Meshell and the Concert of Our Dreams

Meshell Ndegéocello is god. At Elysée Montmartre this past Sunday night, while two teenagers died in a Malachi crunch with French police out in the suburbs (more on that tomorrow), Meshell took the stage and rocked a set heavy with brand-new songs nobody’s ever heard before. I met Elissa Blount-Moorhead and her homegirl Jennifer outside l’Elysée Montmartre at the crêpe spot; they were in transit to London to give a lecture on a new Brooklyn museum devoted to preserving an old freed-slave community near Crown Heights. I might’ve skipped an opening act with my mouthful of Nutella, but from “Fool of Me” to her encore of Prince’s “All the Critics Love U in New York” (!!), I ain’t miss a second of Meshell.

Bassist Mark Kelley missed his flight, but Meshell Ndegéocello having a bass player in her band is like Hendrix bothering with a second guitarist in the Experience. With its expert placement in Love and Basketball, “Fool of Me” has gotta be one of Meshell’s most popular songs, and it was a great opener. But following the equally melancholic “Faithful,” the show took a turn into the unknown. Specifically, Meshell quietly (loudly, actually) started to front her own rock band. Dred guitarist Chris Bruce and his foil at stage left, axeman Oren Bloedow, crunked things up with drummer Deantoni Parks and set out to steal “Wilderness” from Joy Division, among other strange yet beautiful thangs.

The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams dropped back in August, but the sold-out crowd was only blessed with “Virgo,” “Shirk,” and “The Sloganeer – Paradise” (which smoked). Most of the night showcased unreleased (to be released?) songs. Besides the Joy Division and Prince covers, she played new tunes like “Crying in Your Beer” (where she sang of not dying alone), “White Girl,” “Top Shelf,” “Lola,” “The Bottom”; “Lock and Load” and “Mass Transit” stream on her MySpace page. The tunes rocked out more often than not and Meshell herself had precious little to say, other than thanking the French audience for patiently grooving with new material. We didn’t find out her bassist didn’t show until the encore. She left scores of Parisians still nodding their heads to “All the Critics Love U in New York” catching the métro at Anvers station 10 minutes later. Check it out below!