Noam Rotem/photo: Dave Shahar, editing: Noa Levy
At the Enav Center in Tel Aviv, Noam Rotem takes the stage.
The burden of the period is evident in him, and his eyes are closed almost throughout the song.
It's "Circle of Light", the theme song of his latest album, and when these words come in the song the lighting dazzles the audience.
"The covered face, the melting years", he sings, and we remember the time.
The time that has passed is the reason why we gathered here, in a celebratory show that marked 30 years on stage, and officially opened the amplifier festival (which this year presents a fascinating program, we must say).
The one who was the energetic vocalist of Karach 9, and quickly turned from a great promise into one of the greatest rockers of the last generation, the one whose masterpiece albums, "Help on the Way" and "Iron and Stones", touched everyone who listened to them.
A smart rock poet with his own sound, who admires Lou Reed but is so local, that one of the articulators of the musical sadness of the Israeli millennial generation had it.
This career has different faces and different ends, so choosing the repertoire for such an evening is not easy.
The exploding youthful energy of the days of "With him forever" is not the same as the anxiety of death of the days of "Help on the way", and although there are several ritualistic works in his past, one has to choose with tweezers a modest representation for each of them.
So I often wondered to myself throughout the evening, how is it possible without "Sword of Damocles" or "Our Class" or "Guitar Hero" or even "One of the best" by Karach 9, personal favorite songs.
In general, the beginning of Rotem's career was represented only symbolically.
But with a hand on the heart, these are problems of the rich.
There was no unnecessary song this evening, and the choices behind it make sense: to emphasize the mature and more complete phases for which Rotam is exclusively responsible, what's more, the time was decisive: these are not times for "with him forever", and the sad section, which is already dominant in the repertoire, dictated the way.
Noam Rotem in concert at the Enav Center, the Amplifier Festival, February 13, 2024/Niv Aharonson
Noam Rotem in concert at the Enav Center, the Amplifier Festival, February 13, 2024/Niv Aharonson
The depressing energy of Israel 2024 was present in the space, and Rotem took time to get started and free himself from the respect of time and really enjoy himself.
Among all the requested songs, such as "Rising and Falling" and "Iron and Stones" and "Fallout" and "A Song from the Ninth Floor" and "Karat Li Kein" in a slow and discouraging arrangement than usual, along the way he was assisted by an impressive and precise gallery of guests: Rona Keinan and Shlomi Shaban - that they are not only members of the same cycle of Rotem in Israeli rock but are actually his partners in style, way and audience as the arrowhead of the writers-creators of the intellectual Israeli rock of their time;
And Shay Sabari, it must be said: every time he opens his mouth a miracle comes out.
With Keenan, he sings in a duet "An Inner Voice" ("The distances will always go with us") and "Foreign Eyes" which he always drops, and with Shaban the bitter "Humor" shared by both and the more optimistic "Ready for Love".
With Sabari, he sang, in one of the highlights of the evening, "Lepnei Tohom" dedicated to Doron Hibshar, the soundman of the Barbie who passed away yesterday, "Kochabim" he wrote for him and "Levy Me", in a relatively rare moment of sweeping and rhythmic rock and roll.
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With all due respect to all these beautiful moments, I will remember this performance because of one other moment, also - probably deeply connected to what happens outside the hall.
A yellow and empty chair was placed in the first row, to prove everyone who is not here at the moment - the captives.
Rotem dedicated to them the most painful song in his repertoire: "Everyone is talking about the child".
It is a song about grief, about what is said and not said within it, about the silence around the wound and the noise that shouts the absence.
About how everything, everything that is found, points to what is not found.
And when Kashrut sang it, all the masks fell, and the tears flowed by themselves.
Noam Rotem in concert at the Enav Center, the Amplifier Festival, February 13, 2024/Niv Aharonson
Noam Rotem in concert at the Enav Center, the Amplifier Festival, February 13, 2024/Niv Aharonson
Rotem came up later for the encore for the key song "Help on the Way" with Itamar Rothschild and Yoav Shoshani, which always feels relevant and now especially, Leonard Cohen's "Ana Ana Ana" with all the friends and guests, which was also dedicated to the call to bring everyone back, and "Hom Human" from the beginning of the way that ended this cool evening.
Considering the rain that started to drizzle outside later, it was only fitting.
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