Sunday Sept 20
Alec Redfearn and The Eyesores : Well, I’m not a fan of the accordion (this is Aranis’ major flaw to my ears and Lars Hollmer), and here, we got an earful despite plenty of pedal affects. An acoustic line-up (if you except that he piano was played on a synth), I’ll say that the band is not well-named as the two women in the band (pianist and French horn players) are rather pretty. To be honest, I was still under the AZ effect, so I kind of missed many of the band’s subtleties, and I’ll mostly keep a folk ambiance from the group.
Happy Family : the Japanese band was one of the reasons was I considered coming down, but were not enough an attraction by themselves, until AZ ‘s 44 ½ deal. Yes, the quartet that released the near mythical Tossco album was back, with three of four original members still there, so that had quite a drawing power for me. Well, I would’ve been solidly disgusted driving 2000 kms just to see them, because I didn’t enjoy them at all. Apparently they asked to play the smaller hall, but this didn’t help either (for the reasons stated above). I don’t know if this is a Japanese trait, but I’ve yet to see a modern Japanese prog with any stage presence (Koenji and Ruins don’t convince me either), but these guys were cold and listless, despite a certain energy. If you thought their debut album was cold, but Tossco was good (or excellent), their third album (released this year) is again cold-sounding, just like their stageshow was, despite some attempt at humour. I left halfway through, because I didn’t want to break into a sweat and I was bored.
Secret Chiefs 3: To be honest, after four concerts in a row I didn’t like much, I was starting to be irritated and considering leaving to enjoy the beautiful weather and Cathar countryside. Actually, I did want to check it out, though I knew next to nothing about the band and its outer/external complexities or its link with Mr. Bungle, FTM. All I’d heard (one or two studio album) did leave me much of an impression, because it was heading in all directions and seemed rather unfocused. But on stage, this band comes alive, and produced the most positive energy of the 11 bands of the festival with UKD. While their 1.5 hour set was about some 20 to 25 mins too long (too much of the sale sonic bombardment), I was definitely reconciled with RIO 2015, and again Michel Besset did a great job of bringing them over
The Really Big Experimental Toubifri Orchestra: OK, no-one knew anything from this band, and rumours abounded that there were even kids in the band (which given their closing spot on a Sunday evening seemed to be doubtful). While I was ready to pack it in early (my GF was waiting for me at the gîtes), I decided to give them a shot… and was I ever right to do so. What a total blast these guys were: 17 member big band with stage costumes (including a monk seemingly straight out of SC3), loads of poetics to boot, funny circus acts and much humour. The musicians interacted twice with the public in what seemed like a film-maker Claude Lellouche choreography and ambiance, even standing/frozen still for what appeared like a minute or two. Musically, while the big band format was very jazzy, if was mostly wild and steaming JR/F with some calmer moments, while the wind instruments solos were often free, but the “experimental” part of their name was not in the music . On the whole, their splendid performance was the second real emotional highlight/apex of the Festival, even approaching Art Zoyd’s emotions, albeit in a very different manner (sine chills for AZ, tears of joy for Toubifri >> read "to be free"). I guess this total surprise definitely changed my RIO 2015 rating from “good”, to “one of the best ever”. Funny thing is that this magical show ending the RIO Fest so wonderfully well was sort of an accident. As soon as I was out of the hall, the first person I encountered was Michel, and he was really surprised that I kissed him thank you for such a wonderful choice… The mood was so sweet out of that concert and the funny interview that I stayed longest of the three days (actually I cut it short only on Saturday) drinking with the hold-overs until the bar closed, which included a fair bunch of executants/organizers, artistes and photographers.
Overall, this 2015 edition is one of the very best ever (as said before, I missed three of them), and if the inner grounds don’t change much, the outer layout was vastly improved: the Moroccan-styled tent is a very good idea (too bad they only proposed coffee and not Moroccan mint tea) and the choice of screening inside it was excellent. This included a different version (and more energy-laden) of Soft Machine’s 7 line-up than the NDR-Bremen broadcast available from Cuneiform – I was told it was Hamburg performance. One of the food stand actually proposed an extra meal every day (the Aligot+Sausage, or the surprising Chili Con Carne), which means the variety was available for the roughly five meals eaten on-site over the three days.
Weather-wise, if Friday was still feeling the effects of the torrential rains of previous days (there had been major floodings some 150 kms south, and the A75 highway seriously damaged), Saturday was totally dry and majorly sunny, Sunday was full-out sun. All three nights were clear and cool (you could see the Milky Way galaxy cloud in the dark of the parking lot). Most of the RIO I attended were not nearly as dry as this one – one is never sure to get good weather in those parts of France in the second part of September – so even that part turned out better than I’d first feared.
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