On the 11th of October 2024, I attended a concert performed by Adam La Nuit, at Botanique, in the Rotonde space. The concert we went to was held in the afternoon for schools to attend, but there was a second, public concert that was held later that evening in the same space.
Adam La Nuit’s music is a mix of genres ranging from Congolese rumba and 2-step to alternative R&B and pop sung in French and Lingala. In this concert he sang quite a few songs, mainly including ones from his most recent album Salle 1: La Beautée de ma Colère.
Here is the Setlist
- Fou du Village
- Chateau
- Pili Pili
- Le Lien
- L’epine
- L’âge Tendre
- Petit Pas
- Marée Basse
- Martyr
- Cravate
- Océan
- Caoutchouc
- Perdido
- Barbelés
- Tous les Matins
- Nom du Père
- Ultraviolet
- Fiyah
In between every three songs or so, Adam paused to give personal, historical, or cultural context for each one or generally to raise the mood of the room. For most of the concert, Adam had three backup musicians: one guitarist, one bassist, and a drummer, but they were joined by a violinist for two songs, during which she had quite a long solo. I found the guitarist to be particularly good, and have a really good energy on stage.
I had listened to the recorded versions of Adam La Nuit’s songs on Spotify before attending the concert as preparation and it’s safe to say, none of them were my cup of tea. I find all of it massively overproduced yet somehow still empty feeling, and the frequent repetition in a lot of the tracks detracts from the – often-times very interesting – messages trying to be expressed. However, I was quite surprised when I found myself thoroughly enjoying the live versions of many of the songs id previously had to skip through. I think the lack of autotune, as well as the much more present sound of the live instruments as opposed to abundant and monolithic synth tracks really helped create a more palatable experience for me. As well as this, the explanations and cultural context provided throughout the concert by Adam La Nuit, made me appreciate the poetry and meaning of the lyrics he was singing far more than when I was listening on my own – especially at times where the words were sung partially in Lingala, as he often translated portions for us before a song.
With all this in mind, the songs that stood out to me the most were Martyr and Caoutchouc, for quite different reasons: The lyrics and story of Martyr were compelling, but for me it’s the quality of the melodies and harmonies of the song that put it at number one among Adam La Nuit’s discography – I even enjoy the studio version of it! but I also think that the way it was performed during the concert stood out, as for the duration of the song, Adam had walked off the stage and was situated at the centre of the crowd, addressing each individual almost personally. On the other hand, I was nonplussed at the musical composition of Caoutchouc, however I found the lyrical delivery and overall message to be particularly moving. The song quite explicitly speaks about the Belgian Congo and employs Lingala “To sambelaka Yesu (ou ou) — A yaki na Léopold (Caoutchouc)” to blame King Leopold III in the native Congolese language, which I found particularly powerful.
But while I was positively surprised by the quality of the concert itself, the audience was a whole other story. As previously mentioned, the show was organised for school classes to attend, which resulted in a strange mix of almost inappropriate over-excitement at times, and complete disengagement at others. The worst example of this for me was during a song that Adam La Nuit had prefaced was about his traumatic childhood and very dear to him (Petit Pas). The beginning of said song was particularly quiet, with almost bare vocals from Adam, and all the while, you could hear a large chunk of the audience not even attempting to mask loud laughs and chatter. It felt outright insulting, and in those moments I felt genuinely embarrassed to be part of that audience. Of course that isn’t to say t was all bad – during some higher energy parts of the concert a lot of the people in the front rows were clearly very engaged and were raising their hands towards the stage or singing along, but honestly the rest of the room felt dead most of the time, and that particular moment of complete disrespect just isn’t excusable for me.
Despite the less than adequate audience, I still really enjoyed attending the concert and was very positively surprised by my own appreciation of the music in cartas with the recorded versions of the songs. I found the room felt quite intimate and the atmosphere was overall quite positive. I wouldn’t have attended this concert had it not been for music class but I’m really glad I did, because it helped me expand my taste in music, if only slightly.
Photos & Videos
These are two videos I found posted on Adam La Nuit’s official YouTube account of the evening concert on the same day.
And a link with some official photos : https://www.francofaune.be/adam-la-nuit-aa-louise-barreau-botanique/
And here are some of the photos and videos I took myself at the concert:
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