English version.
Talent.
Charisma. Professionalism. Creativity. Sympathy.
I did not
read any review of Richard Marx's concert at the Opera Orbis theater in Buenos
Aires on May 24th so I started writing these lines today since I cannot help
thinking that none of the words of the first sentence could be left out if
someone had wanted to capture what happened there that night on stage.
It was just
the second presentation of the musician, born in Chicago 53 years ago, in
Argentina and the first one in Buenos Aires, in his stunning 31-year career. He
had set foot on an Argentine stage for the first time, in Rosario, the night
before.
The concert
began punctually with the full theater awaiting the performance of the artist,
who started the evening with an introductory video, showing some of the great
milestones of his successful and extensive career, reviewing in a few minutes,
his beginnings, his most popular albums, his prizes, his career as a composer
and producer and the admiration of many colleagues who love to play with him or
simply admire his music.
He came to
the stage seconded by three very good musicians and started "Endless
summer nights" as if to shake the audience and to show that his voice was
impeccable. He immediately launched the first cascade of hits: "Don't mean
nothing", "Satisfied", "The way she loves me" only by
the fifth song came "Suddenly", to give a break to the audience who
sang and chanted even the guitar solos and shouted "Ole, olé, olé,
Richard, Richard" in between song, for which he smiled in disbelief at
such effusiveness, almost with certain shyness.
Of the next
song he only managed to say: "... this is about a girl ..." and
although almost all his songs are about some girl, we all knew that the one
upcoming was not about any girl, but the one murdered in the river who starred one
of his most intricate and mysterious lyrics, the one we never knew who the
culprit was and he insists on refusing to reveal it. Without further ado, he
launched "Hazard" and we all listened in paying extra special
attention, as if in the live performance we could catch some clue that in these
20 years we had not found.
At the end
of the song and with the crime still unpunished, the band left the stage
leaving him only with his guitars, in front of the microphone and making us
feel that he was playing in our living room the second wave of hits, this time in
acoustic format, which began with "Keep coming back" and thanks to
the relaxed atmosphere he could attend the request of a fan to play a song
that, he said with great sympathy, was so old that he hasn´t played it for a
long time and only remembered a part of it, and to the sound of his guitar
began the beautiful "Until I find you again", even making the fan to
come on stage for a selfie and taking the big applause for the incursion out of
the programmed set list and his sincere demonstration of affection.
The
creativity that moves him made him re-record the next song with his (grown-up-musician)
children who, from the giant screen at the back of the stage, accompanied him
to the rhythm of "When you loved me" and then, almost in total
climax, he unplugged his guitar in one go and sang without amplification
"This I promise you", a super romantic song he wrote for NSYNC and
gave him big joy as a producer.
After a break
of just seconds, he shot straight to the heart with "Hold on to the
nights" and "Now and forever". Among the audience the murmur was
that his voice was even better than in the original recordings. His unique
charisma and husky voice seemed to be taking us little by little towards the
end of the show that no one wanted to end, even the artist. He then played
perhaps the most unknown song called "Just go" and followed it with
the super hit "Should've known better" before leaving the stage to a
well-deserved break before the encore.
We all
would have understood if he took a while to return because his performance and
delivery had been stunning, however, it took him just three minutes to return
to the scene with his unforgettable smile, to begin the encores with the song
he wrote to his wife, the beautiful model Daisy Fuentes, who was by the side of
the stage behind the scenes, "Eyes on me" followed by
"Angelia" and before the end he interpreted "Take this
heart", which was exactly what he gave all night: his heart.
We all took
such souvenir of his performance until he finally shot like an accurate sniper
straight to the hearts and the most intimate fibers of the memories of each one
of the spectators, when sitting at the keyboard he slid his fingers to play
"Right here waiting for you". This stainless hymn, which we heard
thousands of times in hundreds of places, sounds in such a special way when the
theater is in an infinite silence and it is Richard Marx himself who plays it
in front of you ending an impeccable night where he demonstrated superlative
talent, enviable charisma and good looks, great professionalism, tenacity to
maintain such success and, ultimately, timeless creativity to deliver a
historic night to those fans who had been waiting for him "right here"
for so many years.
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