Manu Chao live at Stockholm (Concert Review)

 

The Event, Place and Crowd

A Manu Chao concert was a concert I waited for a long time to see. And Friday Aug 15 was the date it came to be.
But the weeks works have drained all of my energy so I wasn´t sure that I was going until I decided that I will regret it if I didn´t went for a long time.
To make things worse the sky opened itself and both Thor and Zeus and all their fellow thungergods was working on the the dark clouds with flash and thunder and a pouring rain.
This was an outdoor concert just outside the Royal Operahouse of Stockholm. The crowd was a mixture of all origins and social classes in the society. And they were there to party with Manu Chao.


The Concert
Anyway I want downtown to see if there was going to be any gig. A half an hour late the Spannish singing frenchman entered the stage with his band and the crowd went beserk from the first bar. The moshpit was as the size that Rancid had in the West Cost Riot two years ago, through the whole set. This could been the concert of concerts if the soundmen didn´t had a word in it. The sound was lousy from the start to finish. And that was a pity. On the other side, the crowd sang every song loud like they written it themself. Manu projected energy to the big crowd, and it bounced back from the happy dancing, singing audience to the stage and increased the energy. The rain didn´t bother anyone, the lousy sound was no problem, just joy. The songs was long and often played as medleys. Often did it started slow to end up in a fast D-beat ska or something….you know the way Manu Chao does it. Most of the times the band let the crowd be a part of the songs with Whohu chanting passages in the medleys.

Over all it was great but not that great. Besides the bad sound and the rain there was one more thing that made it less great than i could been. The short versions of the older classic songs like Bongo Bong for instance.

Worth the effort? (The concert was free of entrance, paid by us taxpayers)? Yes, this is what I think my taxmoney could be spent on, not corrupt politicians.

 

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