St. Germain: Best Concert Ever!

Last night, Annie and I and some friends from the radio station drove to Seattle to see a band we found out about by accident. St. Germain is an amazing French jazz/techno act. We had all listened to the CD which is amazing techno with jazz influences. But the concert was more like a jazz show. In an hour and a half, the band played maybe seven songs (and they played “Rose Rouge” twice), so the songs averaged about 10-15 minutes each. There were eight people on stage (even though I’ve found out now that St. Germain is actually just one guy). There was the DJ (St. Germain himself), a keyboardist, a drummer, a percussionist (bongos, mostly), an amazing reggae guitarist, a saxophone player and a trumpet player. They only spoke once to introduce themselves after the first encore. The rest of the show was just these guys playing as hard as they could. It was really really cool. Most modern pop/rock acts are just three or four guys, and they all kinda defer to the lead singer, who dominates the show. At this show, EVERYONE had at least one solo, they were all cheering each other on the whole time, and no one really dominated. It was absolutely incredible, and there was a great happy atmosphere in the crowd (no one tried to fight, and there wasn’t much shoving).

Some highlights of the show:

• During “So Flute,” the saxophonist plays the flute instead. He stands up and belts out this little flute riff which is really cool sounding… then pauses, and tries to play it again… his flute squeaks, and he looks at it like it’s broken… then he holds it up to the mic, and the DJ plays the flute part again, like the flute was playing by itself.
• The dualing-bangos-style song, where the keyboardist and the bongo player faced off… for five minutes.
• The COWBELL solo. No, I’m not kidding. And yes, it was totally cool.
• The fact that during the five minute drum solo, the rest of the band just stood and looked on admiringly while the drummer beat out an amazing set.

It’s hard to put it into words, but it was just an amazing show. I loved the fact that the concert was more jazzy than techno, and I loved the attitude of these guys, who were clearly just having a blast.