Hughes at one point played a guitar in the colours of the French flag, to cheers. The elation of being on stage was palpable, but it was also tinged with an overwhelming sadness for those trying to move on from trauma, and to pay homage to those whose lives were taken by terrorists.Īfter a moment of silence to remember the dead during the first song, the band played a raucous set – deliberately omitting their song Kiss the Devil, which they had been playing when the first shots rang out in November. The band had promised to fight terror with “fun”, and they were determined to deliver – even if that meant pouring so much nervous energy into their gig at Paris’s Olympia concert hall that Hughes complained of “tearing a tendon in my middle finger”. “You’re stuck with me, I’m Parisian now,” Hughes shouted. It was clear that the American band, with all its contradictions – including Hughes’s support of US gun provisions and approval of Donald Trump – would be forever woven into the emotional and cultural history of the city. “Bonsoir Paris, we’re ready for this!” frontman Jesse Hughes shouted as he emerged to the very French strains of Paris s’éveille by Jacques Dutronc.
The performance was a risky and sensitive undertaking, with the band themselves frequently in tears on stage, and psychologists standing by to attend to audience members if necessary.
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