September 29, 2017 – Now is the Time on Sprockets When We Waffle

I didn’t understand the words, but I knew the tone and the aftermath.  Something hadn’t gone right in the opening monologue and transition into the first act, so they were doing it again.

I had assumed the free concert in Grand Place was being broadcast live but those assumptions were quickly replaced with the realization that it was being filmed for later broadcast.  As the opening montage restarted welcoming viewers to the “La Fete” I realized this could be a very long night.

Still, to see it all before it was beamed out nationwide (Belgium is the fifth smallest EU country, FYI), and to see the screaming masses happy to sing along with some popular Belgian and French bands, well, it was something.

I did feel like I had walked off the Truman Show set and onto an episode of Sprockets.  A few pics and a few videos.  When the one guy did his third ballad… and as the rain started… I decided to bail.  So I missed the teeny-bopper “wailbait” of Henri Pfr, the closer that everyone was apparently super excited to see perform live.  They’d shout like he was the second coming of pop superstardom; indeed, at one point I heard the announcer refer to him as “comme Michael Jackson.”

Anyhoo, a few pics, because that’s what I do…