You can count on all the essentials from the Rock 101 primer surfacing at a Mana concert: surging anthems, political oratory, fog, explosions, interminable solos and a fever-pitch atmosphere.
Thursday night, performing the first of two concerts at the Allstate Arena, the Latin pop-rock group added even more components to its arsenal: a rain machine and an appearance of the Grim Reaper.
Say what you will about Mana, and its critics often do, but the veteran band knows how to put on a great show, even if it doesn't exactly offer a transcendent experience. Mana's first U.S.
tour in almost four years finds the band at the peak of its popularity. Its latest disc, "Amar Es Combatir" (2006), bowed at No. 4 in the Billboard Top 200 -- the highest chart position ever for a Latin music disc.
The disc, which combines Mana's usual socially conscious themes with impassioned ballads, won the Latin rock Grammy last month and is still at No. 6 on the Latin albums list after 30 weeks. With all that momentum, Mana not surprisingly came charging out of the gates Thursday.
Or should we say surging over the fence. As Bob Marley's "Get Up, Stand Up" blared on the sound system, animated images projected on a screen depicted Latinos clambering over the Great Wall that the Bush administration proposes to build on the U.S.
/Mexico border. With guitars wailing, the band then launched into its opening number, "Dejame Entrar" ("Let Me In") -- with the song's title implying a sly dig at immigration politics. After that blistering start, Mana settled into several songs from "Amar Es Combatir": its latest single, "Manda Una Senal," followed by "Labios Compartidos," "Combatiente" and "Bendita Tu Luz.
" Augmented by a keyboardist, second guitarist and an extra percussionist, Mana improved on the studio versions, fleshing them out with expert musicianship and an added sense of urgency. As usual, the focus remains on vocalist-guitarist Fher Olvera and drummer and co-leader Alex Gonzalez. But the band's slealth weapon is guitarist Sergio Vallin, at home in all styles, from rock to flamenco, reggae to ranchera.
Though it hails from Guadalajara, Mana really isn't that Mexican in sound. Its signature guitar-driven style owes more to the rock-reggae grooves of the Police and U2 than Latin pioneers El Tri. So when Mana offered several rancheras, including "El Rey," "Ella" and "Se Me Olvido Otra Vez," it steeped them in reggae-cumbia beats, to dazzling effect.
Moments like this helped to balance the heavy-handedness of "Cuando Los Angeles Lloran" and "Donde Jugaran Los Ninos?" during which Fher came out in a black hooded robe and white mask. It was all very "Seventh Seal" and over the top, with the songs' sociopolitical messages getting lost in the melodrama.
Later, after a simulated downpour on "Sigue Lloviendo el Corazon," the concert almost got left out in the rain. Even Gonzalez's showboating, Fher's raspy vocals and his bizarre speechifying -- a shoutout to Hillary Clinton, champion of human rights? -- can't keep a good Mana show down.
Say what you will -- viva Mana.
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