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Eagles of Death Metal Return to Paris for Concert Eagles of Death Metal Return to Paris for Concert
(about 7 hours later)
PARIS — Eagles of Death Metal are returning to Paris on Tuesday night for a concert honoring those who were killed in — and those who survived — the November attack in which 90 people were fatally gunned down during a performance by the band. PARIS — The sold-out concert by Eagles of Death Metal here Tuesday night was at once a tribute to those who died in the November terrorist attacks during a performance by the band and a celebration of those who survived.
In emotional interviews with the French news media before the concert, Jesse Hughes, lead singer for Eagles of Death Metal, an American rock band, said the group felt an obligation to finish what it had started. Above all, though, it was surprisingly electrifying rock ’n’ roll.
“I don’t want to let anybody down,” Mr. Hughes, 43, said on Monday on the French television channel i-Télé. “For me, I can’t let the bad guys win.” That was all the more striking because the last time many in the audience had seen the band was the night of Nov. 13, when three terrorists entered the Bataclan concert hall and gunned down 90 people in the attacks that left 130 dead.
Breaking into tears during a separate interview, for the channel Canal Plus, he said: “Paris isn’t just a show. It is not a rock show; it is a lot bigger than that. It has a much bigger purpose than just entertaining this time around.” Yet when Eagles of Death Metal opened on Tuesday at the historic Olympia theater in central Paris with their signature song, “I Only Want You,” and Jesse Hughes, the lead singer, blew kisses to the crowd, people began clapping, singing along and dancing, with some even trying to climb over the barriers into the pit.
The reprise performance, at the 125-year-old Olympia theater in central Paris, is a rare second chance for those at the scene of a terrorist attack to reclaim the moment: In this instance, to hear music, have a good time and be with friends, even if many of them are gone. Concert organizers have worked with a number of survivors’ groups that evolved after the series of attacks on Nov. 13, in which 130 people were killed, many at cafes near the Bataclan, the hall where Eagles of Death Metal were playing. “This finishes the concert that was at the Bataclan,” said Frank Auffret, 44, who survived the attacks.
“For the survivors, the concert means a lot, everything possible,” said Arthur, a spokesman for one such group, Life for Paris. He asked that he be identified only by his first name. “It closes the book so that we can turn the page on the dramatic event that we all suffered through and begin other things,” said Mr. Auffret, who after the shootings became active in Life for Paris, a survivors’ group, and is now its treasurer.
“I was in the pit when the shooting started, and I dropped to the floor and crawled over and around bodies until I reached an exit,” he said. The performance became an opportunity for some of those present when the attack occurred to try to exorcise a bit of the darkness of the experience. And perhaps aware of how eager many people were to throw off the sadness, Mr. Hughes did not dwell on what happened. He asked for a moment of silence, and after 10 seconds the music began.
He acknowledged that many of the survivors were unsure whether they should attend Tuesday’s concert. His patter could have been spoken at any rock concert — “How is everybody tonight?” he asked before using raunchy language to say how glad he was to see everyone.
“Some people feel it’s too soon; they feel it’s too soon to go back to a concert, but most of the survivors are proud of the band,” he said. “The band members are survivors, too.” Still, this was hardly an ordinary rock concert. Mr. Hughes held up a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “Life for Paris” and what appeared to be signatures on it — a reminder of who was in the audience: not just those who had survived the attacks, but their relatives, girlfriends and boyfriends.
It will not be Eagles of Death Metal’s first return to Paris since the attacks. The band closed a show in Paris with U2 in early December, playing a Patti Smith song, “People Have the Power,” and the next day laid wreaths at the Bataclan. The event took place under heavy security that included two body searches as well as inspections of bags before anyone could enter the hall. The police also closed down half the traffic on the main boulevard that runs in front of the theater, which is near the Paris Opera, by early afternoon.
The band is on a European tour that began on Saturday in Stockholm. For many, even getting to the concert, much less entering, was not easy. One man left about 45 minutes into the concert. He was wearing a T-shirt with a picture of a woman, the name Priscilla and the date 13/11/2015.
Mr. Hughes, who has spoken out against gun control, was asked whether he agreed with the assertion by the Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump that if people in the Bataclan attack had been armed, they could have shot the attackers. Yet for others it was a reunion. Some fans were leaning on walking sticks or canes, some on crutches, a reminder of the more than 300 people who were wounded in the attacks.
“I’m not a hero, but I love my friends,” Mr. Hughes told i-Télé. “And I was raised that you have to be willing to give your life, or else it is not worth living, and you are not a member of a community. I’m not a hero, but if I had had a gun I could have changed something, and I would have been willing to do it.” At least psychologists were seated on the steps that led into the hall, and one man sat quietly crying and talking to one of them.
“I’m pro-freedom,” he added. For some who came it was a deeply private moment. A couple took a selfie and told reporters they had decided not to talk to anybody. Others seemed almost proud to be there.
“I want to make sure everybody understands. I don’t want to shoot anybody” or carry around a gun, he said. Audrey Guiny, 24, who was shot in the foot and had to quit her job as a first-aid worker, had mixed emotions about coming, but also deep resolve. ”There is joy, there is fear,” she said. ”I would have regretted not being here for the band and for those who were killed.”
Mr. Hughes’s emotional response reflected the sentiments of many who were in the audience. In interviews with survivors of the attack who were planning to attend Tuesday night’s show, as well as those who said they could not bear to do so, there was a sense of grappling with something raw and painful, as well as trying to move forward. “I knew I was going to come; it was a certainty — even on crutches,” she said, gesturing to her foot, which is still healing.
Aline Le Bail-Kremer, whose cousin died in the Bataclan attack and who works with the Association of French Victims of Terrorism, which has members from previous attacks as well as from those of Nov. 13, said she believed it was too early for victims to be together at a concert again. This was not the first time that Eagles of Death Metal had played in Paris since the attacks. The group took part in a show with U2 in early December, playing a Patti Smith song, “People Have the Power,” and the next day laid wreaths at the Bataclan.
“This is a time of grieving” and for psychological healing, Ms. Le Bail-Kremer said, but she acknowledged, “There are survivors, there are parents who need to go.” The band is now on a European tour that began last Saturday in Stockholm.
Returning to the Bataclan will be another hurdle. Although Mr. Hughes said Eagles of Death Metal wanted to be the band to play there when the hall reopened, many people said they were not ready to return. As the Paris concert ended and people streamed out, most seemed glad that they had gone. A woman who gave only her first name, Olia, said she was a 34-year-old publicist from Los Angeles who had been at the Bataclan on Nov. 13. She said she had been hesitant about attending because she had seen Mr. Hughes give interviews and break down in tears.
A man who gave his name only as William and said he hid in a bathroom during the shooting said on i-Télé that if Tuesday’s concert were scheduled to be at the Bataclan, “I would not go.” “I was afraid it would be a heavy atmosphere,” she said.
He said that he was on the fence about the concert at the Olympia and that he would stand outside and see how he felt about going in. Instead she felt that she might have begun to overcome the trauma of having seen people killed. By being there, she said, “you’re taking control. It was therapeutic for me. I didn’t know how it was going to feel, but I stayed,” she said.
Arthur, the survivor who works with Life for Paris, said he was unsure how it would feel to walk into a concert hall again. Then she added, “I cried during the entire first two songs. It was cathartic.”
“How are we going to be able to dance when some people died dancing?” he asked. “I think it will be a weird concert tonight; we are going to think of the dead, but we will for the rest of our lives.” For Ms. Guiny, the concert was a victory of sorts, so much so that she wanted to overcome one last hurdle and have the band play the song they were playing when the shooting started, so she could dispel the nightmarish association the song had taken on.
“I was disappointed that they did not play their song ‘Kiss the Devil,’ ” she said.
“That would have allowed me to put an end to that damn concert, that concert from hell.”