Early in June, I heard about two concerts by the Trio Vander on Cyborg's concert news telephone service. As my girlfriend and I had already planned to visit a friend of ours in Strasbourg, it seemed obvious to combine this with the concerts. A few days after everything was booked we had a call from Strasbourg, in which we were told that there would be an additional concert at the 'Cafe des Anges' in Strasbourg on Thursday, 25-06-92. A reason to come a day earlier, but we hadn't taken into consideration our employers opinion. So we arrived there on Friday afternoon. Our friend told us about a very good three hour long concert the evening before, and gave us a taste of it by showing us a short film of this show. Vander seemed to be in the mood to play and so we were very eager for what was to come that evening.
The night before, the concert had begun at 10 p.m. as usual and so we thought that 7 p.m. would be early enough to leave Strasbourg for Contrexéville. It was a 200km journey and the weather was extremely fine. No problems, it seemed, until we discovered a traffic board on the highway announcing two directions for Contrexéville, "par le col" or "par le tunnel". Since the route through the tunnel was chargeable, we decided to go "par le col", whatever that meant. We realised what an awful mistake that had been during a long ride through the Vosges, going up and down every hill in the area, via a very winding road. That was why we arrived at Contrexéville at 10:30pm. Contrexéville (yes, where the famous water comes from) is an old health-resort with the charm of the early 19th century and the Maison de la Culture is a modern building on a slope above the town. No lights gleamed and no music was to be heard when we parked our car there. After we had rounded the building, a small iron door opened and people came out. This was the entrance to CAF "CONC", a small coffee bar. We entered a long, but not very broad, crowded room with all the charm of a canteen - if the bar opposite the stage hadn't been there. The equipment was very inconveniently set up along the longer side of the room, so there was not much space in front, but much more at the sides. The concert had already begun earlier in the evening and the first set had just ended. Despite the break, all the tables were taken, except one in a corner of the room. It was the worst vantage point one could imagine in the whole place, because the back of the piano obstructed our view of the band, totally spoiling it in fact.
Towards 11 o'clock the musicians entered the room for the second set. Christian Vander, as usual dressed in his black overalls and with the Zeuhl sign on a blue string round his neck, on his black Gretsch kit (bass drum, 1 tom, 2 drums & assorted cymbals Hi Hat, Ride & Crash), followed by Philippe Dardelle on upright bass and Emmanuel Borghi, who is still playing piano with the Trio in spite of his split from Offering. As usual they started the set with songs by John Coltrane, Miles Davis, McCoy Tyner and some of their own songs. I recognized 'The Night Has A Thousand Eyes', 'Giant Steps', 'My Favourite Things', 'Central Park West' and 'Dear Mac'. The band was in very good condition, not only that all three were absolutely convincing technically, but also they were in an extremely good mood for playing this evening. So they launched themselves to the top of this set with a mind-blowing fifteen minute drum solo by Christian. In continuation of his drum solos at the Offering concerts previously (remember Faches Thumesnil), he produced a very powerful drum solo, merging in the drums like a man - machine. Meanwhile I had moved to a better standing position and I couldn't really believe my eyes.
Christian totally knocked me out, and at the end of the solo the audience reacted enthusiastically. Approximately fifty minutes had past when the set ended with Body And Soul. A half-hour break followed, giving the band and the audience enough time to have some much needed refreshment, before the third set began. This set was as convincing as the one before, showing three musicians who gave their souls completely to the music. It was half past One in the morning when a brilliant concert on a hot summer night ended, leaving behind an overwhelmed audience. After we had confirmed that the concert the following evening would begin at 10 o'clock again, we left for Strasbourg (par le col again, of course), where we arrived at 6 o'clock in the morning to take some desperately needed sleep.
The next evening we were driven to St. Dié by our Strasburgian friend, par le tunnel of course, which took less than half the time we had needed the evening before for the same distance (but what is the grey inside of a tube compared with the natural beauty of the Vosges). After searching a while we found the Musêe de 1'Orme, a modern cube hiding itself behind the facade of an old church. The concert took place in the Grande Salle, which looked like a cinema with its big, red, plush chairs. It was not very crowded when we entered and so we got very good seats in the third row just in front of the stage. The venue was nearly full when the Trio came on stage to play the same performance that they had done the evening before. Again they did it with technical brilliance and devotion, but we missed last evening's mood. In contrast to the clubby atmosphere at CAF "CONC" this much bigger hail was more sterile. The musicians seemed to be lost on the large stage, with much more distance to the less enthusiastic audience than it had been in Contrexéville. The songs were more structured with less space for improvisation. Christian especially was in a fine mood again, showing his humour when he introduced the musicians at the end of the 1st set. He didn't use a microphone, and someone from the audience shouted that he hadn't understood what he had said. So Christian came back, introduced the musicians again using a microphone, turned back and as he went out he repeated Emmanuel's and Philippe's names again and again in a very loud voice. After a forty-five minute break they came back to play the second set, which ended after more than an hour of fine music at a quarter past midnight. It had been another brilliant concert, and an excellent reason not to miss the next series. They're worthwhile!
Rolf Spengler