THE 69 EYES @ Le Nouveau Casino Paris, 11 février 2013

'So there i found myself on a monday evening in front of the Nouveau Casino to watch a band i hardly knew and which is normally not my genre. I did hear some of their old material and although the music was quite ok to me, i was not liking the vocals that much. So why i was there? Let's just say a friend asked me and also to write this review from an objective point of view.
Goth Rock, people seem to call it and i had no idea what to expect. But if i have my beer i'm always fine anyway.
When we walked in we heard and saw the last tones of support act Underground Slut, which i can only describe as an "over the top" Iggy Pop kind of music. But as said, i saw just 1 song. Not much more to say.
A change-over and i could check the venue quickly, really a nice place with a fantastic smoker room on the balcony from which you can still see the bands perform. Only one of the bartenders was slow as a snail.
Then an intro ( probably the bands own music, but always better than the usual Karl Orff stuff ) and 69 Eyes hit the stage. Without frontman first, he walked on when he had to start his part, but in this case fully ok as the man IS a frontman in the real sense of the word. They were sparkling, fresh, enthousiastic, passionated and simply rocking good and steady. I started to grin, stomped my feet, and nodded my head on the beat. Goth Rock? Ha, this was simply good time rock 'n' roll!

And very positive for me, the singer had a totally better voice than on the albums i heard. Well, my taste that is. The man was a mix of Nikki Sixx, Alice Cooper and Joey Ramone lookalike and performingwise, his voice, hard to describe, but not as deep as on the records, still raw, but melodic and excellently fitting the music.
Which was a mix of stomping hard rock, rock 'n' roll and even some metal, but basically, party on pumping rock!
They were grooving, with infectious joy and energetic like teenagers, and these guys are in their early 40's. Respect! The vocalist played the crowd and was being just a great frontman. Everybody inside seemed to have a damn good time and i was having a blast too.
The whole rest of the band was clearly very much enjoying themselves, the guitarplayers were constantly interactive with the audience with a smile on their faces and the drummer was twirling his sticks behind his kit. Both him and the bassplayer form a very solid rhythmsection. And it was also good to hear an old fashioned guitar solo at the end of one of the songs. It reminded me of a metal show back in the '80ies, or one that Ace Frehley used to do. Damn Cool!
And certainly not to forget, the sound was simply incredibly, very clear, loud, but not in a distorting way, just absolutely perfect for this venue and style of music. Who-ever did it, he/she did a fantastic job!
Highlight then the encore, apparently some old songs the fans were waiting for and the place went nuts. And i was pleasantly surprised and impressed when the band said good night.

Great show, good times, even if you don't know them, go and see them if they play in your area someday sometime. Have a few beers and a good time, and is that not what it's all about?

Also very nice was that the band gave fans the possibility to take pics and have autographs after the show, too bad the security had to force the people out as soon as possible on venue instructions, so not every-one could have what he/she wanted. I'm sure the band themselves were not happy about that too.

But later we were hanging out with them at the bar next door. Really nice fella's. So we drank and talked a bit til their bus was leaving for the next show.
So good luck and thanks to 69 Eyes for a memorable night of good time rock 'n' roll.

Cheerz!'

By Jean Claude L'Enfer.