Thank You For Clapping. 16HP at Le Plan, Ris-Orangis (FR) 21 July 2000

Thank You For Clapping

Le Plan, Ris-Orangis (FR), 21 July 2000

Opening acts:
Arrived at 8:30 PM (the show was supposed to start at that time), doors open at 8:45 only. Saw Jean-Yves Tola eating with a friend in a restaurant close to the venue. The merchandise stand seems quite empty inside, no Hoarse CD's, no Clogger singles, I check out why: the 3,000 Hoarse CD's have all been sold. Good news! But no new stock before November. However, the correct tracklisting will be on the new CD's. Some T-Shirts are also out of stock (Secret South, the tour). They'll get the new stock when they play in London soon. Prices are lower than before : CDs : 100 FF instead of 120 in May ; T-Shirts : 80 FF instead of 100. The venue is quite small, I would say 400 people, It might be sold out as I don't see no one selling tickets at the entrance. :-)

9 PM Time for the first band (forgot the name) to come on stage. Heavy rock, very bad sound, I worry about the sound we'll get for 16HP. Moreover they play very bad, a shame... :-( Fortunately it lasted only 30 minutes.

While the roadies switch the instruments for the next band, D.E.E. walks around in the venue. I say a quick hello as many people come to talk to him. Mr. Jack (from Rouen, France) come on stage. Still heavy rock, but it sounds much better! Good news... Nice music to hear moreover (nice voice, good performance), makes me think of the Deftones. I convert someone who came for Mr. Jack into a 16hp fan (I can tell you he loved the show !) :-)

Time for some 16hp! 10:30 PM. I see the setlist right before the show: the same as in Denver a fews days ago, that is:

Splinters
Praying Arm Lane
Strong Man
Wayfaring Stranger
Harm's Way
American Wheeze
Burning Bush
Poor Mouth
StrawFoot
Clogger
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Silver Saddle
Flowers In My Heart
Cinder Alley
Low Estate
Black Soul Choir
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For Heaven's Sake

I'm very close to the stage, just in front of Steve Taylor and D.E.E., as I want to hear Steve's guitar (which I didn't in Paris in May). Elin Palmer didn't play tonight, anyway she wouldn't have had enough room on this small stage. :-)

As 16hp opens the show with Splinters, I can feel that the show will be a great one, and the sound is now just great! :-) Only one short uncontroled soundeffect in the whole show, and all instruments can be heard on every song! The crowd appears to be great too, which is so rare. Not a noise during the songs, everybody listens carefully to the music from the first to the last note of each song, and clap loudly between the songs. The band seems to enjoy this, and I do too! :-)))

The show is still too short (85 minutes), but very intense. However, the songs are exactly the same as in Paris 2 months ago (in a different order), but they're not played the same way and a lot of things are to be noticed. I feared to see exactly the same show, and I really saw something different!

Some small details:
D.E.E. didn't fall from his chair! :-) Not even close, that's unusual! But he had these eyes... Especially on Low Estate, I really thought he was going to collapse or something... He could kill someone looking at people like that! :-)

Just after Strawfoot, someone screams "ca va trop vite (it's going too fast)". Nobody understands why he says that, but hey, with Clogger coming up right now you won't be deceived, buddy!

D.E.E. still fakes handshakes at the end, and says something like "thank you for watching us play..." and a lot of things but he's too far from the microphone to be heard. He didn't say " Thank you for Clapping ". No, I was just kidding, hey, you wouldn't believe that, would you ? ! ? :-)

The Words:
D.E.E. changed a particularly high number of words during that show, here are some of the changes I could notice :
"Let's say goodbye as wa say hello, in a Biblical kind of way"
"Tonight I caught my breath, I lost my American Spirit"
"I guess you didn't hear me when I told you for the last time"
Clogger: many words have been changed (on the verse when there is "I don't think so, 'cause I've done the math"), can't remember what he said instead.
"I've got every reason to lie to you"

The Music:
Here also, I noticed many differences with earlier shows that I heard or album versions (without considering the changes a result of Elin's absence). A lot of subtilities appeared during the whole show, which was really nice.

Splinters: quite standard version.

Praying Arm Lane usual live version with an instrumental part at the end.

Strong man: same version as on the other shows of the tour.

Wayfaring Stranger has a great new finish played by Steve Taylor solo on electric guitar. It lasts at least 30 seconds, and it sounds very good. :-) Steve played very well during the whole show, it's nice to watch him play. Still on Wayfaring Stranger, the break that is on the Secret South version and that wasn't played live before is now played.

Harm's way is still very powerful, nice solo bandoneon intro by D.E.E.

American Wheeze : still that great guitar of Steve, a lot of great subtilities during the whole song.

The piano was very loud on Burning Bush, still it was great.

Poor Mouth: New intro, stronger, faster (really faster!), louder version than before. The finish is even more powerful that way, I got the chills as never before during that finish. That almost killed me, you'd better not have heart problems to hear that song!

Strawfoot: Elin's xylo isn't missed that much. Soft and perfect drumming by Jean-Yves (who made a really good performance) to compensate.

D.E.E. gets lost in a solo intro of Clogger, that was funny! Less Presence of Steve's guitar during that song.

Silver Saddle: tiny change in the piano riff in the middle of the song.

Flowers In My heart: strange without the violin (I would say it sounds less country music), but still a very nice song.

Cinder alley : new intro (of course!) and slightly different finish.

A change on Low Estate too: the bandoneon doesn't play exactly the same thing during the instrumental parts. I first thought it was a mistake as it sounds weird, but D.E.E. played the same thing 3 times.

Black Soul Choir: standard version with a little banjo intro added.

For Heaven's Sake: in the middle of the song, Pascal played a bass break that sounded very good. DEE holds his guitar down to create a special uncontrolled sound before starting his intro, which is just so great with that genius small left-hand slide after each G#.

The End

By Arnaud