In the realm of symphonic electro, it was written that Daft Punk would have a prime place sooner or later. Since the remarkable music that the French duo wrote for the film Tron Legacy, which has since become a cult classic, we knew that the inventive glitch pop textures of all previous albums would one day be associated with a symphony orchestra.
That’s the idea behind the concert One More Time, an electro-symphonic tribute to Daft Punk presented at the Wilfrid-Pelletier Hall of the Place des Arts in Montreal, last night and again tonight. On stage: the FILMharmonic Orchestra conducted by Francis Choinière, the singer Barnev, a guitarist, a bassist, a drummer, and a keyboardist/vocalist.
Starting slow but finishing witu panache
The program of arrangements of super famous songs is divided into an intro and five parts made up of mixes of the duo’s songs. The Intro, which blends The Prime Time of Your Life, Aerodynamic, and a bit of Tron Legacy, gives the impression of taking its time, just hinting shyly about what is to come. The energy gradually builds up, but it still feels like it’s lacking some oomph.
This is corrected with the second “movement.” The nature of symphonism reveals here with more conviction its contribution to the repetitive and mechanical impulses of Daft Punk’s music by offering some beautiful moments of harmonic depth in the strings and counterpoints that enhance the structure of the pieces (particularly Da Funk and Around the World).
The second and third parts continue in the same vein with sometimes thrilling performances of popular monuments such as Human After All, Lose Yourself to Dance, and Get Lucky. Although the presence of the guitar and bass adds a bit of an unsuspected “rock” touch to the tunes everyone could whistle, their use is not exaggerated to the point of overly distorting these catchy little gems.
Tron Legacy, less convincing
The mistake in the program is the arrival, after the intermission, of the thirty-minute suite of tunes from Tron Legacy soundtrack. And yet, it pains me to say it. I am a die-hard fan of this exceptional music, one of the best in cinema in the last 25 years, and one of the most accomplished albums in the entire Daft Punk catalogue. Tron Legacy already fused the symphonic and the electronic. There shouldn’t have been a problem. But I should have thought about it: it wasn’t a Cine-Concert, where the demand for accuracy of the music in relation to its sounds in the film is immense and unforgiving. It was a tribute with new arrangements.
And that’s where it relatively failed, in my opinion. The admirable textures, ultra-rich and complex, invented by the Dafts, were absolutely not reproduced. Simplified, even watered down, the pleasure was completely lost. Some themes were entrusted to a saxophone, others to a guitar. Nothing to do with the original music, and even bothering. In some pieces, the tempo was too restrained, ruining the creation of an exciting energy, as in the film. Moreover, an ostentatious rhythmic imbalance between orchestra and pop soloists almost ruined everything around the two-thirds mark. Embarrassing. Result: the build-up before the intermission was lost and the music from Tron Legacy felt boring, much too long. There were still some successful moments, like the Adagio for Tron, for example. But, overall, it was too little.
Feeling the vibe
I still asked myself the question: am I simply an old purist who loves his thing so much that he can’t imagine it any other way? I took the trouble to look around me, in the audience, to see if I was the only one finding it long. Unfortunately, I could indeed sense the same relative boredom from the other people present, except on a few occasions.
It’s such a shame, because many might have left this concert with a negative opinion of this thrilling soundtrack in its true version. In short, all the more reason to organise a true Tron Legacy Cine-Concert one day, with all the multiple and abundant details that make this composition memorable. Hey, with the real Daft Punk too?
Good catch-up
That said, and fortunately, the evening was salvaged by the final grand mix of the program and the return of the qualities that had made the first part a success. Aerodynamic, Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, Face to Face, One More Time, and as an encore, Instant Crush allowed the audience to stand up and dance.
The singer Barnev performed well during his few appearances and interpretations, although he obviously omitted the characteristic Frenchie-Anglo accent of the Dafters.
If calibrations are in order, especially in the suite from Tron Legacy, we can rejoice in an effective and exciting offering, most of the time.
Another performance is taking place tonight.
