Stunningly surreal synth-pop

JEAN-MICHEL JARRE 3ARENA, DUBLIN

By Jean-Michel Jarre’s record-breaking standards, playing Ireland’s largest indoor venue is an intimate walk in the park compared to performing for millions of people at some of the highest attended live events of all time.

Jean-Michel Jarre shows are still all about the spectacle in the great indoors. He perches over a bank of equipment like a sprightly mad professor, looking incredibly youthful for his 68 years, as a dazzling light show blinds the audience’s retinas. The stylish boffin also talks a lot, saying he always feels at home in Ireland as his manager Fiona Collins hails from Dublin.

“Hopefully we’ll have the craic tonight,” he drawls in his French accent. He met the Lord Mayor in the Mansion House earlier in the day, which you certainly couldn’t imagine happening to Kraftwerk.

Surprisingly, Jarre’s prototype electronica still sounds remarkably fresh. He keeps the set list up to date with a recent collaboration with Pet Shop Boys (who are sadly not in attendance), and much more bizarrely, a track with former CIA agent and whistleblower Edward Snowden entitled ‘Exit’. Snowden appears on the big screen for a spoken word segment, as Jarre accentuates the drama with a thundering piece of pop techno.

Jarre eventually gets the Monday night crowd on their feet, presenting a stunning finale by playing actual laser beams for ‘The Time Machine’. It’s a surreal, strange and stunning sight, and perfectly sums up the Frenchman’s perennial appeal.–