Mirai sold out the O2 arena. They did their best
The Moravian-Silesian music scene is on course like never before, and on a warm September evening, a large part of its representation showed up in Prague. For the first time in their life, the group Mirai tried to hold a solo concert at the O2 and sold it out immediately. And another performance is planned for October. How did the premiere go?
Live: Mirai
place: O2 arena Prague
date: September 15, 2022
Support, support: Rabbit Pam, Sofian Medjmedj
set list: Falling asleep next to you, Robot baby, Come on, I’ll forget, Yesterday, I want to dance, Way out of town, Through it all, I’m calling, Birthday, Come closer to me, Angel, From the water, Sweet Home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd cover), Yahoda, Where were you all night?, Back then, Just, Good morning, dear, Hometown, Øtchi, If you can’t, then add
Photogallery
© Martin Bambušek / musicserver.cz
These are the times when Mirai Navrátil roamed the stages with the Dolls In The Factory formation. It was enough to switch to Czech, change the direction, and the first successes did not take long. Today, the Mirai band is huge. And that’s not to everyone’s taste. Like any popular artist, these highly popular musicians also had to get used to the growing amount haters, who don’t like their music, image or simply their existence. And they let them know it. It must be added that Navrátil & spol. With their last steps, they are literally putting ammunition in the hands of the opponents. The Mirai menu at McDonald’s is a bizarre from any angle you look at it. And even more so if we add to it what the frontman said in the summer for the O2 arena magazine:
“Today, we also need to take into account our social responsibility and influence not only on young people. I will be happy if we motivate them in the right direction.” And he continues: “Often you can become part of a campaign or an advertising tool of someone you don’t want, with whom you don’t agree, and then you just have to make the right decisions, sometimes distance yourself and be transparent. These are all situations that we didn’t have to deal with completely in the past.”
© Martin Bambušek / musicserver.cz
What else to say? Words and actions obviously did not meet here. But the worst so far is their current single “Narozeniny”. A maximum of stanzas can be praised on it. The non-rhyming chorus is horrendous and unimaginative, the music component is bland and the bottom line is the accompanying video. Product placement in Czech music videos is not surprising these days, but a celebration with a pyramid of Big Macs could be considered as a contribution to the currently very popular Facebook group “Today I will cook, tomorrow I will fuck”. Where has justice gone?
In short, being an uncritical supporter of this quartet is not entirely easy lately, and its members should sit down together and discuss whether they need similar steps. But this is not an article about their discography or perhaps a polemic about the position they have on the Czech scene. It’s a report from the concert. And he was exceptional.
© Martin Bambušek / musicserver.cz
It wasn’t the first time she’d played at the O2, but it was the first time everyone had come just for the band. Whether any of their predecessors will ever receive a similar honor is too early to predict, but if they do, it will be the continuously improving Pam Rabbit with her vocal exhibitions and world-sounding production, rather than the badly sounded Sofian Medjmedj, who is hardly average live. And what’s more, he emphasizes completely different syllables than he does in Czech. In the end, only his sincere emotion at where he actually stood remained sympathetic. Mirai Navrátil himself likes to go to concerts of other musicians, the best one he saw so far happened to be this one. So they learn from the best. But this year he went to see Coldplay for the first time, so the show could not start otherwise than with the flashing lights of the wristbands that were handed out at the entrance. The group, as the trends dictate, came to the stage through a crowd of fans from the opposite side of the hall, sparks shot to the ceiling in front of a pair of huge screens and everything started with the single “Vedle tebe usinám”.
© Martin Bambušek / musicserver.cz
In the immediately following “Dítě robotí” flames were flying around the edges and on the pier and the hits “Come on, I’ll forget” and “Yesterday” were even interwoven effectively by the musicians. But the audience was already clapping their hands, because the first of the guests, Paulie Garand, arrived for the second mentioned song. The frontman recalled the beginnings, when they played in the forest, in gyms or clubs for barely a hundred people, and for the first time he moved himself and the audience. “We will try to make it our best concert ever!” he declared as the bracelets turned orange for the following track, “I Want to Dance.” Don’t you have Mirai’s latest album “Maneki Neko” at home yet? You can buy it on CD and LP in our store!
© Martin Bambušek / musicserver.cz
And although this band does not deserve praise for “Narozeniny”, it should not go unnoticed that they have good songs by the standards of radio pop. “Cesta z města” is fine, “In spite of everything” written with David Stypka, accompanied here by former member Krystián Danel on bass, is even excellent. And the transition that Mirai chose from her right into one of her best songs, “I’m Calling”, was perfect. But he managed to win even that. It was enough for Ben Cristovao to appear on stage. There had never been such a ruckus as the mostly fairer sex had done that morning for their joint duet “Come closer to me”.
Right after that, however, things calmed down and Navrátil, who likes to return to Lysá hora, remembered the woman who was with the band in its beginnings from behind the piano with the composition “Anděl”. He did not reveal her name, but the fans in the first rows raised prepared signs because they knew very well that it was Denisa Bíla, the first wife of drummer Šimon Bíla, who tragically died in a car accident exactly five years ago.
© Martin Bambušek / musicserver.cz
They went back to a happier note with a cover version of “Sweet Home Alabama”, for which Lynyrd Skynyrd colleagues from Frydek-Míske probably wouldn’t praise, but as the frontman revealed, it was thanks to her that they got their first change on the street. You can’t miss the great euphoria thanks to the song “Yahoda”, because it was first played and sung on the ukulele by a clever boy from the audience named Matěj, and then, together with another fan, Katka, the former Stardance participant set off on an inflatable strawberry to sail around the pier on his hands. Not one of the newer concert trends, i.e. jumping left and right with arms around the shoulders, has been forgiven by the band. With Fiedlerski, she played “Where were you all night” and followed it up with another piece that almost everyone should already have in their repertoire. Namely a nostalgic memory of the good old days, in this case in the form of the not very inventive “Then”. But the projections with Bravíček’s title page were successful.
© Martin Bambušek / musicserver.cz
And we will end it on a positive note, because the tribute to David Stypko in the form of a duet “Good morning, dear” with Ewa Farna and Bandjeez, walking together on the catwalk and being sprinkled with yellow confetti, was really beautiful. High praise. And it’s also easy to see that despite the success of the newer singles, the dynamic and somewhat experimental track “Øtchi” was not forgotten before the farewell biggest hit. Was it the best thing to see at the O2 arena this year? Not by chance. The inflatable balloons were few and far between, the confetti ran out faster than the choruses ended, and they were only for covering the front rows, and the pyrotechnics weren’t even the best on the market. And despite all the efforts of Matyáš Vorda, he was unable to visually put together anything that could compare with the world production of the biggest stars. However, for something like this, Mirai would have to charge at least twice as much for the ticket, and perhaps even team up with KFC.
© Martin Bambušek / musicserver.cz
But they probably didn’t even have such ambitions. And nowhere is it said that it can’t be better next time. There’s still room to grow and that’s a good thing. But on their most important night in their career so far, the band wanted to give their fans something more than what they can show and give at regular festival or majáles performances. In short, to really demonstrate the best that she can currently do, and to embellish it with a large number of guests. And it succeeded.