Time stops for no one and the Bolachas crew is
\nnow growing old <\/p>\n
and
\ncan barely handle the intensity of the big summer events. That\u2019s just one of
\nthe reasons we embrace Festival para
\nGente Sentada<\/b> (FpGS) dearly. What\u2019s the other? The chance to see some of
\nour favorite singer-songwriters in a semi-intimate setting while comfortably
\nseated, of course. Despite what we just said, don\u2019t think that FpGS is a
\nfestival for \u201cold people\u201d (whatever that is). The wide range of generations we
\nsaw in the audience should be proof enough of that.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Officially, the festival opened on Friday afternoon
\nwith performances by Serushio<\/b>, Benjamim<\/b> and Box 2 Box<\/b> on tiny outdoor stages across the city. Unfortunately other
\nresponsibilities prevented us from being there from the get-go so our festival
\nstarted at 21h30 when we stepped into the majestic Theatro Circo to see Bruno Pernadas<\/b>.<\/p>\n
\n
With a remarkable line-up of nine musicians (including
\nmembers from You Can’t Win, Charlie Brown, Tape Junk, Minta and a three element
\nbrass section) this show was a real treat. Even if you don’t really like Pernadas’<\/b> music it’s hard to look at
\nthis group of talented musicians and not admire the way they work together complementing
\neach other and creating this organic free-flowing style somewhere between the
\nsoundtrack of a space-opera and some exotic old-time big band while still
\nsounding fresh and maintaining a pop-like charm. From the brass section to the
\nchoirs, to the synths and the drums everything fits perfectly together sounding
\nas complex and exquisite as in a studio recording. Truly impressive!<\/p>\n
Starting the show off with “Ahhhhh”, which
\nis also the album opener, Pernadas<\/b>
\nand his band seamlessly played the songs from his critically-acclaimed work and
\nimmersed the audience in his imaginary outer-space fantasy in such a way that
\nit was really disappointing when, after announcing a new song to close the set,
\nthe production didn’t let him play it due to schedule restrictions. It was a rude
\nawakening back to a reality where (unfortunately) there are no pink ponies
\nflying on Jupiter. <\/p>\n
\n
The next artist to grace the stage with her presence was
\nYasmine Hamdan<\/b>, the alluring bare-footed
\nbeauty from Lebanon. With songs ranging from love and heartbreak (like the
\nlovely \u201cHal\u201d from the Jim Jarmusch film \u201cOnly Lovers Left Alive\u201d) to traditional
\nfisherman songs from the gulf of Persia or theatrical representations of
\nstereotypes in old Egyptian films, Yasmine<\/b>
\nand her band took the everyone for a smooth ride across the Middle-East.<\/p>\n
Even if the audience can\u2019t really distinguish any
\nwords (apart from the occasional habibi<\/i>),
\nthe truth is that music doesn\u2019t always need words to get through to the
\naudience. This was a prime example of that because, even if Yasmine<\/b> did put some effort into
\nbriefly explaining the stories behind most of the songs, her sensual dance
\nmoves and emotionally charged voice would be more than enough to enthrall
\neveryone. It was almost magical, like she was some kind of enchantress from an
\nold One Thousand and One Nights fairy-tale. Shakira must\u2019ve been onto something
\nwhen she claimed that the hips don\u2019t lie.<\/p>\n
\n
It was time for Giant Between toasts, cell-phone pictures, crazy We won\u2019t deny that, for a few minutes, we were taken Not everyone decided to take the short walk between There were only two downsides to this show. The fact JR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Time stops for no one and the Bolachas crew is now growing old and can barely handle the intensity of the big summer events. That\u2019s just one of the reasons we embrace Festival para Gente Sentada (FpGS) dearly. What\u2019s the other? The chance to see some of our favorite singer-songwriters in a semi-intimate setting while […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[134],"tags":[1258,217,1639,288,636,1646,137,1353],"class_list":["post-553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live","tag-bruno-pernadas","tag-festival","tag-festival-para-gente-sentada","tag-giant-sand","tag-howe-gelb","tag-mdou-moctar","tag-review","tag-yasmine-hamdan"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=553"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1801,"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions\/1801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSand <\/b>to blow us away with, not only one of the most musically fulfilling
\nshows of the festival, but also the most entertaining one. Presenting
\nthemselves to Braga with a classic rock-band formation (guitars, drums and
\nbass), the new moniker they have adopted (Giant3<\/sup>
\nSand<\/b>) works both as a way for them to keep making new songs (their new
\nalbum Heartbreak Pass proves that) and also to celebrate their 3 decades of
\nhistory.<\/p>\n
\npedal-effect guitars and other funny antics, Gelb <\/b>was acting even goofier than his usual self so it was kind of hard
\nto take even the most heartfelt ballads (like the beautiful cover of Leonard
\nCohen\u2019s \u201cA Thousand Kisses Deep\u201d) too seriously. There\u2019s no doubt that Howe Gelb<\/b> is the star of the show and
\nheart and soul of Giant Sand<\/b> but,
\ndespite his intense presence, it was humbling to see that he doesn\u2019t selfishly
\nhog the attention for himself and is able to disappear into the shadows and let
\nthe spotlight shine on his bandmates Brian
\nLopez<\/b> and Gabriel Sullivan<\/b> as
\neach of them each perform a song of their own authorship.<\/p>\n
\naback by the heavy focus on their most rock\u2019n\u2019roll-tinged songs (their concert at
\nNOS Primavera Festival, earlier this year, was mostly country-based and we
\nexpected something along those lines) but, as we settled into the noisy storm Gelb<\/b> had prepared for us, the surprise turned
\ninto pleasure quite naturally. \u201cIt\u2019s ok to leave a little early.\u201d Howe<\/b> said \u201cYou\u2019ll hear the last one
\nfrom the street.\u201d he warned before throwing \u201cTumble & Tear\u201d (from Giant Sand<\/b>\u2019s first album) at the
\naudience and ending this terrific concert with a very loud \u2018bang\u2019.<\/p>\n
\n
\nTheatro Circo and GNRation to see Mdou
\nMoctar <\/b>and <\/b>his band (if you are
\none of those persons: too bad for you) but, as the trio stepped onto the stage
\nof the adequately named \u201cblack-box\u201d, the room was still comfortably crowded. Moctar<\/b> and his bandmates took the tribal
\nrythms and the arabesque finger-picking from their homelands and evolved them into
\na sweet psychedelic desert-blues that was the perfect excuse for us to stretch
\nour legs and loosen our muscles a bit after all that time in Theatro Circo\u2019s
\nchairs.<\/p>\n
\nthat the encore had to be cut short (and we mean really short\u2026 that was the
\nshortest encore ever) for the band to make it to Barcelona on time and the many
\ntechnical difficulties that made the technician look like the fourth member of
\nthe band \u2013 always on stage checking the cables and the amps. Fortunately, none
\nof those managed to disrupt the communion between band and audience or stop the
\nband from bringing the Saharan heat to Braga and ending the first night of the
\nfestival on a very high note.<\/p>\n