le mot "bouchon d'oreille"

For the past 5 or 6 weeks, a fellow assistant here had been trying to get people to go to a Stromae concert with her, either on Nov. 30 or April 28.  Honestly, from the clip I saw of his music, I didn't think I'd like it (it looked really depressing!), but I told her I'd like to go because it would be fun to go to a concert here.  Up until last week, we were planning on the April 28 concert because the Nov. 30 concert was too expensive at 30 Euros a ticket.  But then!  She found two tickets for half price on leboncoin.fr (basically the French craigslist).

So, we chanced it, and took the train to Lyon, and went to the bus stop near where the woman selling the tickets works.  She said she would be in a white car near the bus stop.  This is what we saw:

And actually, she was in the white car parked in front of these ones!  Anyway, it all worked out.  She was selling them because she had been given them by a radio or TV station or something.

We walked in and exchanged the radio/TV vouchers for our tickets.  Right when we walked in, we were approached by volunteers looking for donations for World Aids Day in exchange for red ribbons.  Then, we were given bouchons d'oreille (ear plugs) and asked to complete a survey about hearing loss prevention.

Then, finally, the music!  Mariama (a German who sang in English and introduced the songs in French) was the opener.  And then....

Stromae!

(Photo credit to fellow American assistant)

The concert was a lot of fun.  He's famous for Alors On Danse.  I'd never heard it before, but now I can't get it out of my head!  Apparently the song is at least two years old.  I wonder if he's gotten sick of it at all... he played three versions of it last night!  Including this slower version.  He had a video of an orchestra playing, but it was still cool!

A short clip of the intro to Alors On Danse at the concert....