L’Antipode, Paris, France14th November 2025
Waiting For Words - “Dignity Tour” & Myselfson - “Resistance” Release Party Concert
Two years after their memorable gig with AND ONE, attending the last date of the 35-gigs “Dignity Tour” of WAITING FOR WORDS was a “must do” to me. As a co headliner, it’s a Foundry Records’ family business with MYSELFSON, here to present their 2nd album, ‘Resistance’.
Not the first time the two bands share the stage together as MYSELFSON opened for WAITING’s “Egocracy” gig in Paris at Le Theatre Douze and toured in UK with them and “People Theatre” in 2019. Not to mention a WAITING FOR WORDS’ Extended Version of MYSELFSON’s hit single, ‘Rain And Pain’ on ‘Resistance’ as well as a cover of WAITING’s hit single from 2012, ‘By Your Side’.
The gig also happens in a particular context: It’s been 10 years on November 13rd, since the dramatic terrorist attacks that hit Le Bataclan at EAGLES OF DEATH METAL’s concert. L’Antipode is a very nice venue, a boat (another one as Le Petit Bain with AND ONE was also a boat) on La Seine. The evening starts with a special New Wave / Electro mixtape prepared by ZeN Smith to set the mood.
Myselfson
This French Electro Rock duet is signed on Foundry Records. They released a brilliant debut album six years ago, ‘Memory Park’ (my review), and just released the follow up, ‘Resistance’. The band consists of Frank Nordag (Synths, Guitars, Programming) and Jarl Myselfson (Vocals).
The concert starts on a melancholic note with ‘I’m Your Man’, a beautiful mid-tempo song from ‘Resistance’. Jarl, the lead vocalist, seems a bit shy to start but gains more confidence as the song goes. Frank Nordag, the man machine, performs both electric guitar and synth. ‘Take The Mike’, an Electro-Rock song from their debut album, speeds up the tempo. Despite being a small stage and club (100 people capacity, sold out that night), the light show, and most of all the sound, are just incredible. The mix is perfect between sequences, synths, guitars and vocals.
‘By Your Side’ follows. It’s only half a surprise (but still a surprise), to see ZeN appearing on stage to join his friends. Wordies in the audience are obviously thrilled. Both voices blend in very well and you can feel the friendship between the two singers. Zen’s experience and charisma could have overshadowed the band but this is how you see the humility of the man, letting Jarl lead the track and doing just what it takes to warm up the audience. Some very nice vocal lines from both singers. It would be interesting to have a studio duet version of it indeed.
‘The Holy Lies’, one of my favourites from ‘Memory Park’, brings a dance club feel to the party before ‘Resistance’, one of the high lights of the eponym album. The track takes obviously a deeper meaning the day after the Bataclan’s sad memorial celebration. ‘To Love Again’, an English and French lyrics love song, follows for a more melancholic feel before another highlight of the album comes up, ‘Das Ist Unsere Welt’, yes, in German. We’re in a Dark Electro feel here, driven by a strong bass guitar and edgy guitar riffs on the chorus.
The next tracks are a succession of ‘Memory Park’’s strongest tracks: ‘Every Night Is A Fight’ (I love the mid-song progression with electro sounds collapsing with guitars), ‘Cherry Dance’, ‘Like Rabbits’ and of course, their hit ‘Rain And Pain’, performed here in its Club Version from ‘Resistance’ with the audience singing along the chorus.
MYSELFSON delivered a strong performance. Despite not having hundreds of concerts of experience, Jarl has the potential and charisma to become a strong performer. The band may benefit to recruit a keyboard player on tour to allow Frank to fully dedicate to guitar and a stronger live presence as he seems a bit stuck behind his synth and computer, switching from guitar to synths.
Knowing the band brings an incredible work to their artwork on their albums, with specific arts for each song in their booklets, I was expecting to see that transcripted on the screen instead of just the logo. Would probably help too as it’s quite hard to keep the attention for a full hour set with just the two of them on stage. But hey… the future is ahead of them. Note: the concert can be seen on YouTube.
Setlist
01. I’m Your Man
02. Take The Mic
03. By Your Side (Waiting For Words Cover feat. Zen Smith)
04. The Holy Lies
05. Resistance
06. To Love Again
07. Das Ist Unsere Welt
08. Every Night Is A Fight
09. Cherry Dance
10. Like Rabbits
11. Rain And Pain (Club Mix)
Waiting For Words
Not even 15 Minutes later, the ‘Dignity’ album closing instrumental track ‘No Surrender’ resonates and as the drum beat starts, the fans show they are here to make this night a party to remember, clapping and cheering as the band enters on stage, led by a triumphant ZeN, standing face to the crowd, the arm in the air making the “V” sign. Since Peter Rainman decided to take a step back from touring and focusing on the band’s studio and songwriting work, it’s an old friend of the band performing keyboards.
Known as Mycrotonik while he was a full-time band member from 2006 to 2010, Laurent NoReaktion (who provided the single version of their hit ‘Egocracy’ in 2020) is back on stage since summer 2024. And from the first track, you can hear he’s not here just to reproduce Peter’s lines but bring his own talent to the mix with new and interesting synth parts, blending in perfectly and offering some new appeal to a repertoire now performed for the last three years.
The sound is massive and crystal clear, voices are confident, bass and drums precise and powerful, and the screenings (the 6th stage member for years), despite not covering the full size of the screen due to stage dimensions, brings this immersive dimension to the show. ZeN fully lives the song to his bones and hit the high note of ‘My Dignity’, the fist in the air, with confidence. ‘(Have We) Lost It All’ follows with not even one second of blank between songs and the audience instantly reacts, claps hands in rhythm and is taken by the groove of their 2018’s hit single.
Sam Nae’s bass is groovy and fully replaces the original synth bass line while ZeN replaces his end bass solo by a synth part. The song was already a big hit before, it became with years and the bass / drum duet a powerful and groovy essential Live song. And the audience feels it too, praising Fred Montana’s drums break. Soe is already confident and often goes to Nae, dancing and smiling. The band promised a special setlist for this last gig of the tour and the first surprise is a great and powerful cover of BILLY IDOL’s ‘Eyes Without A Face’. The band manages to be very loyal to the original version while bringing their own DNA to it. Soe’s voice is perfect for the ‘Les Yeux Sans Visage’ part, and rather than trying to copy Stevens’ unique guitar sound, some smooth and perfect synth sounds give a different feel to this overly covered song. Well done.
After this kind of observation round, the band is now warm enough to drop the first bombs of the show: ‘Hedonism’ and ‘Miles Away’. The first single of ‘Dignity’ is now a classic as the audience sings along almost all the song and ZeN’s jumps in the crowd, singing the chorus with their fans while Soe is acclaimed for her solo part. ‘Miles Away’, performed in its 2022’s re-recorded version, is of course one of the many classics of the band. It takes some guts to drop such a hit single at the beginning of the show. It proves the confidence they have in the rest of their repertoire. The emotion between Soe and ZeN every time they perform this song, even after 15 years is remarkable. Sam Nae and Fred encourages the clapping hands on the break and the audience goes wild.
The band carries on the groovy road with an outstanding cover of the French classic, ‘Cargo’ (from the singer Axel Bauer, but international audience probably knows better the 1987’s English cover of it by Roger Daltrey, ‘Taken Me Home’). You can feel this INXS / DURAN mix of Groove and Rock the band has been talking about during all the promo of ‘Dignity’. One thing is sure already at this point, DEPECHE seems very far from here and you don’t hear a synthpop band sounding like that often. Afterall, is WAITING FOR WORDS just a Synthpop band?
The band takes some time to joke with the audience while Fred comes front stage taking the bass guitar, Nae switches to guitar and lead vocal and ZeN takes a step back to keyboard. Fred dedicates the song to 2015’s victims and they surprise us a soon as U2’s chords of ‘One’ resonates. It’s the first time Nae has a solo number in Paris for long-time fans… and she’s more than up to the challenge. Some fans scream her name, but most of all, her vocal performance is just outstanding.
And now it’s time for Soe’s to take the lead with a string of four songs in a row… and what songs! But before she starts, they reveal the presence in the venue of Peter Rainman (of course, many fans already recognized him before) that apparently surprised even the band. ‘With All My Tears’, the B-Side of ‘My Dignity EP’, is even more powerful and groovy live. A very DEPECHE MODE’s 1986/87 era sound alike (a strong ‘Stripped’ / ‘But Not Tonight’ feel in the synth sounds and melodies), but most of all, a beautiful melody.
Their 2015’s cover of THE CURE’s ‘A Forest’ that has not been performed in a while follows. And it’s a smashing rendition and one of the highlights of the gig. Soe’s vocal performance is absolutely incredible, Nae takes a totally different road than just doing Simon’s bass line and choose to go for a groovy / slap bassline, smartly avoiding references to this cult line. As soon as ‘Egocracy’ beat and intro start, the audience recognizes it and the party goes from hot to burning. Soe is now in full control of the crowd; mime song with her phone, takes selfies with the band and audience and messes around with Sam Nae.
After a couple of jokes about replacing ZeN and taking ownership of the band, one of the best songs of the album, ‘La Voix Des Ombres’, follows. We’re in a full Gothic Electro mood now. All parts blend in perfectly and the last minutes of the songs see Soe climbing higher and higher to incredible parts, supported by Nae’s magic e-Bow guitar and impeccable synth-part from a very Wilder-esque ZeN. The latter comes back to front stage as their 2015’s cover of INXS’ ‘Don’t Change’, in a newly almost acoustic version, starts. Vocals are just perfect, with beautiful guitar and choirs’ arrangement supported by smooth percussions.
The final high notes from Soe and ZeN provoke instant goose bumps to everyone. And the emotion doesn’t stop there as the new single, ‘To Avoid The Void’, written and dedicated to Peter and ZeN’s respective fathers, starts. Soe has a beautiful gesture of taking ZeN’s hand to help him carrying it on till the high note before ZeN goes back in the crowd to join Peter in singing the end chorus… and you can feel they struggle with emotion to carry on. The audience is hit by the sincerity and fragility of the moment and it’s a deeply moved ZeN that thanks them.
And in the pure WFW tradition, they operate a total change of mood as ‘A Kiss Like This’ instantly recognizable intro notes resonate. From that moment on to the end of the show, the concert turns in an incredible master class of live performance. Their cover of ‘Heroes’ is supported by a slide show of all our music idols disappeared over the last years… and you realize how many of them are gone. From Bowie to Fletcher, McCarthy to Hollis, Anderson to Bronski, Hutchence, Turner, O’Riordan, McGowan, Tovey, Prince and so many more.
It’s now Soe who spend most of the song in the audience, going to sing along with almost every person in the venue and of course, a beautiful “Oh Oh Ooooh” with the band and fans in full communion. Once again with their covers exercise, they give a new feel and sound to SIMPLE MINDS’ ‘See The Lights’ with a heavy Industrial synth sounds and percussion, strong drums and bass, ethereal vocal lines by Soe and another great performance by ZeN.
And we’re back in a string of WAITING FOR WORDS strong repertoire. The edgy and dark ‘Take It As My Pride’ is certainly one of the band’s highlights of the show. The drum is powerful with millimetric performance, e-Bow and Soe’s ethereal notes create almost one unique sound and ZeN is now in another dimension. The audience is going wild but as certainly everyone in the room knows the song, it’s in an almost religious silence that the end part with Piano, ZeN and e-Bow stuns every single person. ZeN’s voice is crystal clear and remarkable.
And the party is far from ending. The cult ‘Cause I Do Believe’ sung along by everyone, the smashing ‘Great New Worlds’ (with Soe joining Peter in the audience for his vocal line), the 90s Rave / Madchester tribute ‘See The Lights’ (this time, the WAITING FOR WORDS song) and, a song expected by everyone, the current single and already a band classic, from Paris to Mexico, ‘Interieur Nuit’ with a totally wild Soe. ZeN asks then Peter to join them on stage on keyboards for the last number, another INXS’ cover, ‘Devil Inside’, which is the final jab that knocks everyone down.
After 2 hours… the band brings in an encore! A very emotional moment, again, as Soe asks Peter to stay with them, and calls for Mathieu (their long-time friend and “Guardian angel” from GoM Production) and the club signer duet that creates all of WAITING FOR WORDS sleeves cover of albums and singles since 2015 (and a lot of Foundry Records other productions such as PEOPLE THEATRE or FAHTERLESS CHILD) to join them on stage while they perform an almost acoustic version of ‘To Avoid The Void’.
When the light goes up again, it’s an incredible mix of emotions that leaves everyone a bit dizzy. What have we just experienced here? 2 hours and 10 minutes of incredible precision, performance, “savoir faire”. But not only. A pack of emotions, friendship and love between the band members, respect and recognition for their fans… and from their fans. This was a true celebration of years, decades of incredible hard work.
The band’s repertoire, covers aside, is probably one of the strongest repertoires of their generation. The succession of hit singles, album tracks and B-sides that could have been other hit singles, is smashing. And covers are not here to fill the blank. They became with years as important to WAITING FOR WORDS DNA than their own song. To be fair, I even didn’t make any difference as they are carefully crafted to BE WAITING FOR WORDS songs.
There was at not one weak moment during the set, even with slower tempo song. At no point the crowd failed to be in the mood and the bar staid empty for almost all the show. Once again, WAITING FOR WORDS proved they are one of the hottest tickets of this scene. ZeN is, without a doubt, one of the best live performers around. His vocals never ceased to progress since year and tonight was certainly one of the best performances of his career. His charisma and presence could take the audience anywhere.
And let’s not forget Soe. Year after year, she grew not only as a great vocalist, but now as a charismatic performer, with her own style and a lot of humour, bringing something different and complimentary in the balance. Of course, Fred, Nae and NoReaktion provide the foundations and support to it. The cohesion, the sound, the precision but most of all, the groove and humanity to a style too often mechanical and robotic. I can’t think of any other acts in Europe you could compare WAITING FOR WORDS to. I’m not saying they are the best. There are dozens of incredible other bands of course. I’m just saying that they are unique. Note: the concert can be seen on YouTube and is also available in audio.
Setlist
01. No Surrender (Intro)
02. My Dignity
03. (Have We) Lost It All
04. Eyes Without A Face (Billy Idol Cover)
05. Hedonism
06. Miles Away
07. Cargo (Axel Bauer Cover)
08. One
09. With All My Tears
10. A Forest (The Cure Cover)
11. Egocracy (NoReaktion remix)
12. La Voix Des Ombres
13. Don’t Change (Acoustic INXS Cover)
14. To Avoid The Void
15. A Kiss Like This
16. Heroes (David Bowie Cover)
17. See The Lights (Simple Minds Cover)
18. Take It As My Pride
19. Cause I Do Believe
20. Great New World
21. See The Lights (WFW)
22. Interieur Nuit
23. Devil Inside (INXS Cover)
24. To Avoid The Void (Acoustic)
Pictures by NicolasBenoit, Marie Laure Duarte, Mat Nocturne, Sabine Mazoyer
