I Want To See You

Yelle @ The Knitting Factory 2/19/2008
Tristesse/Joie / Mal Poli / 85A / Dans Ta Vrai Vie / Je Veux Te Voir / Jogging / A Cause Des Garcons / Mon Meilleur Ami // Je Veux Te Voir (heavy “rock” version)

1. You might be thinking, “oh, I bet she probably just sang and danced around to some music on a laptop.” Well, she did sing, and she did dance, and there was a laptop on stage, but this was very much a full-on, athletic concert, complete with live keyboards and a kick-ass drummer. There was no fucking around, just 50+ minutes of bubblegum pop crossed with quasi-rock French dance music. It was rather intense.

(Photo courtesy of Trent Wolbe.)
2. Also intense: The audience. Despite being packed into a tiny, oversold room, the crowd flipped out to almost every song, but most especially “Je Veux Te Voir.” Seriously, I have been in many audiences, but only a few shows match this room’s level of collective enthusiasm. If you were on the floor, and you were losing your shit during this set, I just want to say that I love you. And I envy you — I was stuck in the balcony.

3. Yelle is a joy to behold. She’s one of those performers who makes it all look so easy, as if any skinny, pretty girl with a Chicks On Speed frock and an album’s worth of ridiculously catchy dance pop songs can get on stage, shake it up, make some rock faces, do a bit of air guitar, and pull it off. If only the world was overcrowded with people like her, my job would be so much easier.

Yelle “Tristesse/Joie” (Acoustic version for Fair Game, 2/19/2008) – Speaking of, Yelle recorded a session for Fair Game only a few hours before this show. It was a mellow, acoustic performance — in other words, the radical opposite of the relentlessly up-tempo dance show at the Knitting Factory. “Tristesse/Joie” has an entirely different character in this arrangement — if the album version is like a collision between two distinct strains of modern French pop music, this take owes more to the Francophone pop of the ’60s and ’70s. It lacks that glorious, euphoric kick at the end, but makes up for it with a lovely, muted melancholy. The Yelle segment is set to air on the show on Thursday — a different song with be making it into the broadcast, but I’ll let it be a surprise. Please tune in, or get the podcast. (Click here to buy Pop-Up from Amazon.)