A look back at the La Maison Tellier anniversary concert, held at the Élysée Montmartre on September 24, where it all began.
Twenty years after its first Parisian concerts, the Rouen group returned to the Élysée Montmartre, this time headlining.
What is first striking is the mix of generations: bobos in their thirties, teenagers in t-shirts from the latest album, couples who, obviously, have followed the group since its beginnings in Rouen. Twenty years after their formation in 2006 in Normandy, La Maison Tellier comes full circle: it was here, at the Élysée Montmartre, as part of the “Sundays of the Élysée” that the group played among its very first Parisian concerts, opening for Alain Bashung. This evening, he returns as headliner. Five musicians on stage, augmented this evening by choice reinforcements: trumpeter Barbara Glocker and multi-instrumentalist Ben Lanz (The National, Beirut…) come to flesh out a sound already generous in brass, with at times frank mariachi accents which give the concert unexpected, almost western colors.
The intro is hushed. A recording of birdsong hovers over the room before Helmut (Tellier), an instantly recognizable silhouette with his black hair and beard, launches alone into “In This Heart” a cappella. Raoul (Tellier) joins him, then the rest of the group: a superb start, almost religious, which immediately captivates the room. The fervor builds from piece to piece: “Damoclès”, “Chinatown” and “Petite Semaine” set the mood. “Low Cost” restarts the rhythm and “Couvre Feu”, a duet with Ysé, snatches one of the most moving moments of the evening. Then the group narrows the focus with “Prison d’Eden”, minimalist and acoustic, and “Beau Salaud”, a stripped-down ballad, offer a moment of calm before a new interlude. The high point of the middle of the concert comes with “La Chanson de Jean Louis”, performed as a duet by Helmut and Raoul, in homage to Murat, from Auvergne, included on the group’s last album. The concert then continues “Flynn…” and “BAU” before an inhabited “Atlas”, carried by a haunting trumpet which alone seems to tell the story of twenty years of travel.
After a final straight line which unfurls the classics of the Rouennais, “Sur Le Volcan” borders on the epiphany, lyrical and ample, before “LàWhere I Live” closes the body of the concert. As an encore, La Maison Tellier performs “La Chambre Rose”, “Vauban” and ends its Parisian show with “Haut Bas Fragile”, a direct reference to their 2016 album Avalanche. A way to close the parenthesis without ever giving in to pure nostalgia. Met in the afternoon, in the boxes, Yannick and Sébastien returned to this anniversary date. “We could have said to ourselves “20 years later, at Bercy or at the Zénith”, but we made choices – or non-choices – which led us there. And above all, 20 years later, it is our “apples” headlining in Montmartre,” they explained, evoking “a great feeling of accomplishment” rather than any regret at not playing in larger venues. The duo also spoke at length about the reasons for their longevity, rare in the French rock landscape: “We never earned enough money to start arguing with each other,” they joked. As for the future, it already seems to be taking shape: four new titles are being recorded, and a ninth album could see the light of day within two or three years.
Setlist:
- In This Heart (Sinéad O’Connor)
- Damocles
- Chinatown
- In the short week
- Low Cost
- Curfew
- Love Again
- Eden Prison
- A beautiful bastard
- Jean-Louis’ song
- Jim – the Flynn heir (Jean‐Louis Murat)
- BAU
- Atlas
- Amazon
- The shyness of trees
- Chaos inside me
- The Apaches
- I dreamed of avalanches
- On a volcano
- Where I live
- The Pink Room
- At Vauban
- High, low, fragile
