Photo by Kryz Jantzen

Robert Plant & The Band Of Joy

October 24th

Palais des Sports

Paris, France

The Setlist

Down To The Sea/ Angel Dance/ House Of Cards/ Please Read The Letter/ Misty Mountain Hop/ Twelve Gates/ Tangerine/ Somewhere Trouble/ Satisfied Mind/ Move Up/ Satan/ Central 209/ Monkey/ Houses Of The Holy/ You Cant Buy Me Love/ Tall Cool One/ Gallows Pole/ Harms Swift Way/ RnR/ Goodnight

With tickets also to Birmingham and London in the next few days, this week three  shows kick off with a great night in France, catching Robert on stage in Paris. The venue, the Palais des Sports in the 15th arrondissement of the French capital was packed early with enthusiastic French fans. And although I spotted a guy walking around with a black t-shirt proclaiming ‘Jimmy Page saved my life’, tonight’s crowd was focused on seeing Robert and excited to hear the Band Of Joy.

Taking to the stage at just after 9pm, the Parisian crowd roared its approval. Robert greeted the fans with a enthusiastic “Bonsoir mes amis!” before kicking into Angel Dance. And having seen Robert in London last month he, without question, continues to be in superb voice. Excellent also to see the band and setlist grow in confidence with new, richer arrangements bringing a fresh dynamic to many of the songs.

The French audience listened attentively to the opening few numbers, then things broke loose during track 5. Introducing the song, Robert tells the audience “This is from a time when no one knew what was going on. We really didn’t!”. Misty Mountain Hop, even in its new arrangement, brought the cheering crowd rushing down towards the stage much to Robert’s surprise. “Sacrebleu!!!” he exclaimed to the enthusiastic fans. A faithful Tangerine transported the crowd back to a thrilling time followed by the solo spots from Buddy, Darrell and Patty, all warmly received. After Move Up, Robert smiled at Buddy and wiped his brow in relief at just about managing to get through his tricky backing vocal duties on this deceptively complicated song. Watch the interplay behind Patty during this song and you’ll see what I mean. Robert introduced Monkey as “a song from our disc nouveau” before moving into Houses Of The Holy. Stripped of the playful raunchiness of the original version, this 2010 arrangement doesn’t really work for me, however the French crowd do love it. Harms Swift Way, a favourite of mine from the new album, opens the trio of encores followed by a crowd pleasing version of Rock N Roll. Robert then teased the cheering crowd over whether they wanted to hear another song before wowing them with the understated, but appropriate, Goodnight. The French audience headed home into the cool autumn air, thrilled at what they just witnessed.

Watching Robert on stage tonight in Paris, its clear how much he enjoys playing with this group of musicians.

This tour may not please everyone, but for Robert this is a band of joy.

Krys Jantzen, London