This year was the ten years anniversary of Saor’s Aura and while I saw them tour all over Europe, a miracle happened: they annouced two last dates in France for this occasion. Limoges being only four hours and half driving from my place, I could simply not miss it. Especially as it was a dream poster, they were supported by two bands in the same vein as their music, Cân Cardd and Belore.
I had never been to Limoges before, though it is part of my region. I haven’t visited much of it but it was full of good surprises. There were plenty of volunteers from the organising association Execution Mgt, be it at the entrance, the cloakroom or the bar. There were all nice and helpful. And the venue, the Cultural Center John Lennon, was exceptionally good. It was fairly big and very well laid out. I had a small talk with Romaric, a friend and the sound ingeneer of the evening, who told me the sound really was good there.
This got confirmed fairly quickly as Belore took the stage. The samples were immaculate and whistle was crystal-clear but not too loud. While Belore was not the band I got the most familiar with, they played their songs well and went without a hitch. They were fairly experienced. The stage allowed a cool setting with the drummer and the flute player on the top. It was overall simple and efficient. My only criticism would be the inequity in stage presence and most importantly, the pretty long series of flashs at the end of the set which were too much to my taste.
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I was going to be much happier with Cân Bardd set. They mostly played songs from their latest Devoured By the Oak which I listened to quite a number of times. To my surprise, they started with, I think, their most popular song “Une Couronne de Branches”.
It seems to me that there are two schools when it comes to making a set list, either you indeed start with the best songs, either you end with them. I much prefer the latest but it was nice anyways to see people singing along. And I would have too if I had learnt the lyrics. Actually, as their songs are rather long, I think it was a clever choice to start captivating and interacting with the crowd the soonest as possible to keep the attention all the set long.
Such bands like Cân Bardd face many challenges when playing their music live and they’ve succeeded all of them. First of all, a test I like to do is to imagine what would a band sound like without sample. And well, they played a good and airy black metal, there was life and breath in each of their breaks. On the technical aspect, their performance and especially the vocals were perfectly faithful to their studio work. They went even beyond by handling humming choirs which they could have easily have left it as sample.
Now, were they pale visually? Not at all. There was a solid cohesion between the members who themselves had a presence on stage. There also was a proper though discreet work on the lights, I loved the aqua green aura and the flashs following a crescendo during the song with Ella from Saor. Cân Bardd performance was punctuated by many inspiring, touching moments and they ended beautifully under the applause, and bowed on the very last note.
Saor took on the stage and started by the end with Aura‘s last song, “Pillars of the Earth”. It was a surprising choice that actually worked very well, I love the start and the drums on this one. Its slow and poignant vibes turned out to be perfect springboard for the following “Children of the Mist”.
Andy’s vocals were especially great and the transitions were smooth. Saor are nice to see live. They have good team spirit, and they are great with the audience. And there was a bit of everything, applauses, cheering and the usual big dudes at the back yelling between songs. But the most determining show of appreciation to me was introverts dancing. This tells how good a band does its job.
What was newer than the last times I saw them is that Ella became more present at vocals. It’s good and relevant, I especially liked it during “The Awakening”, the choir work there was simply phenomenal. Well, it’s my favourite song on this album so I may not be objective. And it fills the music, even complementing it instead of using more samples.
Not everything was to my taste though, there were times when I did not find it necessary as I liked the original better, or when I just preferred Andy’s clean singing to hers as on “Farewell”. I suppose it’s a simple question of balance, testing a few things out and see what works or not.
They closed the set with the splendid yet rough “Aura” but the crowd was definitely not done and called for an encore. And we got two more songs.
The single and title-track from upcoming album “Amidst the Ruins” was extremely well received and the final with Ella and Martin was a really beautiful moment as they played back to back with a simple spotlight from the stage to the crowd. The real final was a throwback to Forgotten Paths, “Bron” with the chorus sung by Ella.
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Photos by © Mathilde Laurence Photography | HARD FORCE
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