With Son Mieux, Cattolica, 18 July
There is something very distinctive about songs that Nile Rodgers has an input into. They always involve beats that force the body to move in time to the rhythm coming from whatever source is playing the music.
Radios, stereos, headphones, or a sunny evening in Cattolica on the Adriatic coast when we had the absolute pleasure to rise from our seats to dance to an incredible array of well kent songs that were hits for the likes of Diana Ross to Daft Punk, David Bowie to Sister Sledge and Madonna to Chic themselves.
Fifty years in the making, the evening was a Greatest Hits showcase with a full band only too happy to join in on the fun.
Nile guided us through his own part in making the music a couple of generations have now become familiar with. His stories did come with a caveat though. Not everything he and the acts he has been involved with turned to gold. Many were, in his words, flops. However, the capacity audience weren’t there to listen to what might have beens.
As the opening bars were played, it seemed that everyone around know the verses and choruses and needed no second prompting to join in with the band.
The opening Chic numbers kicked off the evening, Le Freak and Everybody setting the tone for what followed. The crowd exuberance lifted a notch when the band tolled into covers by Diana Ross, I’m Coming Out, Sister Sledge with We Are Family, Madonna with the song Like A Virgin, a track Nile didn’t think had the same chance of breaking Madonna as Material Girl which he admitted just proves that sometimes the artist does know more than the experienced producer.
Bowie’s Modern Love was quickly followed by Daft Punk’s Lose Yourself To Dance and before the end of the show there were tracks by Duran Duran and Sheila & B. Devotion, Bowie again with Let’s Dance and ending the show with Chic’s Good Time.
A fitting song to end a great night of music.
The wide range of acts Nile Rodgers has been involved with in one way or another is hugely impressive. Whether a flop of classic pop sensation, the man, his ethos and the band who surrounded him tonight can be truly proud of the legacy he has built over the years.
Support Act – Son Mieux
Son Mieux is a Dutch indie pop group who had the unenviable task of warming up the audience prior to one of music’s greatest sons and his band. With a multi instrumental set, they certainly did what was asked of them. Catchy tunes backed with touches of brass and electric strings. A front man in Camiel Meiresonne who strutted the stage like a young, or maybe even not so young Mick Jagger.
I sometimes feel there is a disparity between some of the younger support acts put out ahead of headliners whose fan base has basically grown up with them and have an age profile that might not always respect the efforts of a younger generation doing their best.
Son Mieux have the songs, the energy and the musicianship to keep an audience onside and you can’t ask much more than that.
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