Bleu Jeans Bleu kicked off their new Top Minou Tour on Friday night at Club Soda. More united than ever, the group played in an explosive atmosphere and put smiles on everyone’s faces, from the very crowded floor to the back of the balcony.
Posted at 10:57 am
The last time Bleu Jeans Bleu played at Club Soda was in autumn 2019, in the middle of the Coton Ouaté wave. “Sometimes during the pandemic, we’ve wondered if one day we’d experience that again,” singer Claude Cobra said after the crowd chanted the group’s name mid-show. “It’s a yes. And it’s beautiful! »
We understand their relief, but Bleu Jeans Bleu have indeed picked up exactly where they left off three years ago: at the top. And they put on such a solid and delightful show, 90 minutes of shared pleasure, communion and little winks.
In this show, performed at full blast and with no dead time, there were pyrotechnic effects – two small Bengali lights hanging from a guitar neck – and stroboscopic effects, a real marriage proposal from a powerfully moving Thierry (she said yes), a brass ensemble, an exorcism from French fries, a distribution of flowers, a guitar solo that hits the floor with arms and cymbals raised, choruses sung at the top of your lungs, and of course, a giant inflatable pink dog — the one whose photo graces their new album — hangs over the stage.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
The evening kicked off with a bang with Bacon pot-bellied, perhaps one of the “heaviest” songs on Top Minou, her album released in November, followed by two more short stories, Molle Vanilla-Vanilla Twist and Pure Purity Pure Butter 100% Butter. The group then continued with two of the unlikely hits from their previous album Perfecto, Café corsé and I ate too many fries, thus oscillating between the old material welcomed in exaltation and the new recorded with almost as much heat would. We even heard the words of Coco de cuir sung by the audience, ultimate proof that the new songs will meet the same fate as the old ones: invade our heads. “That goes straight to the heart,” said Claude Cobra, touched.
We also wandered through musical genres, heavy metal, rock ‘n’ roll and quasi-grunge, lazy slows, funk and reggae, and we remembered that behind their good-natured demeanor lie four great musicians. Their instrumental medley of rock songs, in which they line up dozens of cult tracks for a few seconds at a time, is played so skillfully that the question doesn’t even arise.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
Claude Cobra, singer of Bleu Jeans Bleu
Backstage, Claude Cobra is more than a mass entertainer or a singer of funny songs rolling his R. With his undeniable charisma and unshakeable lightness, he is the real glue of the evening. His presentations are short and witty, his quick wit is amazing and his enthusiasm for attending is contagious. He also appears as a vocalist in this marathon of more than 20 songs performed pedal to floor.
With their instantly recognizable look, Bleu Jeans Bleu has managed to become part of the popular imagination in just a few short years. And after impressing us with expressions like J’te gâte all dressed or Le king de la danse en ligne, they are about to perform the same trick with songs like Swing dans piscine, best défouloir of the evening, and with sentences already integrated , like “The Mad Carpet Is Not For Wimps”, definitely a future classic.
Of course, everything ended happily with Coton Ouaté. At the end of the evening, with a smile on one’s face, it is clear that the phrase “Top Kitty” has also been adopted to describe a satisfying well-being. But it will never be as accurate as a review of a Bleu Jeans Bleu Show.