Indochine
Hanoï

The twenty-fifth year of activity is a milestone that is coveted by all artists, and few manage to reach it. Many get there with effort, others by inertia, some thanks to always achieving success, or simply for passion, for better or for worse. Indochine managed to reach it without stopping even in the face of the death of one of their members in 1999, which instead of discouraging the only remaining founding member of the group, brought in other musicians, without even changing the group's name, a practice that many undertook at the beginning of the new century. They returned to success as in the eighties thanks to an album like "Paradize" in 2002.

Every musician who reaches the twenty-fifth year wants to celebrate in the most original way possible, and the group led by Nicola Sirkis also had a brilliant idea. The Parisians, to celebrate this significant milestone, performed on June 6th and 7th, achieving a spectacular sold-out, at the Hanoi Opera, the capital of Vietnam, bringing closer a nation so far away to European reality. To allow everyone to hear the songs performed, Indochine selected the best tracks from the two evenings and included them on two CDs simply titled "Hanoï".

The concerts were divided into two parts, like the respective live CDs. In the first part, the French group had the pleasure to perform with the symphonic orchestra of the Vietnamese theater their most famous pieces, which, thanks to new arrangements, were enriched with the addition of strings for the occasion. Noteworthy are the versions of "Trois Nuits Par Semaine", "J'ai Demandé à La Lune", "L'Aventurier", "Justine", "Salombo" and the evergreen "3e Sexe", but the emotions stirred by the version of "Pink Water" performed in this unprecedented key are a heart's release from all the thoughts that grip it all day for nearly six minutes, being full of delicate notes capable of moving the listener, making an already beautiful piece "phenomenal".

The second CD concerns the rougher side of Indochine: rock and electronics mix perfectly in the best tradition of the group for twenty-five years. Here we find only eight tracks mainly extracted from their latest work released at the end of 2005 "Alice & June" and other less recent ones, like the revived "Atomic Sky" included in an underrated LP like "Dancetaria" from 1999, which nonetheless contributed to the group's resurgence after many years of crisis that began in the first part of the nineties. Noteworthy are the three great recent successes like "Alice & June", "Marilyn", and "Adora", rugged for the musical composition but, above all, for the lyrics. "Gang Bang" also makes a fine impression after this sequence of tracks that are becoming some of the group's most famous and celebrated. The second LP closes with the delicate "Starlight", unfortunately removed from the one-CD version of their latest studio album.

Certainly, the originality of this double stop in the middle of the tour is worth mentioning and obviously, the group thought of consecrating it by releasing their sixth live album in twenty-five years, full of already heard songs but with a new appearance that makes them unique. We hope that Nicola Sirkis doesn't stop writing here and continues to move us with these pieces that have made the history of French music for so long now.

We Love To Stay.

Playlist:

Cd1: Hanoï Classique:
- Le Péril Jaune
- Cérémonia
- Salômbo
- Justine
- Trois Nuits par Semaine
- Sweet Dreams
- Pink Water
- J'ai Demandé à la Lune
- Tes Yeux Noirs
- 3ème Sexe
- L'Aventurier
- Talulla

Cd2: Hanoï Rocks:
- Les Portes du Soir
- Alice & June
- Marilyn
- Adora
- Atomic Sky
- Gang Bang
- Ladyboy
- Starlight