OneRepublic earned Prague especially its sincerity
“Hooray, concert!” And also from a big pop foreign band! That probably means that the gloomy period in culture is over, doesn’t it? Not quite. Businesses lack people who have had to go and do something else in Covid. And visitors still don’t go enough. But OneRepublic was lucky and more or less filled the O2 arena.
Live: OneRepublic
place: O2 arena, Prague
date: May 10, 2022
Support: Jessie
setlist Jessia: I should finish, damn it, conviction, but I won’t do it, one of you guys, how are you? I’m not pretty next time
setlist OneRepublic: Kids, Good Life, Stop And Stare, Rescue Me, Secrets, Whereever I Go, Seven Nation Army (obálka The White Stripes) / Love Runs Out, Medley (Bleeding Love, Burn, Rumor Has It, I Will Always Love You), Halo (cover Beyoncé), Lose Somebody (cover), West Coast, Run, Sucker (cover Jonas Brothers), Sunshine, Apologize, I Lived, Counting Stars, Future Looks Good, If I Lose Myself
Photo gallery
© Barbora Nosková / musicserver.cz
When you go to a OneRepublic band, it’s a good idea not to miss the lead. If a previously unknown name managed to get such a significant contribution, there is a pretty solid chance that in a few years you will go to the same arena for a sold-out concert of the former lead band. After all, it happened to OneRepublic himself, who played with us for the first time before the performance of Lenny Kravitz, which singer Ryan Tedder did not forget to mention during his last visit. This will also happen to the Canadian singer performing under the name Jessia, but it is still difficult to evaluate. In her favor of having songs adapted to the radio format, she has a contract with a major label that has broken through at the right music awards that can help her get up, can sing, and with Ryan’s contacts has a chance to reach many important people in the industry, including his own. Unfortunately, her stop in Prague did not have a chance to show its full potential. The sound engineer stopped her. The attractive pop songs, accompanied by over-excited drums, guitar and half-playback, helping with arrangements and vocals not only in the choruses, meant that it was not a great experience for the listeners. Even if you were standing right next to the sound booth, where the quality should be the highest.
© Barbora Nosková / musicserver.cz
And speaking of the negatives, let’s go straight to the main stars. So yes, even here there was nothing to praise the good half of the concert. The frontman, who years ago may have unknowingly set the trend that whoever wants to have a hit on the radio must ideally sing with a fake, has now struggled with his own songs – also because of a recent illness. He didn’t finish the phrases, he lowered the highs in the choruses to reach them at all. A lot of it was heard, for example, at “Secrets”. And even the production was not miraculous. Three screens, several rows of lights, shooting paper in the first and last song. No pier, B-stage or overhead flying. Several missing hits led by “All The Right Moves”. And the effort to illuminate the arrangements in “Apologize”, which does not work, because such an iconic hit no one wants to listen in an alternative version, but in the original, the best. And after all, the spectators sat on the galleries like pecks until the end. These are all mistakes and shortcomings that we cannot ignore so that the dear reader does not think that I do not know about them. Yes, we saw and heard it too. But. Then there is another factor. Charisma.
© Barbora Nosková / musicserver.cz
And so the father of two sons beat it all up. His sincere faith in Prague, which he really knows since he was fifteen, because he has a family life in Prague 5 and at the same time it was the first city outside the USA that I visited in my own. That he learned several Czech phrases. That he talked about the origin of many songs on which he is located. As Adéla and I wrote “Rumor Has It” in a few minutes. As he realized, he was writing a bunch of things for others, but he still had nothing for his own son. And how he cried for three days at a time, trying to hone a song we know today as “I Lived.” As a colleague from the band told him that “Sucker” is a great song, but it’s not suitable for OneRepublic, so they started the Jonas Brothers comeback with it. As his loved ones died during the lockdown, and when he was isolated in the studio himself, Kygo called him and together they created “Lose Somebody” about what he was going through. Or how to react promptly when, at the end of “Apologize”, he tried to unite the audience in perfect harmony, and the two visits steadily spoiled the amusement of the entire arena. Or when he commented politely and with great nobility on the war situation in Ukraine without naming anyone, and then just used it as an introduction to the song “Future Looks Good”. Or when Whitney Houston inserted the biggest hit, which he wrote for others, from the medley, which he wrote for others, he sang it well and joked that he was behind it.
© Barbora Nosková / musicserver.cz
Ryan Tedder was in Prague and so much more. A charming companion whose lips hung on his lips. This is also because very quickly, he does not listen to learned phrases, but he has learned honest stories from a man who has a real relationship with our metropolis. And whom his work sincerely enjoys. And to those accusations. What the frontman did not sing in the extremely difficult choruses, he won in the curls at the end of each single. There, on the other hand, he showed that his daily two-hour singing, which he has been devoting himself to since childhood, is still bearing fruit and he can afford a voice exhibition here and there. Like “Halo”, which he wrote for Beyoncé, but he made it the best singing number of the evening. The rather average production took over once again, as the forty-two-year-old artist ran among the audience in addition to the salvo of megahits. And when the audience finally sang him the conclusion of “Apologize” the way he wanted, it was such a beauty that no one remembered the failed introduction. And we should also have the fact that the band played all the elements live for him, so he didn’t have to reach for any supporting samples or vocals.
© Barbora Nosková / musicserver.cz
And those who watched him on Instagram could, after all, be convinced that the singer had a heart on his stage and had a lot of fun. It was there that he recorded a video from the Stages Hotel in Prague, in which he confided how excited he was still excited about the concert, and danced to the “Bonfire Heart” remix by James Blunt, playing from the hotel speaker. And yes, even on this song Undercover King Of Popas Tedder called Billboard magazine, likely. Despite certain imperfections of individual elements, it is necessary to look at this performance as a whole. And when we do, we actually find a relatively simple truth: that it was great.