Report: Guano Apes + Linda Martini + Black Mamba @ Festival do Crato

The Crato festival was held once again in the beautiful Alentejo village near Portalegre. In a constantly evolving process, this year’s edition saw the exhibition areas as well as all the restaurants and, crafts tents open to the public, free of charge. Adding to this, there were musical performances taking place throughout the afternoon and evening, so only the main stage concerts were paid. This was, for sure, a change for the best.

Looking at the poster of this issue, one can conclude that it was a successful bet, a group of diverse artists, able to captivate almost everyone that went to the festival, as if the exhibits were not enough reason. Names like SOJA, James Arthur, Carminho, Tom Odell, D.A.M.A. were part of the animation of the previous nights, but the last night was certainly the busiest night with the return of Guano Apes to Portugal, supported by two musical Portuguese projects that are vastly known within the country: Linda Martini and Black Mamba.

The evening began with the Black Mamba, a band composed of well known elements to the national scene, who brought melancholic mixture of Soul, Blues and Funk fusion. The charismatic Peter Tatanka knew how to captivate the audience that was filling about 1/2 of the venue. Opening with “I want my money back” the public started to dance to funky the rhythm of “Rock me baby”. “Canção de Mim Mesmo” marked a more gloomy moment. After some chatting with the fans, they played the hit single “It ain’t you”, Pedro joined the front row fans and let them play a note on his guitar, but the person who received more attention was an unusual fan: his grandmother, who was right at the front row. The rest of the concert was also energetic, also relying in the presence of a guest: Mimi Cat.

A few minutes after 11:30pm Linda Martini entered the stage. The beloved Indie Rock band kicked off their show with “Juarez” quickly switching to the successful “Dá-me A Tua Melhor Faca” making the whole audience sing a kind of collective hypnosis. Being a seemingly introspective band, communication towards the public does not happen often, but some bands don’t even need it. Apart from the music, there were also audible some sound problems throughout the entire performance, but fortunately didn’t affect very important moments like “Estuque” or “Sonic Youth”.
” Dez Tostões” and “Amor é não haver polícia” ended a concert that obtained a good reaction from the audience, but where some onstage discomfort could be felt, possibly due to all the sound problems that emerged throughout the concert.

Finally, the long awaited return of the German Guano Apes to Portugal! “Carol & Shine” marked the entry of a band that doesn’t seem to have aged at all. “You Can’t Stop Me” showed the same energy, the same vigorous stage presence, some of the same songs… “Oh What a Night” showed that Sandra Nasic & Cª did not lose their touch and didn’t have any problems to make everybody jump and sing hymns like “Open Your Eyes” or “Big In Japan”. There was time for some more recent songs like “Sunday Lover”, “Fake” or “Hey Last Beautiful” or a mocking cover of Die Antwoord’s “I Fink U Freeky” before closing the encore with “Close To The Sun” and the timeless hit “Lords Of The Boards”
It was undoubtedly the concert with the biggest agitation among fans and for sure ended the Crato festival in an explosive way.

Special thanks to the organization init4damusic

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