Rock En Seine 2012
Post-Scriptum : “”When is your first official post-vacation tanning session?””.
In the forest of Saint-Cloud, the diaphanous skins from across the Channel depigment the compact mass of tanned Parisians. The same ones who, a few days earlier, were winning their chromatic stripes under the northern heat wave. The rate of English is beyond comprehension. Looks like it’s the holidays up there, too.
Rock en Seine has sounded the death knell of idleness and summer torpor. With all the more implacability that the festival hoboaldien celebrated this weekend its tenth edition. Tomahawk blow in the hammock: we trade our mojitos for recyclable pints, and the Eagles come to supplant our enviable sarraiziennes (mine, at least). For Saywho, the event was above all a social pre-recruitment: among the 110,000 or so folks on the go, a pleiad of VIPs and artists had come together for a backstage vacation. Post-Calvi reunions with Citizens, Para-One, C2C, The Shoes, Bromance, and the busy Modzik magazine team. Summer journalistic camp, too, with the most established music lovers of the Parisian press. Kisses lippues, and village discussions: Ardèche vs Ibiza, lovers, good resolutions untenable… We show off a little by talking “back to basics”.
As for guitars, as every year, the lives hide their share of disappointments, but also a multitude of happy surprises. A salmigondis of rock, pop, electro and folk. Labelled “indie” or not. While The Black Keys is boring – as in 2011 with Arctic Monkeys’ moribund performance, Hyphen Hyphen and The Bewitched Hands magnetize the Industry scene. TB mention for Temper Trap, the cosmic Asteroids Galaxy Tour, Sigur Ros, Little Dragon, and Passion Pit. On the looong path linking the Village to the four stages, the offer is plethoric: Fleury Michon (mini) big wheel to take everything from high, and the gems of portable animation, type “Just Dance 2012”. Many are those who, in a moment of error, let themselves fall into the limbo of regression. So here it is, it’s confirmed: the school year has started… with a nice happy birthday! B.B.
