Worth the wait. Katie Melua was due to start her European Tour to promote her new album "The House" last October. Unfortunately an health problem made her postpone not a couple of concerts but all the already scheduled tour. This way my ticket, which was bought right away the announcement of the tour to guarantee a great and not crazy expensive seat, had to wait a few more months.
March arrived and we had the third concert of this tour. The first chords and lyrics were made behind the curtains that when opened resulted in a big reaction of the crowd during "The Closest Thing To Crazy" performed by an alone and intimist Katie on stage.
By the end of the first song I could tell everyone wouldn´t have any regrets of the money and time spent on this show. The official greetings and compliments to the gorgeous city were made right after.
Before the concert I wondered how Katie would build a setlist that at the same time should contain all the (already) classics with the new album which was the purpose of this tour if we can say so. Katie did it well. Probably postponing all the concerts made the new album reach the perfect maturation among all the fans because I could listen people around me humming the lyrics of "I´d Love To Kill You", "Moment of Madness" and "Tiny Alien".
The singles got a great response too. "The Flood" is quite a masterpiece live. "A Happy Place" kept the upbeat.
The mix of the new songs with the ones already well known by the fans made the concert pleasant and without any awkward moments of any unknown song played to pass time. In fact, "No Fear of Heights" - played for the first time live and again in another intimate moment where only Katie and her guitar player were on stage - and "Red Balloons" had the best feedback from the sold out Coliseu.
Back to the curtains they revealed what I think it was a gigantic screen...but after a couple of songs without nothing on it I lost my hopes and thought Katie would only rely the show on her great voice and flawless band. I was actually right in the first place because when Katie left the center of the stage and seated on her piano she told us she had some cool graphics to show us but the computer wasn´t working properly (it end up working though)...this way she also told us she feels like she should compensate that fact singing more songs. Complimenting laughs echoed on the room. That´s Katie. A shy talented Georgian-British young girl - Yes, she´s just 26 - that delivers song after song without saying much in between them. Some like it, others not so much. Some interaction wouldn´t hurt. Although it´s understandable due to the shyness not only of Katie by also from the crowd at her concerts.
Also to note in the middle of all this...a song to Japan. Despite the angelic look and unreal voice Katie is indeed human and made that moment one of the most touching ones of the night. She cares. Not a coincidence that a sponsor of her tour is Opel and she´s the face of their electric car - Ampera.
"My Aphrodisiac Is You" - yup, you should check the lyrics for this one - came with ice soap bubbles (such awesome thing indeed exists!!) from the ceiling. A fun Melua wonder around the stage kicking them with a large smile on her face.
We demanded an encore. "Nine Million Bicycles" beautifully opened it. "I Cried For You", again in a solo intimist performance, ended the perfect night making some of the presents take the lyrics quite literally. A lonely girl by my side was quite moved. It´s how good this concert was.
P.S. I have no idea what was the health problem that made Katie cancel the tour back in October but I can´t go past saying this. She is one fit girl!
