Charlotte Gainsbourg is shy but sure to please in rare Chicago performance

April 21, 2010, at Park West

By Selena Fragassi
Published: April 28th, 2010 | 12:00pm

Although many actors have crossed the bridge into music, not many can claim to do it well. Or, rather, not many critics can claim they do it well. One of the rare standouts is French chanteuse Charlotte Gainsbourg whose epic lineage (not many can claim to have a mother who inspired the name of the famous Birkin bag) thankfully didn’t skip a generation. No doubt papa Serge Gainsbourg would be proud of his daughter could he have lived to see her wild success, most notably in the last decade with a score of acclaimed records (2006’s 5:55 and 2009’s IRM) and films, including her recent Best Actress win at the Cannes Film Festival for a memorable portrayal in 2009’s Antichrist.

That last credit was likely behind the vague feeling of incongruity during Gainsbourg's recent performance at Chicago’s intimate Park West Theatre, as the haunting and psychotic character of “She” from Lars Von Trier’s film was a distant mismatch for Gainsbourg’s real-time timidity and beyond-the-horizon gazes. Dressed in a modest white tank and pinstriped, rough-hewn pants, Gainsbourg quickly bowed onto the stage as the lights came up, offered a quick wave and smile, and wasted no time in debuting her latest album's title track for the city she says she hasn't visited in 18 years. "IRM" was an astute way to start the night with its labor-inducing drumbeat, tricked-out bells and whistles, and Gainsbourg's eerie monotone that mirrored the machine vs. human backbone of the song's birth, written after a life-threatening brain injury the singer suffered in 2007.

If Gainsbourg's latest album, and this performance, could provide any sort of message it would be one of triumph. Victory in her fight for life over death, in her decision of talent over tabloids, and in her wise partnering with master crafters who have honed and heralded Gainsbourg not as someone's daughter or someone's puppet, but as a serious artist who is at once modern, yet classic.

One of the collaborators was on the top of Gainsbourg's mind at the Park West as she took a moment to acknowledge musician Beck's supreme production work on IRM. Indeed, his influence is felt in the effortless eclecticism and soft-around-the corners, but hard-going-down vibrancy of the album's tracks, further explored in the upticks of a live setting. Tracks like "Master's Hand," "Heaven Can Wait," "Crooked Man," and "In the End" were beautifully translated with an extrapolated intimacy thanks to the venue's unrestrictive architecture.

While the night was filled mostly with Gainsbourg’s ultra-feminine, original material, even more swoonworthy moments came with her deft covers of Bob Dylan’s “Just Like a Woman” and her father’s “Couler Café.” So, perhaps it is the flexibility after all that makes Gainsbourg a stand-out: whether playing She to a frightened audience in a dark theatre or imbuing the material of He’s in an concert hall lulled by her soft voice, Gainsbourg is always good.

—

Charlotte Gainsbourg official site

Charlotte Gainsbourg MySpace page