Hundred Waters… I chanced upon this gem while watching the livestream of this year’s Pitchfork Festival, and was doubly lucky to learn, a few days later, that they’d play in Paris in a month.

Time flies, my love for them grows, and suddenly here I am, getting ready for the big night.

As usual, I take off at the last minute, cursing myself, and I have to adjust my pace accordingly. However, as I arrive running into the venue at the very minute the concert is supposed to begin, I’m surprised to see only a handful of people outside the hall. Before long, the doorman tells me that the doors haven’t opened yet. As it turns out, much fret over nothing.

I eventually get in, still confused by how few people have shown up (I counted fifty) and get to listen to the opening band Fragments, from Brittany. I don’t get quite carried away by their music, though it’s pretty good. After a while, they finish their set and proceed to clear the stage. They do so by having one band member onstage passing a piece of equipment to another member downstage, who in turn makes his way through the audience with the expensive, cumbersome instrument in his hands. Sometimes it’s not too difficult to tell which bands are big and which ones aren’t…

During the subsequent wait, I catch Hundred Waters frontwoman Nicole Miglis sneak in incognito through the crowd; automatically flash a smile at her; she smiles back. Night made.

A while later, I finally see Hundred Waters drummer Zach Tetrault onstage, doing the soundcheck for the drums… And right after, against all logic, the second opening band Emprss starts playing. They first come across a bit colder than the first act, but soon reveal their humility and peculiar sense of humour (“Alors, vous êtes chauds ? … Sûrs ? Il y a des chauds, sûr ? (chaussures)”). Their music is not bad either, although very heavy on bass. They linger on and eventually depart.

For the background music during the intermission, we are treated with “Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes”, the latest album by Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke. Although a nice choice, the music is being played inappropriately loud for “lounge” music, and soon becomes somewhat annoying.

The wait is long. Very long. It’s now been two and a half hours since the official start of the evening. Since I’ve endured all this to listen to Hundred Waters, I decide to do my best to make sure that the imminent experience will be magnificent. The crowd still being scattered, I shift forward to the second row without too much hassle. From the first row, the singer would be at arm’s reach. From where I’m standing, I can still have a perfectly clear view of the entire stage… and its backdrop: a looped animation of the venue logo, consisting of a blinding white bolt tearing up the black background over and over again… Only slightly annoying. Combine that with the unduly loud waiting music, and it’s not long before other members of the audience also start venting their frustration.

Just as we begin to resignedly come to terms with our plight, the fantastic four step on stage. Massive cheering. “We’re very pleased to play here”, announces a beaming Nicole Miglis, before confiding, “this is the best venue we’ve got to play in so far, by far”. Batofar, the concert venue, is a small, cozy boat moored on the Seine. At these words, the guitarist, who had by then been contemplating the ceiling for quite some time, starts poking curiously at it. By doing so, he accidentally lifts up a panel. Quickly, clumsily, he lets it drop: better leave it as it is. Laughter among the audience.

The band starts by playing a brilliant, true-to-the-original rendition of “Murmurs”, before moving on to another song and performing it just as brilliantly. Right before “Show Me Love”, all band members but Nicole Miglis solemnly step back – crouch, even – into the darkness, directing the whole attention towards her. She then plays the song solo, with her voice only, and some sparse keyboard accompaniment. For a few minutes, we’re engaged in an honest, heart-to-heart conversation with her, in which she acknowledges her flaws and asks for understanding and assistance.

At one point later in the concert, I notice that the musicians are all so engaged with the music, so receptive to it, that each and every one of them is playing with their eyes closed, unconcertedly in rhythm and in tune with each other. It’s a touching, memorable sight, and shows just how much they’re committed to their music.

All throughout the evening, the music and ambience remain very high.

The visuals also constitute a lovely touch: by guiding us through song parts, assigning specific colours to them, or sometimes leaving us completely in the dark, they undeniably add to the artistic value of the work.

By the same token, the band sometimes provides imagery as to what the songs are supposed to feel like. For instance, before playing “Chambers (Passing Train)”, they mentioned how they wanted to shoot the music video in the Catacombs of Paris but didn’t manage to get clearance, and asked us if we knew a way to make it happen. When they started playing, all of us had images of the Catacombs in our heads.

Hundred Waters are absolutely exceptional, loud, out of this world.

They rip out final jams ad lib, to the delight of the public, already wild by now. The vocal enthusiasm of the crowd seems to reach the band, and Nicole often cannot help but let out happy smiles at the effusive reaction to her penetrating music.

Let me clarify, though: although feverish, the audience is still quite restrained in its movements, even at the front row — no moshing, although, for their defence, I don’t think Hundred Waters’ music is particularly fit for “fits.”

After an hour, the band quickly comes back for an encore. They have a short talk between them and then declare sorrily and somewhat sheepishly, that the encore will only consist of one song.

Once the convert is over, the whole band bows, a gesture I believe they don’t usually do ; maybe a way for them to thank this particular audience. “It’s been a pleasure playing for you. We hope we can come back soon. We would like to stay here.” They might be hinting at a restrictive curfew hour — especially seeing as they started late —, which would explain why they left out my favourite song from the encore…

Sure enough, they leave the stage under a barrage of applause and cheering. They made the wait totally worth it.

I feel stingy having spent only 13 euro for such an outstanding performance, even though it only lasted an hour, so I decide to make up for it by buying merch, in my case two branded shirts (in retrospect, I regret not having bought three).

Now that I’ve seen them live, my respect for them, which was already high up, has gone right through the ceiling. They delivered a sublime performance, and I’m so glad – and lucky – to have been part of it.

Hundred Waters are truly an impressive bunch. I’ll be sure to keep my eyes on them… and buy my third shirt when they come back.

You might be interested in this other post I wrote about the band, in which I go a bit more in-depth in their creative process!