Mondo Bizarre Magazine Concert Reviews, Concerts

Temples, Hard Club, Porto, 14.11.2024.

© Telma Mota/Mondo Bizarre Magazine

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.

© Telma Mota/Mondo Bizarre Magazine

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.

© Telma Mota/Mondo Bizarre Magazine

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.

© Telma Mota/Mondo Bizarre Magazine
Mondo Bizarre Magazine Amazing Sounds & Other Delights, Mixcloud, Radio Show, Raquel Pinheiro, YéYé Radio

Amazing Songs & Other Delights #64 – The Grandeur of Ghosts edition by Raquel Pinheiro @ Rádio Yé Yé @ mixcloud

My Amazing Songs & Other Delights #64 – The Grandeur of Ghosts edition can now be listened to on mixcloud. It is a good soundtrack for today, 25 de Abril (April 25), is the day my country stopped being a dictatorship 50 years ago. April 25 is also Anzac (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Day. The programme includes Portuguese songs connected to 25 de Abril, an instrumental track from Mick Harvey’s Waves of Anzac and other anti war songs, instrumentals and poems from Siegfried Sassoon and Federico Garcia Lorca. You can read more about the programme here: https://mondobizarremagazine.com/2024/04/21/amazing-songs-other-delights-64-the-grandeur-of-ghosts-edition-by-raquel-pinheiro-radio-ye-ye-monday-22nd/

Tracklist:
01 – Johnny Mandel – Suicide is Painless (from M.A.S.H.)
02 – Credence Clearwater Revival – Fortunate Son
03 – The Cranberries – Zombie
04 – Golpe de Estado – Rev 25
05 – JP Simões – Mudam-se os Tempos Mudaram-se as Vontades feat. Ruca Rebordão, Nuno Ferreira, Márcio Pinto, Pedro Pinto
(José Mario Branco song)
06 – Mick Harvey – Vietnam
07 – José Afonso – Grândola Vila Morena
08 – Vivian Kubrick – Ruins (Full Metal Jacket soundtrack)
09 – New Order – Love Vigilantes
10 – Jimi Hendrix – Machine Gun (live at the Filmore East,1st night, 31.12.1969)
11 – Jacques Brel – La colombe
12 – Siegfried Sassoon – Suicide in the Trenches read by Stephen Graham
13 – Paulo de Carvalho – E Depois do Adeus
14 – The Libertines – Shiver
15 – Federico Garcia Lorca – Balada de la gran guerra by Joan Mora
16 – Amália Rodrigues – Zé Soldado, Soldadinho
17 – R.E.M. – Orange Crush
18- Elvis Costello – Shipbuilding
19 – Tom Waits – Day After Tomorrow
20 – Manic Street Preachers – Suicide is Painless, Theme for M.A.S.H.

The Grandeur of Ghosts by Siegfried Sassoon

When I have heard small talk about great men
I light my two candles; climb to bed; then
Consider what was said; and put aside
What Such-a-one remarked, and Someone-else replied.

They have spoken lightly of my deathless friends,
(Lamps for my gloom, hands guiding where I stumble,)
Quoting, for shallow conversational ends,
What Shelley shrilled, what Blake once wildly muttered…

How can they use such names and be not humble ?
I have sat silent; angry at what they uttered.
The dead bequeathed them life; the dead have said
What these can only memorise and mumble.

All previous shows on mixcloud: www.mixcloud.com/infoyeye/ | www.mixcloud.com/MondoBizarreMagazine

Mondo Bizarre Magazine Concerts

Pop Dell’Arte, Hard Club, Porto, 29.03.2024.

© Mondo Bizarre Magazine/Hiliana Melo

words: Paulo Carmona (freely translated by Raquel Pinheiro); photos Hiliana Melo

On stage, more than showbiz, more than show off, give rock’n’roll truth. As it is in its essence. Unpretentious and genuine. That is what Pop Dell’Arte is. That is it, and it is very good.

© Mondo Bizarre Magazine/Hiliana Melo

Sonorously speaking it is complex in construction, structure, form. Bass, drums and guitar played by Zé Pedro Moura, Ricardo Martins and Paulo Monteiro are extremely competent performing the songs as well as on their own, leaving an impression with the daring passion the music flows to our senses. João Peste’s voice is what we were used to over decades. Intense and very charismatic. At times powerful and resounding, at times sarcastic, dragged, and insolent filled of an apparent juvenile innocence. Take note, apparent! Maybe that is why he and his companions can make Pop Dell’Arte’s music seem so fresh. Each concert is a celebration. An hymn to the band’s aesthetic conscience and its survival along its life spam.

© Mondo Bizarre Magazine/Eliana Melo

This concert didn’t deviate from it, and that is good. It started with Star Wars and Em Creta, through Avanti Marinaio, Planet Lakroon, Panoptical Architecture for Empty Streets in a Silent City, Wil’n’Chic, Be Bop and Sonhos Pop, and, towards the end Freaky Dance and My Funny Ana Lana. A great celebration, no doubt.Is it me or this more thrilling, frantic, alternative as well as pop side of rock as its strongest expression in a time references were few, but, indisputably, remarkable.

© Mondo Bizarre Magazine/Hiliana Melo