If you like music, don't miss this show Israel today

The launch performance of his new album "Open House" opens Shlomi Shaban with "Don't ignore me" - a song that is five minutes of pure pain, a manly lament for a lost relationship and a plea to her lover not to turn her back.

Without a piano or protective gear, he stands on the stage of the Opera House in Tel Aviv with a single flashlight shining on him, against a video art background of massive crashing waves.

A wild and stormy sea like a soul crying out for help, its soul screaming in frustration.

This is a spectacular, powerful and powerful visual that is hard to ignore - and is just one of many that adorn this show and make it as much a feast for the eyes as it is for the ears.

Shaban arrives at the show with a new car.

The last time he launched an album it was almost a decade ago, when the collective band accompanied him on the songs of the record "Exercise in Awakening".

But the collective is no longer with him (or with us) and this time he enlists what can be considered no less than a dream-team of musicians, which includes Uzi Ramirez, Maya Belzitzman, Maayan Linik, Nadav Luzia, Uri Kutner and Tapesh.

The latter, by the way, will perform "Arik" himself, the huge hit from 23 years ago, will give it a great version in Arabic and save a performance for a song that must be performed at concerts for reasons of crowd pleasing (even though at this stage of his career he no longer really has the strength for it).

Rand and Shevan with "We Moved to the North", photo: Lior Keter

But for the rest of the evening, for his players and listeners, Shlomi will win with a high hand and move easily between different phases in his work, which spans almost half a year and which contains some of the most important songs that entered the pantheon of Israeli creation.

Among them are "Exercise in Awakening", "Everybody Says" and "Honey You're on My Mind", which receives a beautiful arrangement, perhaps more than ever.

Before that, at the beginning of the evening, he will inaugurate the songs of the new album, performing five of them one after another in a perfect narrative manner - with each of them changing the stage and the lighting completely, creating like a precise and different video clip for each of the works.

This is a spectacular show, we've already said, but sometimes something needs to be said again to clarify just how much.

"Money Time", the pop single that announced the arrival of the album comes next, completely changing the gloomy atmosphere that opened the evening.

After it, "Your Wife's Lover" goes down to the level of cringe, feels like a short film (and ends as such).

The first guest of the evening, Miri Mesika, emerges from a high balcony to perform "La Vita a Longa" with Shavan, and when the guests Shuli Rand and Rabid Plotnik arrive to sing the hit shared by them and Shavan, "Kanaan", the show kicks up a gear.

Rand's impressive presence will also return later in the evening and sing "We've Moved to the North".

Even before that, Plotnik will return and join Shevan in singing "Family Photo with the Prime Minister", he will add a section from his "Kurvan" and perfectly unite the two songs, which mark the political phase of the show.

It will also include pictures of members of the new government in office and a funeral scene in the song "Duty Free".

Whether you belong to the musician's side of the political map or not, these are sights that are hard to ignore.

next to the piano

A virtuosity that still manages to surprise, photo: Lior Keter

Of course, the moments when Ben feels most comfortable are those when he is behind a piano.

Somehow, even after more than two decades of being in the field, his virtuosity still manages to surprise (or at least amaze).

His rendition of the entertainment's "Carrion Ritual" emerges late in the evening and he manages in one fell swoop to be chaotic, intense and completely in control.

Shaban is a skilled juggler of words, an audience flirt at the highest levels, and the combination of his charisma and musical abilities creates what appears to be one of the most powerful acts that have come up here - and that's no exaggeration.

He (not really) closes the show with "Here comes the end", in which he encourages the audience to join him in singing (a trick that returned with varying degrees of success throughout the evening).

After that he will return to the stage for an encore that will end with "Nuri", which is dedicated to his children.

These are also mentioned at the beginning of the evening in the same "Money Time", a song in which he laments the days when he loved "not knowing", he recalls a time when he was older and also takes advantage of the bourgeoisie to ask questions about the path he took, the mistakes he made and the path he did not take.

"A few irrelevant inquiries, misjudgments of urgency and time, bring me this far," he sings.

"Shlomi Shaban. Cockhead, Schmockhead is stupid."

Maybe after this show he will feel differently.

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