The Parisian festival may have firmly reconnected with its musical DNA, Rock en Seine 2022 has nevertheless left a door open to all the distant cousins of the genre. Behind the colossi Arctic Monkeys, Nick Cave, or Tame Impala, the Domaine Saint-Cloud has also welcomed many other genres and types of artists. So, por the 150,000 morose festival-goers, or latecomers full of curiosity, France.tv / Culturebox offers you around twenty replays of concerts (at this address). And for the most impatient, Franceinfo offers you its selection of performances to discover and rediscover.
Los Bitchos Energy
“Hello bitches!” The four fringes of the four young rockers invade the small stage of the Bosquet. The fiery and (almost) entirely instrumental interlude of the second day of Rock en Seine is launched. Six months after the release of their first album Let the Festivities Begin!the female quartet (plus a second guitarist for the occasion) takes festival-goers into their suitcase for an hour-long sunny cruise.
Electrified Cumbia, psychedelic rock, surf-pop with beach-boyish accents… All without losing a drop of chemistry between the Australian guitar of Serra Petale, the Uruguayan keyboard of Augustina Ruiz, the Swedish bass of Josefine Jonnson, and the drums British by Nic Crawshaw. A multicultural, multi-instrumental and fundamentally generous excursion.
The Squid Experience
It all starts with a prank. “Hello, we are Kraftwerk.” Deaf trumpet, wave of hovering synth, drums and whimsical guitars… Squid, the young quintet from Brighton, could almost sow doubt with the pioneers of electronic music on the stage a few hundred meters away. But hunt rock or punk and they come back at full gallop.
The rhythms are capricious. The atmospheres switch from post-punk to progressive rock. But with each stretched piece, its rise in power. Thanks to the musicians who do not refuse any experimentation. And thanks to the sassy, swinging vocal effects of drummer-vocalist, Ollie Judge. More than a year after its release, no doubt: their first album Bright Green Field turns into an explosive cocktail on stage.
Lewis OfMan’s Funk Breeze
On the 3rd day of Rock en Seine, temperature and fatigue rose dangerously. But a breath of fresh air is about to reinvigorate festival-goers. His name: Lewis OfMan (Lewis Delhomme in his Parisian life). The multi-instrumentalist electro producer has already worked with Ichon, Friday sur Mer, The Pirouettes… But this August 27, on the waterfall stage, the synth prodigy officiates alone.
White suit, black tie, surrounded by his three keyboards, the young man releases a funky energy, full of light. To each note, a micro-hesitation. As if the search for perfect harmony was perpetual. Because like his tube Attitudeall his “sonic poems” (from the name of his first album Sonic Poems released at the beginning of the year) are demanding. And that’s surely what makes their joy so communicative.
Channel Tres Groove
After the G-Funk of Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre during the 90s, the American West Coast offered a new musical groove in the figure of Channel Tres (aka Sheldon Young). And he made the whole audience on the Bosquet stage convulse. No need for words, the imposing choreographies of the four mirror cabinets in white tank tops around him are enough.
Draped in black, the rapper from Compton (birthplace of Kendrick Lamar and NWA) shakes up festival-goers with his house-sweating instrumental layers, as well as his range varying between high-pitched melodies and low-pitched rap. With such a master of ceremonies, communion is assured. Especially when Channel Tres closes the show with a quasi-club version of its classic Topdown.