The outstanding presentation of the second day of Mallorca Live has not been that of Massive Attack doing the same as always, nor that of Suede doing the same as always, but that of Rigoberta Bandini risking with a colorful and strange spectacle that causes smiles and confusion in equal parts. A similar reaction generates its last album, ‘Jesus Superstar’, which logically vertebra the show, because this is not yet a concert of “great successes” although in the end it seems it.
The concert of ‘Jesus Superstar’ – which starts with some desperate 20 minutes of delay due to the change of stage, starting boos of the public – works because it responds to the myth of Rigoberta Bandini. Built in retrofuturist musical format, with a montage that recreates a television set of the 60s, the show parodies the very idea of pop stardom and places Paula Ribó in the center of a television musical competition similar to Benidorm Fest, presented by a allegedly Italian host that repeatedly the flame of all names except the one that corresponds to him, and that he insists that Bandini dance to the public “but not think.” How did ‘Ay mom’ and not ‘Slomo’ think?
The costume – and the different changes of it – suggests that Rigoberta embodies different “dolls” or characters, underlining the artificiality of the world in which it is “trapped.” One of the visual intervals of the show shows an (real) episode in which Rigoberta sinks emotionally in a hotel room. His chorist and cousin, Belén Barenys, justifies that every Pop Star lives his “breakdown” (documented, lacked add). The irony and self -consciousness mark the way. Like that phrase of ‘I am old’ who says “they will not let me be pop star without knowing how to dance”, the concert explores which other options have Rigoberta Bandini in this role.
The concept of the concert of ‘Jesus Superstar’ is executed with the mixture of depth and humor expected of Rigoberta and his team of musicians and dancers, among which is her husband, comedian and former member of Vena Monjas Esteban Navarro. Rigoberta acts with a false smile in ‘hahaha’, plays the “singer -songwriter guitar” of rigor in ‘lovers’ and acts with an ear and hand micro at the same time (the hand is false). The commitment to the character is such that Rigoberta does not interact with the public until after the fun performance of ‘Pamela Anderson’, more or less the 13th song. He says that “Pamela are all”, but that the public makes him feel that Rigoberta too.
The concert of ‘Jesus Superstar’ leaves a mixture of surprise and perplexity that invites reflection and not the immediate verdict. The concert convinces for its commitment to the character and the concept and because the execution is so peculiar and personal that only Rigoberta Bandini could have devised. In addition, songs like ‘Fly’ or La Ballad ‘You will learn’ – the vulnerable moment of the show – are building a very entertaining and enjoyable set, although too ambitious when internally covering too much content of the album in a short time. The performance of ‘Amore Amore Amoe’, which directly involves the public, which drinks sucks distributed over Rigoberta itself, is one of the outstanding moments. And the final traca with ‘Too Many Drugs’, the desaulote of ‘Ay, mom’ or the euphoria of ‘I look for a center of permanent gravity’ demonstrate the Bandini tables in that role of pop star that examines so much in the concert.
But not everything works in the show, nor the clumsy version of ‘The love’ of Massiel, that I have never liked because it seems to me that the Beat Electropop does not fit the melody of the song (I stay with the guitar adaptation of hate confetti); Not much less a humor that goes around when Belén Barenys Rapea in the worst way about a reggaeton beat, or when a mockingly masters a Colombian accent that seems Cuban during the end of ‘Too Many Drugs’, as marked by the day he saw Lucrecia on television for the first time and seemed the only black person in the world. The delusions of Esteban Navarro forcing the comedy of the show seem that, forced. I suppose that simply the humor of Rigoberta Bandini must be understood and that it is not for everyone. I keep the older ladies dancing ‘Kaiman’ already past 2 in the morning. There I see the best rigoberta.
Massive Attack: The most political show
I arrive around 20.00 to Mallorca Live so as not to miss the pass from the Mallorcan Maika Makovskiin an edition – certainly – marked by a security deployment outside the enoubt enourte: I had never seen so much police armed with rifles at a festival. Makovski brings band quality in a jazz base show that includes instruments such as viola, tube or vintage piano touched by Maika herself, as well as a trombone, keyboard, electric guitar, etc. Dressed in the María Antoinette type wig that marks the aesthetics of her latest album, ‘Bunker Rococo’, to which a small pink globe hanging from one ear adds, Maika adds a dose of fantasy to her blues-rock dyed jazz and guitar distortion, traveling themes of her own repertoire as ‘Just a Boy’ or the electrified ‘Reaching out to you’.
A part of the public of Mallorca Live seems to approach concerts with the curiosity of who visits a museum to contemplate a painting; Look with interest, but without effusivity. At the concert of Alcalá Nortethis role is invested, because it is the singer Álvaro Rivas who observes the public with the same fascination with which the public observes, absorbed, to him. For instrumental seconds of a song, he stands, dumbfounded, looking at the public, as a subject to a performance.
At least, the first part of the concert, in which themes such as ‘Superman’ or ‘The Moroccan warrior’ occur, develops in that way, in a simple exchange of music and attention. Jaime Barbosa, drums, acts as a funny master of ceremonies and, in fact, he starts the concert by taking out a boot of wine to the stage. Then, introduce the different segments of the show, such as the one that gives way to the version of “Dance Metal” of ‘Icare’, of the heavy metal band Fils de Lucifer.
The Pass of Alcalá Norte wins energy progressively and definitively detaches in the achievement of ‘The King of the Jews’ and ‘Elf Street’; This second song, Rivas already plays it, barefoot and with a crown of leaves in the head. Then again it undertakes for the final tralla of ‘Westminster’ and the chanted ‘La Life Canyon’, with Rivas already delivered to the “Crowd-Surfing” and the mass bath.
One of Mallorca Live’s main international claims also offers the most political show of the festival. Massive Attack It is a group absolutely committed to the Palestinian cause and its complaint of the wars and the catastrophe of climate change is central in the development of its concert, led by some Robert del Naja and Daddy G that let the message speak for itself.
Initial images of the genocidal Netanyahu cause deafening boots of the public, in a show that alternates images of this type with others of hacker/digital aesthetics. Massive Attack reviews its historical repertoire without apparent news but with an unbeatable sound that surrounds the enclosure.
The fusion of electronics, soul and eastern sonorities of Massive Attack does not know rival comparable to his list of classics, and songs like ‘Angel’ or, above all, the final ‘teardrop’ are received as hotly as you expected, in a concert that has the participation of the band’s historical collaborators such as Horace Andy and Elizabeth Fraster de Cocteau Twins, and unexpected spills as the Punk Rockwrok ‘segment of Ultravox. Unfortunately, the version of ‘Levels’ of Avicii does not fit in the setlist this time.
