We were there. Phoenix and Air concert on the roof of Terminal 1 of Roissy Airport

A direct flight to the Olympics or a time machine to the not-so-distant past? Last Wednesday night promised to be full of emotions. it was to take place in an incongruous location, Terminal 1 at Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport. Not for waiting for the plane, but for the 50th anniversary of the concert organized on the roof of the airport, as well as the arrival of Olympic athletes to France. However, we saw not athletes, but veterans. The poster suggested nostalgia for another era, the 1990s and 2000s, when French Touch put France at the center of the music world map.

The program promised performances by Phoenix, Etienne de Crécy, Air or even Alan Braxe and Benjamin Diamond, formerly of Stardust, whose song Music sounds better with you An absolute hit of the 1990s, as night fell in the terminal, the feeling of navigating through time as well as darkness grew. The recently reformed Air band’s concert seemed like a suspended moment between eras; born 30 years ago, his music now sounds like a very nostalgic suite, close to the atmosphere of 1970s movies again.

The moment of grace

The band performed their hits beautifully (Kelly Watch the Stars, Sexy Boy) and created a very emotional moment, the most beautiful of the evening, bringing Thomas Mars with him on stage. The singer from Phoenix came to perform the hit Playground Lovea romantic refrain for broken hearts taken from the film’s soundtrack The Virgin Suicides by Sofia Coppola. A moment of absolute grace, a great rarity. Mars sang this track on stage with Airy for the second time since its release in 2000. Later in the evening, Phoenix, in full force, gave a whirlwind performance, interacting with the audience thanks to. unmatched excitement.

Even if some of the compositions now seem a little flamboyant, in the 19th century sense of the term, that is, a little too flamboyant, this group has managed to maintain a great energy, and its musicians seem to never age, their silhouettes remain slender, elegant, calmly. Dorian Gray of French pop? At midnight, their bodies were nothing more than silhouettes sculpted by neon lights and airport lights on the edge of sleep. And the public? About 2000 people, a mixture of generations, filled with the absurd joy of the beginning of summer.

Even the endless queues (an hour for a sandwich…) didn’t spoil the party, and the frenzy of the public made us forget that all this could have been the death of a generation, now assimilated into another era. Generationally, though, the only thing missing was the biggest band of those years, the 2021-split duo Daft Punk doing better than the others. At the end of the night, when the music stopped, the last plane landed and we had to find our way into town, it was Daft singing, Around the worldwhich we thought very well, bearing in mind that the Olympic marathon has just started.