Concert Reviews – Page 3 – Mondo Bizarre Magazine

February 6, 2025February 8, 2025 Mondo Bizarre Magazine Concert Reviews, Concerts

Calexico Trio,Casa da Música, Porto, 04.02.2025

Spring Came Earlier

words: Paulo Carmona (edited by Raquel Pinheiro); photos: Sara Oliveira

Spring came earlier. It was not announced. It arrived and that was it.

How good it was to be at Casa da Música, in the immense filled Suggia room to savour Calexico. If there is a band that can transmit the warmth, sun, and swing of a spring night, even from within a room, in the middle of winter, it’s Calexico. Joy and well-being was a constant throughout the concert. Joey Burns was at his best, and the result was a perfect interaction between band and audience. Believe it or not, there was dialogue and direct translation mode singing during My Love Don’t Leave Me Now. It was cute and very funny to watch.

The band created and conceived by Joey Burns and John Convertino, came with Martin Wenk – trumpet, guitar, vocals, occasionally harmonica, an excellent multi-instrumentalist musician, super competent and very relaxed. As for Joey & John, is it even worthy mentioning? Everything that comes from them is always magical and infinitely majestic. A symbiosis, a synergy of talents.

Calexico opened with Don Quixote and Gypsi’s Curse, Epic and Glimpse and went around through alleys and melodic paths where styles ranging from folk to rock’n’roll intersect.Joey Burns continues to be an affable and friendly communicator. A born and very experienced entertainer. As always accompanied by his folk guitar called Amália Rodrigues.

Spring came earlier.

November 21, 2024November 30, 2024 Mondo Bizarre Magazine Concert Reviews, Concerts

Bernard Butler, Casa da Música, Porto, 17.11.2024.

A Handful of Songs

words: Paulo Carmona (edited by Raquel Pinheiro); photos: Telma Mota

I knew that Bernard Butler was a guitar genius due to his creativity and originality.

I confess I didn’t knew he was such a communicator. He is very humorous, entertaining and truthful in his discourse, not even shying away from self-deprecation.

His pop rock is of a singular richness and his ease in transposing it on stage is, to say the least, appreciably comforting. I can feel colours from all shades of the rainbow in Butler’s songs, coated in intense, personal and introspective lyrics. It’s not hard to see yourself in one song or the other, and that’s why it’s easy to navigate his world.

In this concert at Casa da Música, Bernard’s first ever in Porto, he presented Good Grief, his new album in 25 years, gave us songs such as Deep Emotions and Pretty D, and obviously iconic songs from People Move On, such as My Domain, and the closing Not Alone.

From his collaborations with other artists he brought songs like Although (McAlmont & Butler) and Shallow The Water (Jessie Buckley & Bernard Butler).

A solo concert so intimate, just the man and his guitar(s), that you could talk to the musician and sip the stories from his Gibson ES-355, which, in his hands, almost speaks.

I was delighted by the riffs, sometimes intense, sometimes soft, but all of them imbued with charismatic melodies. Butler is a storyteller and a speaker of the sensations that come from those stories. What’s impressive is the way in which those same sensations fit, in a perfect symbiosis, with the dynamics of his songs. It’s a gift.

I think that’s all I needed to see and hear on a pre-Christmas Sunday evening. It was indeed well worth leaving the house for!

November 19, 2024November 21, 2024 Mondo Bizarre Magazine Concert Reviews, Concerts

Temples, Hard Club, Porto, 14.11.2024.

Lost in translation. Definitely.

words: Paulo Carmona (edited by Raquel Pinheiro); photos Telma Mota

Temples are a band of dreams. The magic feeling is constant throughout the band’s performance. Atmospherically very rich and diverse in the structure of their songs, they take us to rest in meadows that stretch far as the eye can see. An immensity of nostalgia and divine emotions that, in fact, can only be reached in temples of sound in which music is the supreme divinity.

You almost feel a cool breeze on your skin that gives you goose bumps, a constant throughout the concert. In Move With the Seasons I almost levitated, in The Guesser I dreamt and in Fragment’s Light I almost cried. What more could I ask for?

As the songs flowed, bodies moved to the rhythm of the band’s sound, applause was effusive and appropriate for the marvellous setting. The band felt that the audience was with them and James Bagshaw, the band’s singer, ended up saying that this was thee crowd of the tour. I bet it was.

I dare say that Temples are one of the best bands of the last 20 years, for its originality and musical creativity, and that Sun Structures is a masterpiece of musical art.Outside, the city is perfectly suited to what was experienced and witnessed indoors. Perhaps because its the city of temples. I still feel it all very much alive and present in me. Thank you, James, Tom, Adam and Rens. Don’t make us wait another 10 years for your return to Portugal and, in particular, to Porto.

November 12, 2024November 16, 2024 Mondo Bizarre Magazine Concert Reviews, Concerts

Whispering Sons, Hard Club,Porto, 08.11.2024.

words: Paulo Carmona (edited by Raquel Pinheiro); photos: Telma Mota

The preamble serves to highlight the aesthetic evolution of the band at all levels. Whispering Sons developed well and got a place in their type of European rock.

The band is instrumentally cohesive with a very remarkable and secure well-structured rhythm section. The symbiosis between bass and drums works perfectly. In the melodic section, the guitar delivers sharp, strident and melodic riffs and knows how to respect the silences and dynamics that characterize the songs of Whispering Sons. The keyboards work as a safe network in a nostalgic tone that gives all that fog, at times thick, at times soft, sailing between chilling breezes. Up there, on the trapeze, Fenne Kuppens’ voice, dense, semi-hoarse, deep and disturbing makes the difference and imprints the stamp that characterizes the Belgian quintet.

Whispering Sons’ performance at Hard club presented a growing and coherent setlist starting with Balm, Something Good and Surface, moving on to Walking, Flying and Try Me Again. It was a concert in crescendo that left everyone, myself included, satisfied. The Great Calm, the band’s largest record is to be heard from beginning to end. And it was with a feeling similar to the album title that I set out on my way home.

September 24, 2024September 24, 2024 Mondo Bizarre Magazine Concert Reviews, Concerts, Festivals, Uncategorized

Winten & Maple Glider, Socorro, Porto, 20.09.2024. | Piquenique Dançante Sobre a Relva, Parque de São Roque, Porto, 22.09.2024.

words, photos & videos: Raquel Pinheiro

Walking blind into concerts is something I enjoy a lot. I was neither familiar with Winten or Maple Glider songs. My reason to go to their respective concerts at Socorro was to meet a old friend I hadn’t seen in over a decade.

Winted © Raquel Pinheiro

I was pleasantly surprised with Winten and Maple Glider gentle songs and music. Winten more inclined towards heartbreak and love sceneries and scenario in a frail, tone; Maple Glider, although not dissimilar, has a more sober and mature tone.

Maple Glider © Raquel Pinheiro

Piquenique Dançante Sobre a Relva © Raquel Pinheiro

Piquenique Dançante Sobre a Relva (Dancing Picnic on the Lawn) is an event held yearly at a park or garden in Porto. This year it was near by me at the wonderful Parque de São Roque on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 September.

I only attended on Sunday. It was the first time I went to Parque de São Roque dressed up. And it was joyous and fun. Lots of people on the lawn and labyrinth area, seated on blankets, kids running and playing around – the monitors turned to the audience provided a great racing and dancing track for children that were freely allowed to run upon them. Since I also stood on them during Wolf Manhattan, I can attest it’s great fun.

It was great to see friends, acquaintances, so many new faces and watch friends playing.

West 11 © Raquel Pinheiro

West 11 share Phil King (guitar) and Mark Kingston (bass with) Population 5 and have Beth Hirsch on vocals. They are, or were in this instance, a serene band. Heavily contrasting with the raucous, electric in every sense, groovy surfy Population 5. Children played a part again when a very young guitarist with his toy guitar took to the stage having Phil and Fernando Barbedo (Population 5’s other guitarist) as his wing men.

Population 5 © Raquel Pinheiro

Wolf Manhattan are João Viera’s latest incantation. The sad, happy story of a singer-songwriter, lonely in his bedroom that takes his show on the road, accompanied with several eye catching guitars, hair colour and clothes. Cool songs, entertaining atmosphere.

Wolf Manhattan © Raquel Pinheiro

Between bands André Rio played cover on a small stage on the middle of the lawn’s fountain, leading to a sing-a-long.

André Rio © Raquel Pinheiro

I didn’t stay to see Irmãos Catita. Home and my guitar were calling.

September 17, 2024September 24, 2024 Mondo Bizarre Magazine Concert Reviews, Concerts

Bill MacKay, Understage – Rivoli, Porto, 13.09.2024.

Bill MacKay @ Rivoli © Raquel Pinheiro

Guitar Poetry

words & video by Raquel Pinheiro; photos: João Octávio Peixoto/TMP

To say Bill MacKay’s concert was extraordinary, would be underwhelming. Sublime is a better word. Transcendental, another good one. Those words still don’t do justice to the music, guitar, playing, singing. In fact, being there is the only thing that would do it justice.

Beauty, poetry spoken with an electric guitar as I’ve seldom heard it. Bill sings too, and tells little stories about the songs, however, his visual, sound, poetic mastery of the guitar is the domain of few.

The songs from MacKay’s latest album Locus Land (by the way it’s Terra do Gafanhoto, Bill 🙂 ) gain a different, spiritual, otherworldly dimension live. They become a time within time. A time of gentleness, until the final piece served: Arcadia. Bill stood up to play Arcadia in full, distortion mode adding a sharp dramatic contrast to the tone of the concert.

Bill MacKay @ Rivoli © Raquel Pinheiro

July 11, 2024July 14, 2024 Mondo Bizarre Magazine Concert Reviews, Concerts

Anoushka Shankar, Casa da Música, Porto, 03.07.24.

words: Marcos Leal (freely translated by Raquel Pinheiro); photos: Marcos Leal

Casa da Música filled on a Wednesday night to listen to British sitar player Anoushka Shankar (Ravi Shankar’s daughter).Anoushka steps on stage alone, under a single light, and plays Offering, like a gift to those in attendance. Meanwhile the backs comes in Sarathy Korwar (drums), Pirashanna Thevarajah (percussion), Tom Farmer (double bass), Arun Ghosh (clarinet).

The performance was centered around music Anoushka has been working on that will be released in instalments – intended to capture moments and emotions – and previously released tracks.

A rhythm crescendo was noticed during the performance with a solo by Arun Ghosh (clarinet) getting an ovation from the audience. A Ravi Shankar theme that Anoushka has been working on throughout the years was played, and the concert ended with Reunion. Anoushka will return alone to play a final track, Sleeping Flowers.

July 2, 2024July 9, 2024 Mondo Bizarre Magazine Concert Reviews, Concerts

Jesus the Snake | All Them Witches, Hard Club, Porto, 24.06.2024.

words: Marcos Leal (freely translated by Raquel Pinheiro); photos: Telma Mota

Jesus the Snake, a band from Vizela, ofereced a serene and contemplative cradle with their spacial pinkfloydesque melodies. Only the dense riffs of the last track broke the immersive state and awoke the audience for what was to follow.

When All Them Witches turn arrived the change of atmosphere in the room was palpable. The audience in constant uproar and ecstasy, at times contrasting with the here and there immersive melodies of the band. However, they also own beating riffs. All Them Witches manage to transport the listener to a road movie in which we travel through prairies, and the typical dinners and motels of American landscapes.

The band played a setlist that reviewed several of their tracks such as the opener See You Next Fall, When God Comes Back, Alabaster, The Marriage of Coyote Woman and after effusive aplaus, on the encore, Bulls.In short, it was a happy return over here and a great welcome for All Them Witches.

June 18, 2024June 22, 2024 Mondo Bizarre Magazine Concert Reviews, Concerts

Sprints, Mouco, Porto, 15.06.2024.

words: Paulo Carmona (freely translated by Raquel Pinheiro); photos: Telma Mota

I confess I’ve spend most of my life seeings attempts at burying rock-‘n’-roll for the most varied reasons and dantesc like premonitions. As if a chronicle of an announced demise.

It is bands like Sprints that show up giving the finger to those morbid mistrustfuls, holding a fluffy white bunny passport.What happened Saturday at Mouco was epic.

They arrived, they saw, they conquered. With a very energetic and lascivious garage/stoner punk rock this young band from Dublin grabbed the audience from the beginning to the end of the concert. No truces given drawing the audience to get involved with the band at song, at every charge.

Energetic and irreverent, well instrumentally sustained with drums supported (Jack Callan), bass and vocals (Sam McCann) guitar (Colm O’Reilly) and Karla Chubb (main vocals, guitar) doing everything else. Karla has an overwhelming power that leaves no one indifferent.

The setlist played was everything the Sprints have to give and believe it is a lot. Heavy, Adore, Cathedral, Delia, Shadow and Letter and others, were part of the party that ended with Karla in a happy mosh among the audience.

I left belly filled and only felt like singing to myself: I know, it’s only rock’n’roll, but I like it, I like it… yes I do! How not to?

May 7, 2024May 8, 2024 Mondo Bizarre Magazine Concert Reviews, Concerts

SDH, Mouco, Porto, 04.05.2024.

words: Paulo Carmona (freely translated by Raquel Pinheiro); photos: Telma Mota

It seemed everyone was already waiting to shake their hips to SDH frantic rhythm, since that happened from the start. The powerful loops and samples continuously blasting throughout the room that had enough space for improvised dancing. The Barcelona duo’s (Andrea Latorre e Sergi Algiz) synth pop a la discoteque, even if mixed with some industrial experimentism and a sparkle of dark wave is an invitation to dancing.

Andrea dances throughout with goth-dancer mannerisms and sensuality in her gestures. The very creative and pertiment always changing set design, mixed with the overhaul dark ambient and the frantic colourful lights did the rest. Very funny.

They showered the submissive audience with an energetic and progressive set going around tracks like No Miracles, Tell Them, Balance e obviamente, and the always expected Hectic. I’m not going home. The warm up worked very well and I will go around city alleys looking for sige sound franticness. I think I know where to go.

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