Trust has been France's premier hard rock band for over forty years. When their contemporaries were singing about dungeons and dragons, they were more preoccupied with social commentary, and, unfortunately, their lyrics are as resonant today as they've ever been. In fact, the normalization of far-right ideology and urban guerrilla have become all too real and are no longer dystopian fiction.
But thankfully, a Trust show is also a lot of fun and you don't need to pay attention to the prescient yet humorous lyrics to have a good time. Their music is steeped in the same Heavy Blues Rock as AC/DC, and therefore is perfect for a night of beer-drinking, pogo-dancing shenanigans.
Core band members Nono (guitar) and Bernie (vocals) are still holding down the fort with a supporting cast of younger musicians including long-time bass player David Jacob and second guitarist Ismalia Diop. Small difference since we last saw them five years ago, they now have three backup singers that add a new texture to some of the songs, old and new.
Far from being a stale old legacy band playing their hits, Trust prefers to mix it up with plenty of newer tracks from their recent records (they've released four in the last four years) and songs like Démocrassie, Le Conteur or Fils De Pute, Tête De Liste blend in perfectly with classics like Au Nom De La Race, Saumur, and of course the obligatory set closer Antisocial. But for this reviewer, the highlight of the set was an intense rendition of Ton Dernier Acte, which they wrote over forty years ago in tribute to their friend Bon Scott of AC/DC.
When the band left the stage after nearly two hours, Bernie encouraged us to "stay angry". Leaving the venue, walking by the dozen of homeless people lying down on the street of this posh neighborhood, Trust's music has never seemed more relevant, and Bernie's parting message was surely not lost on any the people in the audience.
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