It was probably the concert of the year in Florida. The passage of Bigflo & Oli, this Saturday 29 October, as part of their tour of small rooms, triggered a tsunami like not seen for a long time.
Beyond the inevitable army of remote-wielding cell phones, we heard something like a terrible rumble. A noise like that, we tell ourselves that our ears will not come out unscathed. No need to worry about the room’s energy – they were already hot long before Bigflo and Oli entered the scene.
We first heard Oli, a cappella, immediately joined by his brother. “Hey, hi Agen, do you recognize me? “. This is the beginning of” I wasn’t there “, one of their latest titles, taken from the brand new album” Les autres c’est nous “. For the occasion,” La France “becomes” Agen “. In Florida , the two brothers already have a few passages to their credit. Florent Bénéteau and the first spectators recall that at the time, still little known, they had “only ten or fifteen people in the room.” How far to go: Florida was packed on Saturday night.
Even without being experts in the work of Bigflo and Oli, one could only let oneself be conquered by the happiness, by the contagious enthusiasm on both sides of the stage. Challenge launched by the artists: will Agen enter the top 5 of the loudest audience of their tour? According to Bigflo, the competition was serious with that of Mulhouse … It doesn’t matter; the Agenais were devastating.
Crazy atmosphere at the Bigflo & Oli concert on Saturday night.
The great thing about small club gigs is that you are entitled to songs the brothers don’t play in zeniths and stadiums. Lesser known songs of “I am”, “Real life” or “Too bad” (we had this by title at the end of the concert). For these rarer titles, the duo has set up a small game: they carry a wheel (Wheel of Fortune style) and the arrow points to a random title.
The title wheel
For us it will be “La Familia”, from the last album. A lady who came to accompany her children told us that she discovered Bigflo and Oli while she was watching “Rendez-vous en terre historique” on France 2: Oli had followed Raphaël from Casabianca in southern Madagascar. It was after this experience that the song “Les gens tristes” was born, still on the last album. A text taken from the strong bond between the boys. Met before the show, Oli told us they mostly write for themselves. “It allows us to digest news, strong stories that we have been able to live. I like to say that we sell mirrors: we put words on people’s ills, some can orient themselves ”. The best example of the evening is perhaps their a cappella interpretation of the “Sacré Bordel”: their declaration of love for France, with its flaws, its controversies and the qualities that make us regret when we are far away.
Highlight of the concert. Most of the audience already knew the songs of the new album by heart, but there is one that has not been played: “Trèfle”. This one has a somewhat special story: Francis Cabrel appears! The guys were sponsors of the Astaffort Meetings in 2019. “Our meeting was a reflection of the region,” says Oli. “Simple, kind, open, humble. He has class, which is why everyone loves him. One day, after a meal, we asked him to do a piece together and he said yes. And this he gave “Clover.” “It’s to give some hope to bruised people. It is a way to make it clear that we too have never found the four-leaf clover … Luckily, you have to look for it, with or without four leaves! “.
When we saw the line of people who came to take a picture before the concert, with the two brothers in all simplicity, we understood what Oli meant. Sacred evening!
An audience completely in a trance for the return of the two natives of Villeneuve-sur-Lot
