Mostly associated with Queens of the Stone Age and the Palm Desert scene, Alain Johannes' talents actually reach much further than the stoner hard rock he's become synonymous with. Stints with PJ Harvey, Dave Grohl and contributions to albums by Chris Cornell, Jason Faulkner, Mark Lineman or Jimmy Eat World really only hint at the width of his musical universe. This rare Paris solo date was an opportunity to get refresher course in a unique solo acoustic format.
Highlights of this short set were undoubtedly the tunes that Johannes originally recorded with Eleven, the band that he formed with his wife Natasha Schneider, as well as the songs from his first solo album Spark that dealt with her illness and death. The emotional resonance these songs hold for Johannes were not lost on the crowd.
As the set drew to a close, the mood lifted when Johannes invited frequent collaborator (and old buddy of ours!) Patròn to join him on stage for "Hanging Tree," the QOTSA classic from Songs for the Deaf. Stripped of the heavy fuzz and desert heat of his electric work, Johannes still found ways to summon the same hypnotic pulse. There was an unmistakable sense of joy in his playing, a playful ease that cut through the melancholy and darkness of some of the tunes.
What makes performances like this so powerful is their sincerity. There was no artifice, no distance between the man and the music. Only a steady flow of feeling. Johannes played with an open heart, letting the songs breathe and find their own rhythm, never overselling a moment. The simplicity of his setup, a guitar, a few pedals, and that unmistakable voice, became the bridge between his emotions and ours.
