Francos of Montreal | Mutual passion between Cabrel and Montreal

Francis Cabrel and his Quebec audience, it’s a love story that has lasted for a long time. A story that the French singer-songwriter ensures to continue to write with gentleness and generosity, as he did Friday evening by bringing his show of more than two hours to the Francos.

The Wilfrid-Pelletier room at Place des Arts was sold out. When Cabrel is in Montreal, his admirers respond.

A few minutes after 8 p.m., Francis Cabrel arrived on the large stage, alone. First ovation of the evening, even before the first words spoken or the first notes played. He started on guitar with… Friendship, by Françoise Hardy. “Many of my friends have come from the clouds…”

Cabrel was accompanied on Friday by his exceptional multi-instrumentalist musicians: a guitarist and violinist, an accordionist and pianist, a double bassist and bassist, a drummer and percussionist. A group full of talent who knew how to do justice to the successes of Francis Cabrel, but also often give them a new life, more catchy, touching and still lively.

However, the performance began on Friday in an intimate way, Cabrel alone with his guitar (which he never left) facing the room. He first played Almost nothing Then The girl who accompanies mea 1983 success, a classic love song as Cabrel knows how to write them, which still resonates very strongly more than 40 years later in the hearts of spectators.

Already, from the reaction of the crowd, it was obvious that a magical moment had just begun, the kind that takes decades to create and then maintain.

The one who began his career in the 1970s has a lot to offer when it comes to magic. If he is not the most talkative, he has several times thanked Montrealers for their loyalty. He also knew how to often make the audience laugh and entertain them with his interventions as well as with his music. The modest singer-songwriter let the music fill the evening, allowing certain songs to soar in instrumental moments of great beauty, carried by sublime arrangements.

The Occitan singer-songwriter continued with a version of The ink of your eyes magnified by a second guitar and an accordion. What more could you ask for to perpetuate the delightful moment that had just begun? The singer’s dashing voice has the same tone as always, we find memories there.

The next one, Ode to courtly love, one of the most recent signed by the Frenchman, has reaffirmed the talent he has with words. “Eight centuries ago, a poetic movement was born in the southwest of France, that of the troubadours. » Although he sang less this time, the audience listened attentively.

Some pieces he sang were taken from the disc As dawn returns, published in 2020. Francis Cabrel, on this 14^e album that he presents these days with the tour Trobadorpositions himself, precisely, as an heir of the troubadours, to whom he pays homage in songs. Rockstar of the Middle Ages Or Look like you (which he wrote for his father after having put off the subject for a long time, he explained), which he performed on Friday, are an evolution of Cabrel’s repertoire where we still find the American rock side that he loves the lulling delicacy of his most beautiful ballads.

A packed audience

But the vast majority of pieces in the show on Friday were from his older repertoire, the one that fans know by heart. Generous, presenting a show of around twenty songs, Francis Cabrel offered the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier most of his great hits. With Sitting on the edge of the world (1994), The dress and the ladder (2008), Men like this (2008), The absent people (2004), October (1994), the singer-songwriter has rocked his audience over four decades of beauty.

And then there are those songs which inevitably trigger “Ohs” and “Ahs” of contentment, or applause reflecting enthusiasm, as soon as the first notes of their melodies are sung. Cabrel has his pockets full of these melodies and these words having the power to touch an entire room in a few seconds. He sprinkled them throughout the show, each time delighting the spectators who sang along.

First there was The ink of your eyes – “Ahhh!” » – at the start of the show, then Blowpipe – “Ohhh! » – shortly after. Followed I loved you, i love you, I’ll love you – applause! –, Rosie – new ovation –, I love him to death, Again and again… Montrealers, in fact, still wanted more when the show ended just after on Bullfighting.

First letting himself be a little desired before going back on stage (time for a change of shirt!), Francis Cabrel then offered a superb refined version of his Little Marie (alone on the accordion, imagine all the “Ah”s uttered in chorus), Saturday evening on Earth, The lady from Haute-Savoiebefore a second encore, just as felt, which led to the real finale, the sweet and touching It is written. The nearly 3,000 spectators in the Wilfrid-Pelletier hall rose again for an ovation, the kind we offer in exchange for a show that delighted us.

Love stories like the one between Cabrel and Montreal are magnificent. At 70 years old, the modern-day troubadour still seems to have (and still has), we hope, many things to share with his Quebec audience.

Francis Cabrel will also be in concert in Trois-Rivières this Saturday, June 15 and in Quebec on Sunday, June 16.