Eagles of Death Metal Bring Rock, Healing at Triumphant Paris Return
“I cannot wait to get back to Paris,” Eagles of Death Metal‘s Jesse Hughes said in a late-November interview, just weeks after the band’s concert at the Bataclan was abruptly interrupted by an ISIL terror attack that left 90 people dead. After a two-song warm-up alongside U2 in December, and after kicking off their Nos Amis Tour in Stockholm on February 13th, the band kept their word and played at the Olympia in Paris on Tuesday, a historic evening charged with emotion, catharsis and, well, rock & roll.
Some 900 survivors attended the show (admission for them and the victims’ families was free), some still recovering from their physical injuries and most struggling with mixed emotions and fearing they would panic and relive November 13th all over again. Yet they were brave enough to come in an attempt to create new memories and mental images that would allow them to heal. And the fact that the concert was not at the Bataclan, which remains closed until the end of the year, certainly eased the process, as did the presence of an on-site psychological support team set up for the occasion to help survivors cope with potential panic attacks triggered by memories of the tragic gig. Many survivors chose to remain close to the exits.
Having lost a dear friend at the Bataclan, I too was apprehensive at first. Isn’t it too soon for the band to be finishing their Bataclan show? But if my surviving friends — including a rock photographer who was shot — were brave enough to attend (and enjoy the show, as I later found out), then I had no right to be overtaken by worry. My friend who was killed, a rock journalist, would most likely have attended as well. In fact, the Olympia was the safest place to be in Paris on Tuesday night. Security was so tight that a war could have broken out right outside, and we would still have felt safe. A large perimeter surrounding the legendary venue was cordoned off and included armed police and at least four security checks outside and inside the venue, using metal detectors and body searches. Reassuring, indeed.
And once inside, a woman distributing free hugs was ready to greet us with open arms.
Austrian duo White Miles, who opened for EODM on that fateful night and whose singer was injured during the attack, once again supported the California band this time around. While they were playing their energetic set at the Olympia, the pit was warming up and fans continued to pour in. The bar and the surrounding area were also full to capacity. It seemed a less somber occasion than I expected, yet no one was quite letting go yet. Mixed emotions flowed as much as the beer.
9:06pm: The crowd gets loud, beckoning the band to appear.