I'll riff on some of Pat's points here.
Concorde - practically all playback, except a few effects during Equinoxe 4 (TV broadcast)
I agree, and coincidentally I've never ever been that interested in this concert. I don't know if there's even a real video showing the real visuals that were going on during the gig, but I couldn't find one the last time I "cared" which was in 2003.
Love the Equinoxe 7 Concorde single version, though!
China - Radio broadcast definitely live, and you can see JMJ and Dominique playing live on the concert film
Gotta love the bum note in Oxygene 2. Unlike most people, I don't think this gig sounds crap at all. I doubt it's from the very first night, though, unless it's not a live recording and they added some audience noises afterwards.
Houston - mostly playback, except for JMJ solo on Oxygene 5 (Betacam bootleg)
Gotta love the misplayed bassline in Oxygene 4 and how the choir in Rendez-Vous 2 sort of tumbles at first and then picks it up.
Lyon, on the other hand, has at least a full live orchestra and it sounds pretty great in the radio broadcast. Equinoxe 7 also kind of sounds live, methinks.
Docklands - 50% live from what I could hear on site (my first JMJ gig)
The odd laser harp sound in RV3 was kind of nice and what about one of the last notes of L'Emigrant played from a higher octave than in the album. Aside from those, I can't really remember any other differences but I haven't listened to the recordings that much in years. Also, on the audience recording/radio broadcast Hank Marvin's guitar parts sound totally different from the live album/video so they were at least live.
La Defense - as Docklands, with the new pieces / arrangements live
There actually was a thread (or maybe just a post) about the subject a few years back, where some of the engineers behind the scenes in the gig revealed that a lot of the gig was playback aside from the percussions, orchestra and many synth parts that weren't played by Jarre. Funnily enough, there's the pre-concert footage video on YouTube showing the rehearsals of Calypso 3 and if I remember correctly, the keys that Jarre played on the greatest keytar ever matched with the sounds that came out.
Concert pour la tolerance
This thread is starting to make me realize I haven't actually watched these concerts in years... but in any case, I like how in Revolution, Revolutions Jarre stumbles over the "TV, NO TV" part and just mumbles "TV". (BTW, this has got to be one of the weirdest Jarre performances ever with the girls and whatnot)
Oxygene Tour (1997) - ditto (great concert mis en scene)
There's this recording from the Wembley-Brussels album (probably the best sound quality of all the 1997 bootlegs but I just can't really understand why it's from two cities instead of one) during Oxygene 4 where Jarre plays part of the solo at the end of the song wrong but otherwise exactly as it should sound like. One of my definite "oh, it's live after all!" favorites.
Oxygene Tour 2007-08 - A revelation, utterly stunning and 100% live
What reignited my interest in his music after a 2-year-slump, really.
In fact, I think it's a good thing that the gigs aren't as live again as they were during the Oxygene 07-08 Tour. All the reactions afterwards to the 1.8 seconds of joy due to Equinoxe 5's return and whatnot has showcased that maybe most of the non-casual "fans" don't deserve good things like that since they'll just complain about it anyway. I can safely say that most of the stuff you've seen Jarre himself play hasn't been live but when you accuse all the other musicians (and yes, they're also real musicians as all the "real musicians" who complain about this stuff) of not playing live, well, they have a right to be enraged. Talent like Gary Wallis at 12DotS and of course the main band itself (I think Francis Rimbert even lashed out at this subject at one point).
But yes, I'll also admit that even they have been miming quite often. And as with the whole subject, I doubt it's because they lack talent but it's because of the production itself.
And on a bit larger scale, when Kraftwerk goes up to the stage with their laptops and robots, playbacking stuff from their laptops with some neat live parts added in, everyone suddenly becomes orgasmic. Some, and more often than not people not from forums like this, even say "this is what electronic music should be like!". When the Pet Shop Boys have hit the stage with mimed backgrounds and (more often than not) live vocals, NOBODY COMPLAINS. Well, aside from the usual press that doesn't like the band, but that's a given in all cases like this. Maybe Jarre is not electronic music then?
Then again, Jarre has never been popular in the press and Kraftwerk would get eternal praise for having a Duracell rabbit on the stage playing Spiegelsaal. Don't get me wrong, I'm a major Kraftwerk fan, but it's just a funny observation.
Oh, and I'm not saying Jarre should mime, it's just that up to the Aero-era downtime, it didn't bother me because the concerts I watched (conveniently omitting the Concorde gig) still sounded sufficiently different from the albums that I got interested in the man's music in the first place. Not to mention this topic will never die, I don't know what's the case today, but in 2003 you could still find Usenet posts from 1988 complaining about recorders on the back of the stage and stuff like that.
[TL;DR] If Jarre and (parts of) his band MIME/DON'T MIME, people will find things to complain about. Some will use constructive criticism, though.
I agree that much more of this concert was live compared to Houston.
