You know who’s awesome? Manu Chao. He’s a tiny little Spanish Frenchman who runs around the world creating hot music and rocking some serious political steez. He’s a hero all over Europe and South America and Mexico and Africa and a bunch of other places, and if the world made any kind of sense he’d be a household name here. Wanna jump on the bandwagon? This new live double-CD/DVD package is the ideal place to start.
First of all, let’s just admit a few things. Manu Chao doesn’t have the world’s greatest voice. It ain’t bad, as voices go, but it ain’t exactly great. What it is, is powerful. Dude shouts, chants, whispers, croaks, and loudly exhorts the crowd and everyone in the world to be happy and confident and loud and revolutionary. And he sounds great doing all that, in many different languages: Spanish, French, English, Arabic, even in what I think is Euskara (the language spoken by his beloved Basque people). Which is one reason everybody loves him.
Another reason is that he leads probably the rockingest band in the world. The rhythm section (bassist Gambeat, drummer Bourguignon, and percussionist Garbancito) is relentless; trumpeter Angelo Mancini is a one-man horn section; and Julio Garcia Lobos carries a heavy load on the keyboards. But the real star of the band is Madjid Fahem, an electric guitar player who has to be heard to be believed. His rhythm work is solid, his fills are perfect, and his solos run the gamut from amazing to stunning. The band sounds hot on CD, but you get the full effect by watching the DVD. You won’t be able to believe that this band can make such a bunch of great noise.
The songs take a lot of different forms. Chao came up in world-music/punk band Mano Negra, so he’s pretty comfortable in pogo mode, but he naturally seems to gravitate toward ska and reggae, too. This fits his M.O. perfectly, as he can rouse large crowds of people to social action in a Bob Marley style. It’s all hot, it’s all sweaty, and it never turns monotonous because it shifts gears every couple of minutes: loud to soft, fast to slow, mellow to frenetic, healing to rousing. Hell of a lot of fun.
But the best thing about the package might be the bonus feature on the DVD where they interview a lot of fans who sing Manu’s songs and talk about how much he means to them. Once you see this evidence of his importance and the deep love he inspires in people, you’ll realize that there is a very important thing happening right under our noses. Might be time to check this one out, y’all.
