L'Olympia Bruno Coquatrix Paris 15th October 2022

 

The chatter on the web lately has been that Editors' show at the Olympia in Paris has been a high-water mark on the current EBM tour, with both band and audience in perfect synchronicity. Certainly there's a crowd volume here that suggests they are in attendance but also engaged. The show has been shared in full by a couple of people on YouTube who recorded the whole thing from where they were seated, and it won't take you long to find them if you go looking. I like to think that the Archive is all about supporting the closer community of fans that have gathered around this band, and as such what I'm sharing here are two audio recordings made on the night from sources that aren't as widely available. We have one that was shared by CrazyToaster, and another from one of "our people" who was there on the night, Sanne. Many thanks to both of you for your generous nature. 

As with other dates on this tour, this is all about enjoying the new music whilst at the same time appreciating the old. Especially with the novel ways they're now being expressed. I feel that songs like Frankenstein have been given more personality with Ben's input, but I also noticed something else. If you revisit No Harm on the In Dream album, you'll hear the descending keyboard arpeggio before anything else. The drums don't kick in for 14 seconds, and it remained that way when they played it live. What was strange about the 2016 campaign was that Ed didn't even appear on the stage until midway through the song, and even then it was to play keyboards. It's a trick that they'd been utilizing since the In This Light... shows when band members would often transfer between instruments. Check out this clip from Werchter 2016 to see what I mean.

In 2022, Ed is the first thing you hear on No Harm before the synths get going, and he's back behind the kit guiding the tempo. On a promotional cycle for an album which is so obviously the product of human imagination interacting with machines, this repositioning of the one of the most fundamental parts of that song into the hands of a drummer is such a nice touch. As though they've simultaneously, and wholeheartedly, taken the step into electronic music while at the same time redressing the balance. I've also picked up on how much both Ed and Russell have added to the impact of the EBM's oeuvre. In that album, Tom, Ben, Elliott and Justin produced these beautifully ornate nails and Ed and Russell have been able to use their own skills to hammer them home night after night and with total precision. From the reactions they get here, the formula seems to be working out just fine. Enjoy the music ;)  

Sanne's Recording - stream it here

 

CrazyToaster Recording (FLAC Audio)
Heart Attack - download here
Strawberry Lemonade - download here
Bones - download here
Karma Climb - download here
Picturesque - download here
In This Light and on This Evening - download here
Sugar - download here
Magazine - download here
All Sparks - download here
Vibe - download here
The Racing Rats - download here
Frankenstein - download here
Nothing - download here
All the Kings - download here
Blood - download here
Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors - download here
Kiss - download here
No Harm - download here
Strange Intimacy - download here
An End Has a Start - download here
Munich - download here
Papillon - download here 

 

Taper's Information file - download here 

Taper's ffp file - download here

 

brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love ;) x