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Gojira surprised the world with their heavy-as-hell rendition of “Ah! Ça Ira” at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. The performance featured everything from beheaded Marie Antoinette singers to blood cannons and plenty of fire – all the trappings of a great metal show, but shocking if you’re unfamiliar.
One person taken by surprise was Avenged Sevenfold bassist Johnny Christ, who noted in his Drinks With Johnny podcast that he was totally shocked when he heard Gojira come blaring from another room in his house.
“That was so cool. I watched it. I didn’t expect it. [I was] watching it with my wife. We watch every opening ceremony together. And it’s always cool,” said Christ. “You see the country coming together, all the artists of the country, they get a team together and they’re, like, ‘We’re gonna show all the art and history of us.’ And I think they did a great job.”
He continued: “I was in the other room and I heard metal being played, I was, like, ‘What the fuck?’ I walk out and I see this amazing performance happening on the parliament house or whatever castle that was. And I’m, like, ‘Wait a minute. That’s fucking Gojira. I know those guys. That’s fucking Gojira right there.’ And I was very happy for them. I was, like, ‘That’s fucking cool.’ And then, of course, 30 seconds later, I was, like, ‘Why the fuck haven’t I been up there doing anything like that yet?’ Fuck, dude. I’m moving to France. Fuck this.”
Christ later noted that he was impressed how the whole ceremony flowed in and out of Gojira‘s performance, in that it didn’t feel totally out of place.
“It was so cool. And they did a cool job of — it didn’t feel like it was, ‘Oh, now we’re just gonna go to metal and it’s gonna feel completely out of place at the rest of the ceremony.’ No, they still kept it. And with them hanging off the side of it, getting that shot, showing everything, going to the different windows and stuff, I thought it was really well done.”
