JMJ

[Martin Naef]

Jean-Michel Jarre opened his Oxygene tour yesterday at the Royal Concert 
Hall in Glasgow - I was in the audience. At ?50, the concert wasn't 
exactly a bargain, so let's see what was in it.

JMJ always tries to be different. Unlike previous concerts and events, 
this tour isn't about the visuals or gigantic size, it's about the 
sound. The attraction of this tour is the fact that everything is played 
on traditional analog synthesizers - a clear attraction to us 
synth-heads (and quite a few others as well - the venue was full).

So how was it? The sound was great - those analog beauties played 
through a big PA in a hall with decent acoustics are impressive. Full 
stop. Will I go out on e-bay now and try to acquire some? No - the show 
also quite obviously highlighted the problems of the dinosaurs: More 
than once, some sounds were out of tune - sometimes that was just ok, 
but in other occasions it was the lead sound going into totally 
different directions than the rest: Painful. Levels were a bit 
unpredictable as well - the FOH guy was certainly kept busy... Also, 
sync is a problem, making some pieces fall apart quite a bit. Mind you, 
JMJ is a much better show-man than keyboard player, so that didn't help 
timing either - the backing guys were very good, though.

So if you go to the concert and expect a perfect performance, go 
somewhere else (or buy the CD). But if you're willing to accept a 
somewhat unpredictable concert, it's fascinating - I did have slightly 
wet eyes once because it sounded so great. After all, this is what a 
live performance is supposed to be: something different, not just a 
playback of a show. I'd certainly go again.

Bye
Martin

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