Stromae's Racine Carrée, live - we were amazing

December 17, 2015 1:55 PM

In support of his most recent album, Racine Carrée (YT playlist with official videos), Stromae played 209 concerts in 25 countries. From these, he captured performances at the Bell Center in Montreal on September 28 and 29 to present two hours of the singing, dancing, acting spectacle that was his show (YT). Bonus: it's subtitled in English, if you want to understand those French lyrics.

Here's the official announcement for the release of this live video from Stromae, which links to beautiful shots of the show and behind the scenes images.

Previously: Alors on Dance | Who the Hell Is Stromae? | Un petit bleu oiseau tweet | Stromae Takes America

posted by filthy light thief (13 comments total)

I love a lot of non-English pop - largely because I don't have to hear how inane the lyrics usually are.

Stromae's songs are so brilliant - and sung with such character - that I really do want to know what he is saying, and I don't think I'll be disappointed.
posted by jb at 2:15 PM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

I agree with you on inane lyrics, but his are great, as his dancing, acting, eff it - I'm officially a fanboy now. But given the size of this audience, I'm very happy having a pro-shot video from this. It has some banter, which makes it feel very complete, so I'm interested to know how they spliced the two nights together - maybe different shots of the same songs? Anyway, beautiful, entertaining, fun, catchy. /hype
posted by filthy light thief at 2:18 PM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

Why do people try to record live shows with their smartphones ?
posted by Pendragon at 2:30 PM on December 17, 2015

Thanks for posting this! I saw this show in Oakland and it was amazing. I'm convinced he's Jacques Brel reborn--a beanpole Belgian with terrific theatricality and a great sense of humor. I'll concede that the music is a little different.
posted by col_pogo at 2:35 PM on December 17, 2015

Why do people try to record live shows with their smartphones ?

Photos and video augment/replace memories. I don't want to forget being in this moment, even if my photos will be miserable and the act of taking photos will reduce my ability to remember that moment.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:36 PM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm seeing closed captions on that video.
posted by humboldt32 at 3:34 PM on December 17, 2015

Well I'd never heard of him but damn he's great. Thanks for the heads up!
posted by merocet at 6:14 PM on December 17, 2015

Love it!
posted by lalunamel at 8:54 PM on December 17, 2015

What an utterly brilliant pop star. His tribute to Cesaria Evora that starts 30 minutes in is absolutely gorgeous. Time to set aside two full hours soon so I can see this whole thing.
posted by umbú at 9:37 PM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I remember him from years back when Ghislain Poirier (Montreal!) put Alors On Danse on one of his mix tapes and I hunted it out to see where that memorable hook was coming from. He totally dropped off my radar in the meantime. I was maybe up a little later than I should have been last night getting caught up.
posted by Kyol at 8:21 AM on December 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

Saw him in Toronto, it was a great show.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 3:14 PM on December 18, 2015

He rented an accordion from me for a video shoot that they did in Oakland , but I had never heard of him, totally kicked myself for not going to see the show after reviewing some of his videos.
Apparently he is not a big fan of Twitter.
posted by boilermonster at 10:05 PM on December 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

Thanks so much for posting this! Finally had a chance to watch it, and it was amazing. It's a great concert video, shot beautifully, and I really appreciate the subtitles given the state of my French. Stromae puts on a hell of a show! The staging of "Quand C'est?" was especially stunning and chilling.
posted by yasaman at 1:45 PM on December 20, 2015