Megan and I went and saw Manu Chao in concert last night at Plaza los Torres Nuevo Passado here in Guadalajara. The music was great and the crowd was super energetic. Definitely one of my best concerts ever.
The opening band (who I didn't recognize and wasn't on the tickets) was OK, but received a really bad reception from the audience, who was pretty eager for Manu Chao. The lead singer of the opening band was the only low point. She wasn't a great singer and also danced like Elaine from Seinfeld. Absolutely zero stage presence.
When the house lights went down before Manu Chao came on a bunch of people jumped the barriers seperating the lower level seating and the floor. The security tried to stop them and once the lights came on pretty much everyone stayed where they were.
The first set was really awesome. Manu is touring with Radio Bemba Sound System, who backed him up on his last live album. From Manu's two studio albums you might not realize how Ska and Reggae influenced he is, but last night it was obvious. Songs regularly switched between slower Reggae beats to hard driving Ska/Punk rhythms.
The second set was even better than the first, with more songs from Manu's first solo album "Clandestino". This included a really great ballad version of "Welcome to Tijuana" and a good version of "Bongo Bong". During the last few songs of the second set, most of the security left the floor and people flooded from the lower level seating to the floor. This was only after about 10 unsuccessful tries by security to keep individuals from jumping the barrier and running into the floor crowd. By the end of the concert the floor was filled to capacity and the crowd was very energized and there were a lot of mosh-pits. Megan and I were happy to be in the cheap seats in the second level.
Below is a picture taken at sunset of the arena:
Glad you enjoyed it too! I still can't believe they ran out of beer before he even took to the stage... good luck with the visa stuff, cheers- gwyn
Posted by: gwyn at March 1, 2006 11:35 PM