Eagles of Death Metal at the Olympia: “This is the first concert of the rest of my life” – The World

Le Monde | 02/17/2016 at 3:57 • Updated 02/17/2016 at 4:04 | By Laurent Carpentier

and if Josh Homme and Jesse Hughes, founding the Eagles of Death Metal were right and if the rock ‘n’roll could save us? The rock band stunner – lightness west Coast, punkoïde posture, heavy rhythmic and South – who played the Bataclan November 13 during deadly jihadist attack, had not ceased to repeat that he would finish the concert. The reopening of the hall is planned for December, they did not have the patience to wait and, Tuesday, February 16, completed the Olympia. All those who were there on Nov. 13 were invited. Just over half of the room has responded.

“ This is the first concert of the rest of my life ” Emilie whisper in her soft voice. They were three girlfriends at the Bataclan, they are all three here tonight … In the tail that stretches to pass through security checkpoints on the Boulevard des Capucines and the entrance of the room, crutches and wheelchairs recall at if one could forget the violence that was raging there.

Laurent Lafont Battesti should not have to be at the Bataclan. A friend had given him his place and advised to get to the balcony. “ When this started shooting, we first thought of a stage play or a fool playing with firecrackers. The smell of gunpowder, that’s what made us understand … “A line of people crawling between the seats to reach a window overlooking the rooftops … With this group he manages to hide in an apartment above the hall. Sauvé. “ I lived after the manner of pretty lonely. When I saw the announcement of the concert I did not hesitate. Not to go would have been like to miss an appointment. “

The eyes seek and flee

Stories like that of Lawrence there are as many as there were people in the room. Each is unique. Stories of fear, body dragging themselves to start. Impossible mourning, to tear one that left a friend behind, shouting for couple separated by bullets. The one that is, but that’s another falling at his side, thank you to the people who derive no thank you. On the red carpet at the Olympia, the eyes seek and flee full of these memories close by. Eighty-ten deaths, dozens of wounded, three months later, twelve are still in hospital.

Three months after the tragedy of the Bataclan, the Eagles of Death Metal occurred Paris on the stage of Olympia, for a concert placed under tight security.

JOEL SAGET / AFP

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There’s this family. They are five. Bataclan, they were able to go very fast, father, girls, this time the mother was not there. Today they crowd near the exit. “ This is the first question that people ask us: where are the escape routes ,” says a thirty psychiatrists and psychologists who have mobilized to support the public in Olympia. On the stairs, past the bar, J., headphones on ears, is immersed in a graphic novel Derf: Punk & amp; mobile homes. She is 26 years old. The last time on 13 November, she decided not to go to the concert. “ My lucky star? ” asks she sadly. Today, she bought a place not dare ask that to which she was entitled. “ I feel an intruder. Until the last moment, even on the boulevard there before, I hesitated to turn around. “

What a strange idea that this concert. Does not he come too soon? Does it risk being traumatogenic for people who have been taken hostage, as explained by the psychologist Helene Romano author Boris Cylrulnik of I am a victim ? “ When we fall from his horse, we must go back ” blew me Emilie disbelief … There before the concert, down beer, the public expects all, somewhere between promise of a high mass catharsis, the reconstruction of a crime scene and group therapy. The truth is that you will be entitled to a rock concert. Neither more nor less.

Eagles of Death Metal is a group that works with the raw energy, no pathos or meaning. Jesse Hughes is not its singer Charles de Gaulle speech issue. Apart “ motherfuckers, what do I love you ‘, it hardly increases the registers. Should we complain? That saves us the sadness of drippings that could sink the trio held tight against each other in a just human magma before me. The group has just prepared its input: a recording Dutronc singing “ It’s 5 am, Paris wakes up …” , a face to face accomplice when one feels the need for both the group and the public to absolve of guilt to be here and alive.

“naked! “

And that’s what those two-hour concert. A celebration of life. It smells firecracker, a girl shows her naked torso, a couple kiss greedily. In the attempted minute of silence that lasts 23 seconds, a man shouts: “ Naked! “eternal Breton released their flag incongruously, hipster fraternise with the alcoholic, Jack Lang is the balcony, crutches are to date. A rock concert. 100% pure rock. As a form of transcendence. And a live band that seems to have so much fun that the public who do not ask for much.

“ It’s not worse,” welcomes the psychiatrist Didier Cremniter the WAC, the Medico-psychological emergency center set to Necker, who came to lend a hand shrinks battalion. And the doctor to see: “ Although we do not see here the most outstanding people who preferred not to come, it is clear that there is the beginning of a restoration … “Some people come into the spaces arranged to share their anguish, and when the show comes to an end, a young woman with endless tears will eventually decide to unload his bag …

but already the hall stomps for reminders. Encouraged by Francophiles impulses of Jesse Hughes which wrapped earlier a red white blue knit scarf that anonymous hands tended him from the pit, and the tricolor guitar he has for his exit last song, the crowd demands La Marseillaise . It will Brown Sugar Rolling Stones. Who dreamed of “ first concert of the rest of his life ” is a much more rock’n’roll value. In the night, the boulevard where the crowd goes by, the profound words of Jesse Hughes sound like a mantra: “ bugger your mother, no one will stop me from continuing this thing .”