewhere between Doctor Frankenstein and his creature. Then, when the colours turn red, it becomes clear: it all forms a blood network, with different veins feeding a pulsating heart. It's classy, elegant, evocative and spectacular.
So there's Maxime Rocher's show, the setting of La Cigale, but above all, the focus of attention is on Sierra Veins' music and energy. The new tracks rock, as do the old ones. We are delighted to hear Gone and its abyssal bass lines, the frenzy of Unbroken, the creeping rebellion of the anthem Never Right and the irresistible groove of Power. Alongside these classics, the more recent tracks add extra impact, particularly on an emotional level. The hypnotic Desire, the melancholy that turns into the epic adventure of The One... but above all, we love the tracks in which we feel most strongly that visceral cry, that rage to live. Ain't No Woman and, towards the end of the concert, Who I Used to Be, combine inspired production with a raw soul whose cries haunt the synthesizers. Following Sierra Veins over time gives the touching impression of seeing her, through her art, finding herself as a person and becoming this irresistible, unifying monster, an emancipated creature of her own making.
It's hard to leave with any regrets, except perhaps that we would have liked always more and more and thus, perhaps, more time for her more atmospheric instrumental tracks? Live, Sierra Veins is already iconic. There, alone on such a large stage, torn between her machines or boldly brandishing her baton in the air in a rallying gesture, she takes ownership of the space, giving her all in a genre where live spontaneity is not easy to achieve. Generosity, power, instantly catchy tracks full of depth and crazy visuals: Sierra Veins is a UFO, something apart in the small world of darksynth / EBSM / dark electro music, capable of carrying a venue like La Cigale on her shoulders with her unique sensitivity but also her talent for kicking our asses.
