Jorge Palma with everyone: two hours of devotion to rock with Palma’s Gang in Lisbon
“Oh Jorge!” shouted someone in the audience at the Capitólio, in Lisbon, when the first of two concerts by Palma’s Gang in that hall was already approaching its end. “You have to give us this more often!” The suggestion, full of tasting, ends up translating well the feeling of the spectators who sold out Saturday night’s show. With a contemporary audience, part of the musicians on stage, but also with many younger fans and even children, this was a meeting of several generations united by the passion for the same cause: rock. Formed at the dawn of the 1990s, as an electric adventure around Jorge Palma’s songbook, Palma’s Gang responded, in this return to concerts, to the thirst that many audiences seem to have both for the good old combination guitar, drums & bass, as well as for a certain “garage” atmosphere that the Capitólio (room in which Vasco Sacramento, which holds the space concessionintends to recreate the spirit of clubs in big cities) has taught to offer.
None of this – an eager public to celebrate, an appropriate atmosphere for the celebrations – would be enough if there wasn’t a band on top of the stage. But it only took a few seconds of ‘Portugal, Portugal’, the song with which the night began, to confirm that Jorge Palma, the leader of this good gang, is in immaculate form. This year, to celebrate half a century of a unique career, the musician has announced a series of themed concerts. We saw the first one, in the gardens of Palácio Baldaya, in Benfica, when autumn was just a nocturnal breeze, and we let ourselves be amazed by the solitude inhabited by piano and voice, around the album “Só”. Various shows followed at the Tivoli, dedicated to nightclubs such as “Com Uma Viagem na Palma da Mão”, “Lado Errado da Noite” or “Bairro do Amor”, with a band. And this weekend the journey comes to an end, with two performances by Palma’s Gang – crossing Avenida da Liberdade, Palma exchanges the intimacy of the Tivoli for the liberation of the Capitólio (in a standing audience mode) and meets again with his companions with whom he ‘painted the blanket’ at Johnny’s Guitar: Flak on guitar, Alex Cortez on bass and Kalú on drums. The group’s “ideologue” and mentor of this and many other friendships, Zé Pedro, is no longer with us – the fifth anniversary of his departure will be celebrated in a few days -, but his spirit was very present this evening, in the camaraderie and also in homage to rock. “Zé Pedro is on this guitar”, said Jorge Palma as he broke into the frantic ‘Picado pela Abelhas’, a 1982 song that ended the night. It was the only direct allusion to the man from Xutos & Pontapés, in an evening of few words but with many songs and even more laughter and complicity.
After so many weeks of concerts and rehearsals, we said, Jorge Palma keeps his voice at the right texture and temperature for two hours of rock music, with few moments of slowing down on the acoustic guitar (by the way, at the age of 72, the author of ‘Frágil’ will be of the few to manage to climb so much rock in mode disconnected as connected to the mains). Visibly happy to have an audience as large as it is tender waiting for him, Jorge Palma also relies on the contagious enthusiasm of this supergroup: on guitar, Flak delights fans of solos and riffs heroic (not by chance, T-shirts from bands like Led Zeppelin can be seen in the audience), also winning over the joy of being on stage, translated into wide smiles. More discreet visually, but leaning on his bass-pendulum, Alex is positioned on the left, with Kalú completing the front of the attack on his battery adorned with a pennant from Futebol Clube do Porto.
‘Portugal, Portugal’, immediately sung by the public, is followed by ‘Eles Já Sejam Fartos’ (1977), which gives a certain contested tone to the beginning of the concert. A true Swiss army knife of Portuguese music, Jorge Palma’s work offers songs for all occasions – and the desire to play is such that, in ‘Velho no Jardim’ (1975), a guitar string breaks, forcing him to start over. of the song (at the same time, a spectator next to us felt bad, being inspired by other fans and also by the room’s security guards).
In the rock arrangements immortalized on Palma’s Gang’s single album – recorded live at Johnny’s Guitar and edited in 1993 -, some songs took on colors almost dirty (This is the case with ‘Razão de Estado’, originally from 1985). In other songs by Jorge Palma, played tonight but not included on that album, it is the word that speaks loudest: in ‘Obrigação’, it is sung ‘To have love there cannot be obligation’, with many exclamation points; soon after, ‘Jeremiah’ is toasted with a chorus that is as expected as it is overwhelming. ‘Lobo Malvado’ is entitled to tense howls by Jorge Palma, at the beginning and at the end of the theme that precedes the hymn ‘Deixa-me Rir’, presented in the incident, as we have already written, there are few words, tonight, besides those transported for these usual songs, sung in unison by one of the most joyful audiences we can remember seeing.
before the first bis, ‘Podem Falar’, from the year in which punk emerged, that is, from 1977, and ‘O Homem Invisível’, from 1985, raised the temperature on stage and off. Euphorically requested, and using football chants, the ‘prolongation’ of this match also includes several goals with beautiful effect, from the acoustics and bluesy ‘No Tempo dos Assassinos’ and ‘DormiaTa Sossegada’ to the visceral rock of ‘Espécie de Vampiro’, with Palma & audience shouting the promise (or threat?): “It’s just to drink/drop by drop of your blood”.
Almost two hours after ‘Portugal, Portugal’ made Palma’s Gang’s return to the stage official, the screams of “just one more!” actually yielded two more gifts to the public that filled the Capitol. First, Alex’s bass paved the way for the New York of Lou Reed and ‘Walk on the Wild Side’, on a journey that would certainly have delighted the great devotee of rock religion that was Zé Pedro. Not even on purpose, right after, Jorge Palma mentions the name of his friend for the first time – his and all of us, on a night where all the figures who could be present, from the former doorman of Johnny Guitar, Rui Kilito, to the former band, Ana Moitinho, participated in this new chapter in the history of Turma do Palma. It was an impressive proof of vitality that is repeated, on Sunday, also in the Capitol.