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Gruff Rhys returns to Paris to promote "Babelsberg", his fifth solo album. After the cozy set of Bill Ryder-Jones, alone on the electric guitar (the two friends share the poster on the European tour), a laughing and relaxed audience patient to the sound of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". In a version approaching 30 minutes, the final loop with chorus and white noise seems repeated to infinity. Even hardcore fans of the Beatles believe themselves trapped in a reality game, type "The Price of Danger".
Cut. The musicians before the entrance of Gruff Rhys who arrives with his guitar and placards with slogans poetic / political often hilarious.
What strikes immediately: the leader of the mythical Super Furry Animals has surrounded himself well. No solo set with acoustic guitar, bands and gadgets tonight, we are happy to see it again in the "augmented" formula. No strings either as on the record but a solid quartet, well sharpened thanks to twenty dates (USA then United-Disinhibited). And a real gallery of characters: besides the impressive Gruff, we find Kliph Scurlock on drums. In the Keith Moon / Muppets register, the former Flaming Lips drummer is having a blast for everyone's happiness. Stephen "Sweet Baboo" Black provides bass and beautiful vocal harmonies. And Osian Gwynedd, Klaus Kinski's double or Mani of the Stone Roses according to the lighting, is on keyboards. An American and three Welsh. In the audience, a Wales / Cymru hat goes from head to head, the camaraderie is at the rendezvous.
The concert begins and the group rolls the titles, beating. The setlist gives pride of place to "Babelsberg" which is played in full and in order.
Even without the string arrangements, the power of the compositions leaves you speechless. "Limited Edition Heart", melody of the year!
On "Colonize The Moon", a title of SFA, Sweet Baboo grabs a sax and connects quotes from "Baker Street" Gerry Rafferty. Gruff did he remind us in the introduction to the title: "Brexit is a bad sax solo"? We then walk in the repertoire of the Celtic shaman who draws in "Candylion", "American Interior" (very nice version of the eponymous single, he is joined by Bill Ryder-Jones), "Hotel Shampoo" (a wave of happiness brought us away on "Sensations In The Dark"). The usual Welsh titles are on the program, including the hilarious "Iolo". At the end of "Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru", a sonic orgy seems to propel us towards chaos. The concert ends, however, on the tasty ballad "If We Were Words, We Would Rhyme". The signs are scrolling: "Applause", "Louder", "Ape Shit". "Resist Phony Encores": there will be no reminder.
Gruff succeeds in the feat of passing in one second of the disarming smile of the wunderkind to the look possessed of an Assurancetourix under trip. Spiritual and charismatic on stage, he is more timid in interviews and seems to draw deep in him, facial language to support, to deliver a message that is sometimes complex or funny, always developed.
Listen again or discover the work of Gruff Rhys without delay, on record or on stage: this man is unique.
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