THE LAST INTERNATIONALE LIVE AT LE TRABENDO, PARIS
Stopping off at Le Trabendo in Paris for a headline show proved to be something of an event for The Last Internationale.
We got there early, just in time in fact to catch opener Carissa Johnson who was apparently playing for the first time with this particular line-up, not that we’d have known. It was in fact during our journey to the gig when it occurred to us that we had of course heard of Carissa before, given that she is one of the artists to feature on the excellent new Tarah Who?, album, “The Collaboration Project“.
Invited personally by The Last International to fly in from NYC for this show, the Carissa Johnson band definitely looked to be in their element on this Trabendo stage: drummer Ryan John, guitarist Tanya Venom (who looks like she was born to rock-out on stage) and Carissa herself gave the crowd half an hour of their melodic pop-rock to a more than favourable response from the crowd. Giving this kind of performance in front of a packed Trabendo is going to do Carissa absolutely no harm at all, and
she can, along with her band, be incredibly proud of the deserved response. Hopefully this will motivate and elevate them to further successes. Full gallery of images can be found here!
A brief pause and then it was time to have our faces melted off, in the best way imaginable, by a full, thirty-minute blast of Hell Yeah! energy from the incredible Taipei Houston. Playing a set generously shortened in order to give show opener Carissa Johnson equal amount of stage time, Taipei Houston concentrated on giving us an intense introduction to their sound. We’re keeping it brief here as we’re giving them their own write-up, but for now let’s just say that we’ll definitely be catching up with them again as soon as they are back in town.
The very opening of the first French date on this The Last Internationale tour (Lyon and Toulouse coming later) had one of those moments that illustrates TLI as the no-bullshit band that they are. After the customary broadcast of Gil Scott-Heron’s The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, the band appeared on stage, ready to kick things off, at which point guitarist Edgey Piers stamped on one of his many pedals and realised that it wasn’t working, then simply turned around, shouted Wharrevah and then blam! the band blasted of with Killing Fields from their 2014 debut, We Will Reign.
This is what we were all here for : The Last Internationale leaving nothing on the table, not a shred of energy is wasted, not a moment of showing their commitment to their fans is squandered. Indeed, it is quite hard to believe that you are watching a band who are on tour, doing this every night, and not simply putting on a single show that they have spent weeks preparing and saving their energy for.
We already knew the singer Delila Paz had been feeling pretty sick these last days, the show from three days before in Prague was cancelled for that very reason, and so we were prepared to see something that was perhaps a little toned-down tonight … but of course we saw nothing of the sort.
Killing Fields was followed by upbeat, crowd-rousing TLI classics, Life, Liberty And The Pursuit Of Indian Blood, Mind Ain’t Free and Fire before we finally heard the first track of the night from new album Running For a Dream, the band giving us a taste of album almost-opener 1984, an absolute stormer of a song which comes right at you with Rage Against The Machine levels of attack.
Out on tour with TLI this time around are the accomplished Andreas Brobjer from Sweden on drums and the versatile Filipe Neves from Portugal on bass, a rhythm section so absolutely rock-solid that guitairt Edgey Pires can relentlessly tear melody, rhythm and solos from his guitars while leading the crowd in regular bouts of air punching with no fear of the songs collapsing beneath his spontaneity. Delila Paz ... well, she has it all, the breadth of her vocal range and style is astonishing, and it would not be hyperbole to suggest that during
the performance you can close your eyes and imagine the feelings one would have had while witnessing Janis Joplin or even Aretha Franklin at their peak. As an aside, although it is a key part of their performance, Delila’s seemingly genuine kindness to her audience is something rarely seen, something at times incredibly touching.
Another highlight of the show tonight was the reuniting of Edgey and Delila on a Parisian stage with Laura Cox, a nice touch after the TLI duo joined Laura onstage for a rendition of Soul On Fire during her album release party at La Cigale last month. Laura joined the band in their first live performance of Edith Groove, the last song of the new album. Watching her trade verses with Delila and then trade solo licks with Edgey was impressive enough in itself – it was literally a privilege to see so much talent on one stage, and the moment brought a real shine to the whole night, just as it has when the three of them played together at Laura’s show.
Back on stage for one encore, the K-RPM favorite, Hit ’em With Your Blues, now joined onstage by as many of the crowd as they could invite up there with them, The Last Internationale made their final statement of the night, the Trabendo crowd left wanting for nothing.
