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| Jean-Michel Jarre @ the City National Civic (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Although not a household name here in the US,
Jean-Michel Jarre is a legendary French EDM pioneer since before the term EDM was even conceived! He last made an appearance in the Bay Area nearly a year ago at the Greek in Berkeley — after a
very long US hiatus — and just two nights prior to this weekend’s San Jose show at the
City National Civic, Jean-Michel Jarre was headlining the Outdoor Theater stage at
Coachella's opening weekend! He’ll head back for the closing weekend of this years’ festival for another headlining slot this Friday night, and in the meantime, he’s hitting a few more west coast cities before heading back to Europe. We had a chance to speak with JMJ last year before his Berkeley show, and you can find that interview
here.
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| Jean-Michel Jarre @ the City National Civic (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
But in terms of his show last night at the City National Civic, the event was a full-on aural and visual assault. And while I attempted to take it all in, I thought back through the various shows I’ve seen through the years and can honestly say that there are very few performances I can remember that featured anywhere near the technical aptitude and complexity that JMJ’s stage show incorporated. The only thing missing was a specialized audio mix to complement the outstanding visuals that JMJ and his team have pulled together for this mini-tour.
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| Jean-Michel Jarre @ the City National Civic (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
JMJ’s opening song set the tone for the rest of the evening — his show opened with a brilliant display of blue and white colors dancing and shifting like a kaleidoscope on a massive curtain of LEDs that slowly opened to find Jean-Michel Jarre himself mounted at center stage behind an altar of futuristic electronics, vintage keyboards and synths. On either side, he had two additional musicians backing him on percussion and additional keyboards, and the trio set-off to take the audience on a journey they wouldn’t soon forget!
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| Jean-Michel Jarre @ the City National Civic (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
The visual component was made up of hanging LED curtains, additional LED screens behind the performers, traditional spotlights arranged above and along the front of the stage, and an incredibly impressive laser system that nearly blanketed the auditorium in a rainbow of laser light never before seen. Each song would rely mainly on one of those four visual elements, but there were a few that incorporated nearly all of them for dramatic effect. We were joined by Edward Snowden who contributed a video message during “Exit”, the song from JMJ’s 2016 Electronica 2: The Heart of Noise
(iTunes) album, and JMJ’s bandmates took over vocal duties for the Pet Shop Boys on “Brick England”, but besides those two songs, the rest of the night was an instrumental feast for the eyes and ears.
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| Jean-Michel Jarre @ the City National Civic (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Jarre closed the evening with “Rendez-Vous 4” and gave a short speech about one of his earlier performances in the US that celebrated the 25th anniversary of NASA and memorialized the fateful Challenger Space Shuttle disaster in 1986. The '86 concert in Houston broke the Guinness world records for largest concert attendance at that time with over a million and a half people in attendance -- so this evening’s 2580-capacity was minuscule compared to that event and the 150,000 or so people attending Coachella this week!
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| Jean-Michel Jarre @ the City National Civic (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
And even though the evening was an absolute spectacle, the strangest aspect of the night was that the concert sold reserved seating for the show — there wasn’t standing room available anywhere! So audience members — albeit, mainly an older demographic — seemed inclined to stay seated for what realistically should have been held at a dance club or hall. After some encouragement from JMJ, the audience would try to find their way to their feet, but the dancing only continued from a few die-hard JMJ fans along the periphery of the venue, while most people decided to sit back and absorb the show sitting down. Either way, standing or sitting, this was just a sensory overload!
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