If your life was made into a film, who would you like to compose the soundtrack to your life story?
My definite answer to this question is Yann Tiersen, a French musician who is famously known for composing the soundtrack for the film Amelie (If you have not seen this film, please do yourself a favor and watch it!!). His work in Amelie features delicate and nostalgic sounds using the accordion, violin, and piano that would warm up the coldest of hearts.
And so I was in Royale nightclub on Wednesday night, waiting for my life’s soundtrack to be performed live. However, I was struck by surprise when I saw the amps, guitars, and moog synthesizers stacked on the stage. Plagued by the flu that has been spreading all over campus, I thought that perhaps I was becoming delirious and was at the wrong show.
Luckily, I wasn’t. I was watching Yann Tiersen, but not the Amelie-Yann Tiersen. This was Dust Lane Yann Tiersen. I, like many others in the crowd, had no idea who we were about to meet.
Yann, in his scruffy hair and French charm, was welcomed to the stage by the crowd’s cheer. Without saying a word, Yann and his band began building up the riffs to the opener “Count Down”, surprising and perhaps even shocking fans of Amelie. With an electric mandolin on his front and his lovely violin on his back, the audience already witnessed his virtuosity right from the first few seconds. Throughout the show, Yann remained quite and clam, letting his fiery violin shredding, soft vocals, and guitar strumming evoke a variety of emotions ranging from paranoia to hope. Each song was a mad scientist’s concoction of spacey guitar riffs, intense violin bowing, and spiritual harmonic mantra, molding together into one epic piece.
Despite his out-of-this-world music skills, Yann maintained a friendly and down-to-earth attitude during the show, in which a female audience shouted, “I love you, Yann!” and he briskly responded, “You don’t love me…I’m a real asshole!” Although I highly doubt it’s true, he is making a good point. Talent can often make musicians into less than favorable characters.
In any case, Yann and his fellow gifted band-mates delivered a jaw-dropping performance that exposed the beauty of the darker side of his new-age influenced music on Wednesday night. Despite the fact that his new work was a departure from Amelie, I still feel deeply connected to his music and therefore would still wish him to be the composer of my life’s soundtrack.
(This is Her Campus Tufts’ first media review following in line with our newest goal to provide media coverage and notifications of special events happening in the area that we think would interest the female student body at Tufts. Readers can look forward to our next music review on the Lady Gaga concert in March. If you are interested in writing brief blurbs about music or films specific to the Boston area, please contact us at tuftshercampus@gmail.com.)