The Paris Olympics' closing ceremony was chock-full of star power. However, one seemingly anonymous hooded guitarist managed to steal the show, sparking much online speculation about who it could be.
Now French guitarist Noé Efira appears to have been confirmed as the man behind the mask – and the player behind a searing solo that came right after Cambodian rapper Vann Da's performance of Time to Rise [at about 10.50 in the clip below].
Despite not being a household name, the talented guitarist is close friends with French indie band Phoenix, who featured prominently in the closing ceremony. He recently played with the group at a San Francisco concert, where he also appeared as a masked figure and gave the audience a taste of what millions of people witnessed yesterday.
“Those at Warfield yesterday have seen the best live version of Funky Squaredance [from the album United] yet thanks to out childhood friend Noé,” wrote Phoenix on social media. “He was the one who played the guitar solo on the album version back in 2000.”
“Yesterday was very special for many reasons. What felt the most special was being able to celebrate my 30 plus years of friendship with the Phoenix crew,” Efira tells Guitar World.
“They are some of the most beautiful, humble people and some of the most talented and important musicians of their generation, all at the same time.”
Efira's axe-of-choice, a vintage Veleno guitar, added to the enigma.
“We selected it due to its aluminum construction, as it could reflect the light show the best,” he adds. “In fact, it played so incredibly well and fast, while [being] somewhat heavy, [so] it was very well-balanced.”
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The cult electric guitar brand is the brainchild of John Veleno, who, in the 1970s, produced around 200 of the world’s first aluminum guitars. These ended up in the hands of Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, Todd Rundgren, Gregg Allman, and Ace Frehley, to name a few.
In the '90s, these guitars gained a following among the post-rock, alt-rock and grunge communities due to their unique twangy and gnarly sound.
Kurt Cobain, Shellac, The Jesus Lizard, and Uzeda were major Veleno proponents, driving up the guitars' popularity and prices. Nowadays, the originals are scarce and command up to $20,000 on the secondary market, although they seldom go up for sale.
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The Veleno family recently revived the niche guitar brand with the Next Generation Legacy and the Ankh One of The 6 models.
A statement from the family on the official website reads:
“We’re proud to be upholding the legacy of our founder and father, John Veleno. His innovation and dedication to building unique and masterfully crafted instruments is in our blood, and we are eagerly working toward bringing that level of enthusiasm to modern players and collectors around the world.”
Among the other notable (albeit unhooded) guitar performances at the ceremony, was another surprise: H.E.R. appeared to play the national anthem and continued to perform as Tom Cruise abseiled into the stadium to carry the Olympic banner.
