Robert Charlebois closed the 34th Francos on Saturday evening with his large-scale show Robert en CharleboisScope. At almost 79 years old, in shape and in voice, the singer has breathed his legendary swing into the Place des Festivals.
One would have thought that the rain of the day and the very cold weather would dampen the enthusiasm of the festival-goers. However, by 8:30 p.m., there were hundreds of people massed in front of the main stage – a diverse crowd made up of many families, young adults with their parents, boomer friends, groups of thirty-somethings and couples of forty-somethings, at the rendezvous. you despite the weather.
The umbrellas thankfully closed around 9 p.m. when “Garou” took the stage, and the fairly dense crowd – but who could have been denser if not for the bad weather, for sure – were able to enjoy their trip dry. in the singer’s timeless repertoire.
Created four years ago, Robert en CharleboisScope has been presented mainly in large halls since 2019. It is therefore quite a gift that the Francos offered Saturday evening to the public, especially since it was identical, with neat projections on a giant screen, made of archive images, psychedelic drawings and colorful animations.
Above all, the coating was the same: the lively arrangements of Daniel Lacoste and the group of 10 musicians – a trio of brass, two drummers, two guitarists, a bassist, a violinist, a keyboardist – to give depth to this music that we know by heart.
Dressed all in white, Robert Charlebois was generous with his immortal songs. After opening with the most recent Lack of self-confidence – an old text by Réjean Ducharme that he set to music a few years ago – the successes, or rather the classics, followed one another without respite.
From the start of the second song, Dolorès, we actually knew that Charlebois was going to give us a real lesson in rock, blues and charisma, the swinging leg, the carrying voice and the crooked smile. Followed The wings of an angel, Ent’ deux joints, All torn – that he sings again and again all torn, as it should -, My country, Fu Man Chu: such a surge can only engender admiration boundless and guiltless pleasure, even though we’ve heard them a million times.
After the always restless Ordinaire – we pinched ourselves again, we admit it –, Robert Charlebois launched J’t’aime comme un fou on the drums, and raised their hands in the air to the thousands of people gathered in front of him.
Then his friend Louise came back to join him for La fin du monde, and, as an encore, the show sped on to the end with I’ll come back to Montreal, intoned movingly by tens of thousands of voices, then with the electric Te v’là.
On the giant screens, while waiting for the encore, it was frankly beautiful to see people of all generations show their love for a singer who has accompanied them all their lives. There was even this very rare thing that happened after he left the stage: the audience stayed put to watch the credits roll by, with a video of a young “Garou” singing Ordinaire, and who was applauded at the end. Sincerely touching.
Robert Charlebois barely intervened during the evening, making a few jokes here and there, but he took the time to thank the music gods for stopping the rain just in time. We thank them too, but people who stayed home because of bad weather are probably going to bite their fingers for a long time.
