Unheld for six years, Festival dos Oceanos (no translation needed, right?) returned this year for the joy of those who have not much coins in their pockets: every Festival's event is for free.
I was lucky enough to have been given the Festival's program by chance when I was returning home from a shift at work. A troupe of masked street musicians and dancers promoting the event handed me the leaflet.
On Saturday night, my older brother, Humberto, his eldest son, Humberto Jr., and I decided to check the concert held downtown in Praça do Comércio. Apart from two other bands, the Human League were supposed to be playing. Surely the band's name is meaningless to those who didn't listen to British pop music back in Human League's heyday, the 80's. We were expecting a tribute band but we got the real deal... twenty years after. If one shut one's eyes while listening to it those twenty years went off one's shoulders. Their synthpop / new wave style is certainly dated. But we too are getting dated all the time.
I attach here three songs they played. The bis songs were their debut single, "Being Boiled" and the famous "Together in Electric Dreams" (which by now is a wink to virtual online relationships, is it not?).
Here's a taste of it, begging your pardon for its quality (hint: I'm still waiting for a kind soul to offer me a good photo and video capturing device):
and one minute more:
After their performance, fireworks were announced. Though they're usually very nice, this time it was awesome for they were synchronysed with music. The two following samples fail to show how good it was but are helpful to our imagination:
and a few seconds more:
It's a pity you lot weren't there with us, but maybe next year, if the Oceans' Festival is held again.
The night ended in Bairro Alto, where by now Portuguese can feel foreigners in their own land, and showing Junior the nice shop where you can acquire, among other similar useful items, a CD to revenge of your apartment neighbours, if by chance they're noisy, which includes sounds of crying babies, high-heeled footsteps, noisy love-making, wall drilling, irritating music and so on, all of which you can play on maximum volume at your home stereo device.
Attachment: 07 - the lebanon.mp3
Attachment: 09 - together in electric dreams.mp3
