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ACL Fest review: Manu Chao
Manu Chao was already making eye contact with fans even before his 6:30 set on the AMD stage Sunday. Standing off to the side with his bandmates, he was easy to spot in his bright orange shirt, bouncing on his toes, and he drew devoted cheers when he grinned and raised his arms to folks in the crowd who were looking at him. That ebullient charisma defined the show, in which Chao stirred together reggae, ska, punk, flamenco and a variety of other genres, while singing in several languages.
A Parisian with Basque and Galician roots, the international pop star slashed his acoustic guitar like a folky Joe Strummer on such infectious, socially conscious singalongs as “Clandestino,” “Politik Kills,” ”Bienvenido a Tijuana” and “Eldorado 1977,” as well as the less topical “Me Gustas Tu” and “Bongo Bong,” a tune that first surfaced when he was leading the groundbreaking Latin-alternative band Mano Negra. Chao’s impeccably tight backing trio, guitarist Madjid Fahem, bassist Gambeat and drummer Philippe Tebou, abetted him in making frequent, sudden shifts from mid-tempo into double-time, which inevitably sent fans into a dancing frenzy. When Chao used this maneuver repeatedly at Stubb’s on Friday, it eventually became a little predictable, but at ACL, launching into warp speed just seemed like a natural reaction to the high energy of the crowd. The sound was also beautifully clear Sunday, making it easy to appreciate the artful way Fahem segued from lyrical, fluid passages into metallic mayhem. Meanwhile, Gambeat, who looks like a bouncer you better not get on the wrong side of, was almost as much fun to watch as Chao when they got to thrashing.
On “La Primavera,” with its spooky refrain “que hora son, mi corazon” (“what time is it, my heart?”) Chao kept pounding the bare part of his chest with the microphone, making a sound like a heartbeat, and he didn’t stop even after he seemed to have drawn blood. The crowd sang along lustily, and did the same after Chao told them they would now be singing in French, “and French goes “lo-lo, lo-lo, lo-lo, lo-lo, lo-lo.” A mosh pit broke out in front of the stage as everyone belted out their assigned part on the chorus of the rampaging polka “L’Hiver Est La,” while a guest trumpet player added an extra flourish. When the song ended and Chao took off his guitar, the crowd kept singing, even as he and the band took their bows, and he finally picked the guitar up again for another delerious round of “L’Hiver.” He stopped a final time, motioning that he’d been told to go, and some fans kept singing “lo-lo, lo-lo, lo-lo, lo-lo, lo-lo,” while others started chanting “Mala Vida! Mala Vida,” requesting a song from his Mano Negra days. Chao grinned and grimaced, made a slashing motion across his throat and then held up his hands in a funny exaggerated shrug before making his way off stage to continued cheers.
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By BenC
September 20, 2011 10:03 AM | Link to this
OTRA OTRA OTRA OTRA OTRA OTRA OTRA OTRA OTRA OTRA OTRA OTRA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!