On Sunday the 24th May I was privilaged enough to witness Jean Michel Jarre perform at the NIA in Birmingham as part of his In-Doors world tour!
Wow!
The sound was incredible. For a geek like me, the sound system was “invisible” – something JMJ was keen to try and do as part of this tour. I am aware that there are considerable jokes at JMJ’s expense with regards to lazers and light shows. However, JMJ believes that the light show forms a way of helping the audience to engage with the concepts of his music. In keeping with this, he didn’t want the sound system to “get in the way” of the audiences participation of the show, both in terms of music and performance. Therefore, the PA was hidden throughout the venue. This gave an incredible feeling of being surrounded by the sound. This also meant that because your eye lines weren’t distracted by large PA stacks either side of the stage, you engaged completely with the performance.
JMJ played most of his most well known pieces, including RV2 and RV3, a considerable amount of the Oxygene album, Equinoxe 4 and 5, Magnetic Fields 1 and 2 and Industial Revolutions. Beautiful sound, incredible show concept and fantastic performance from one of my musical icons.
