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April 03, 2005
Calogero at the Summum
As I mentioned in passing yesterday, I took Nathalie to a concert in Grenoble last night. The singer, Calogero, is from around here, and has become a mainstream pop star and songwriter in France over the last couple of years. His songs are fine and he has a nice voice, which he managed to maintain throughout the night as the band played louder and louder to drown out all his local fans singing along with him at the top of their lungs. He and his band did two encores.
We were on the standing on the floor with almost everyone else. This was a shame, because guys like me (189 cm) could easily see everything but the band's shoes. All the women who turned up, sang along, danced, and generally seemed much more enthusiastic about Calogero's crooning good looks had to stare at the backs of other people's heads a lot of the time. After the show Nathalie told me the woman standing next to her had dragged her husband there, so he was standing by with his hands in his pockets. She was singing loudly and clearly, dancing along with the music.
The mix was okay, but suffered from a bit too much bottom end. The focus of the show is Calogero's voice. He sings a lot between the upper range of his normal singing voice and the point where he goes falsetto, doing the transitions well, but not as well as in the studio. He plays mostly relatively simple bass lines, and that and the drums were mixed up front. Both his guitarists -- one of whom looks like he's sharing clothes and disdain for facial creams with Keith Richards -- were mostly drowned out, as was his keyboard player. By the end of the concert, that was getting to be a shame, since I'm sure those guys could've done some more interesting stuff than what they were paid for.
The opening act, a guy named Matthieu Something-or-other and his band, was a little embarrassing. It sounded like they didn't get any tech support. The guitarist was way to high in the mix, and Matthieu's guitar was imperfectly tuned. The poor guy had a nice voice, managing to sing in tune with only his guitar even when his Am chords set your teeth on edge.
All things considered, Nathalie enjoyed it quite a bit. She craned her neck for so long she thought she was going to be sore this morning, but wasn't. The children were jealous and singing his songs to the babysitter last night and to us this morning.
Posted by Mark at April 3, 2005 10:24 AM
Comments
On dit "caloguéro" ou "calojero" ? Je suis parti depuis trop longtemps...
I tried to listen to his music from his website, but couldn't download the audio files. I did notice that he doesn't write his own lyrics. Nothing really wrong with that, I just really admire someone who can write and sing meaningful music.
If I ever refer to my job as a "keyboardist for Calogero," I'll give you credit for coining the term. Although maybe "keyboardist for Polnareff" would be more correct, given their respective places in their careers.
Very complete factual report, but you forgot to say if _you_ enjoyed it.
Posted by: Andy at April 5, 2005 01:46 AM