TXARANGO

Txarango brought the party sound of Spanish summer with them to Japan. From the first chorus, the Palace crowd has wholeheartedly embraced the joyful energetic atmosphere of the band with its brass and drum dominated folk sound and powerful choruses. The second song is more of a lilting gypsy number and although the crowd doesn’t understand a word of the band’s Catalan Spanish dialect, every song and chorus gets a huge response. They then dial it back to soft acoustic guitar and clapping which slowly grows in speed and loudness till an eruption of Latin keyboard melody brings the crowd back to dancing and a triumphant brass ending.

The followup is a frenzy of dancing, the crowd going crazy for the next three minutes. The band’s audience interaction is great, trying various Japanese phrases to great reception. Their genuine passion and energy rubs off onto and feeds off the crowd’s energy in a vicious circle. The sound delves into reggae and funk too, just to add more spice to their repertoire. There’s even enough energy going around to see their lead singer crowd surf, the first time I’ve seen that happen at the smaller Palace stage.

The intimate setting suits them perfectly and the closeness to the crowd only enhances the show. Eventually the show has to end but it does so to loud cheers. The sweat and smiles on not only the crowd’s faces but also the band’s was a testament to the sheer frenzy of joyful dancing they had inspired. These guys have a number of shows left (5:30pm Cafe de Paris today and 11am White Stage on Sunday). If you’re in the mood for dancing, get to these shows!