An interesting anecdote to open, maybe some of you will identify.
A review of a Shebak S performance, compared to quite a few female musicians or other bands, is heaven for editors, reporters or just fans of puns. Every generic song by the band contains at least ten possible titles. "There was an explosion", "Make names on the stages ", "The empire strikes again", "here again", "don't call it a comeback", if it's mediocre you can use "what was was". That's it, I had to vent.
Just before we start talking about the show, do an experiment with yourself for a moment, choose some song by the band, with an emphasis on a hit and not a lesser known song from one of the albums, and listen to it.
While you are listening, try to count how many times the following sentence goes through your mind: "What? Wow! How did that sentence go?".
Celebrations for the 30th anniversary of the founding of the band, photo: Koko
It will probably happen quite a bit, but sorry, who cares.
The members of the band themselves have been interviewed quite a bit about it and said that although they don't identify with these texts now, what was then suited Laz, and it really was them, and this performance is a reunion, a celebration and a lift for the band, although many of its contents no longer correspond so much with the world of Today's PC, but they certainly were, and some still are, the soundtrack of quite a few generations, more and less stellar, probably more.
Thousands of people of very diverse ages made their way to Zappa Live Park in Rishon Lezion last night (Saturday).
They went through the traffic jams knowing full well that the return would be much more brutal (does it still make sense in 2022 for it to take over an hour to get out of a parking lot? Maybe someone will do something about it?) There were young people there in the Stalin phase of their lives, older people who grew up with and on the Shin Bet and experienced the Their explosion, and yes, parents and children too. Beautiful.
Exploded on stage, photo: Koko
Since it officially broke up, there have been all kinds of reunions of the band, it was always with an asterisk, or not everyone came, or the show was stopped in the middle because of the police, this time it seems that all the stars got along.
Over a decade since the last time all the band members were together on the same stage, and this time, in honor of the thirtieth celebrations, everyone is here: Miro, Muki, Nimi, Filoni (who also produced this entire evening), Hami, Plumpi, James and Davidi.
This is, as the band members themselves carefully defined, a one-off show and in retrospect I can tell you that they probably left the show last night with insights that maybe this thing should continue, given the way they looked and sounded.
They shot all their greatest hits almost non-stop, photo: Koko
The formal reason is the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the founding of the band, big and honorable, but we welcome all the members of the band who are more mature, each in their own worlds, not necessarily musical, more mature, tired of all the fights and conflicts they had in their youth, ones that prevented them from continuing to work together and become more Bigger than they were anyway.
It's a nostalgic show and not a transition, in a flattering part of course, a return to our youth and theirs.
At 9:30 p.m., a time when usually many of the people present here in the audience are spread out on the couch after having already put their children to bed, the band members went on stage to the sound of the enthusiastic audience and simply played all their biggest hits almost non-stop and with very few breaks and talking to the audience, which seemed He was in a slightly worse shape than them.
It was an impressive sequence, almost non-stop as mentioned, which started with "Here again" as per the best tradition and continued immediately after with Empire, the country is in flames, there will be an explosion and they will raise their hands.
The use of the stronger hits in the first part also automatically caused the second part of the band to be more relaxed, but it's not more relaxed for ordinary people, it's more relaxed - relatively - for the Shabak S, so it doesn't really count.
Put on an impressive show.
Shabak S., photo: Koko
The relatively current incarnation of the band, i.e., the last decade, includes mainly "heavy" protest songs, the last of which, released two weeks ago, was against corrupt leaders, but before that there were also songs against the shallow reality culture, to the tribe: stand up!, and we met them Also at the concert, and quite a bit, and the band ignited the audience with them, even though they are not hits, but these are the songs with the most relevant texts for the period.
Another thing worth noting is the pretty big bet the band took when it comes to guests at the show.
There were none except for Yossi Payne, which is very surprising but also beautiful.
In Shebek's previous union, which was working at half capacity, there were quite a few collaborations and entertainment: joint performances with the Apple Band, the Snake Fish. This time there was simply no need for it, because there was a purposeful display of the entire ensemble, the four vocalists and all the musicians, the sound was excellent , also the lighting and video art, even the weather was harnessed with pleasant winds. What can I tell you, yes they will.
Even the weather was harnessed with pleasant winds.
Shabak S., photo: Koko
And yes, as I said at the beginning of the article, there were also WTF moments when you sing such and such phrases with the band and stop for a moment, saying to yourself, "Wow, what is it that's not there already", and if it goes through our heads, it surely went through the band members as well.
On the one hand - nostalgia has its own rules, on the other hand - it's really strange to be at a show, no matter how invested and big it is, and it is indeed invested and big, that both you and the artist (at least as far as the more hormonal and sexual parts, not the protest songs that are unfortunately still relevant) are no longer believe some of what they sing.
But that's life, and in the end, there was an impressive show here, two jumping hours that lifted over ten thousand people of all ages into the air, and all the anxieties I had (I, but I'm probably not the only one) that the show would be a "bumriade" seasoned with a little embarrassment disappeared in the first second.
Is this the last we've seen of the band?
Most likely not, because this is not the first union and probably not the last, certainly not after such a performance, and yet, as the song says, and that they asked nicely.
Don't call it a comeback.
were we wrong
We will fix it!
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