Madrid (EFE).- The British funk band Jamiroquai has offered its followers a funk show covered in the nostalgia of a 1990s repertoire as the highlight of the third and final day of the Río Babel festival, which was held this weekend its fifth edition at La Caja Mágica in Madrid.
In a battery of songs in which only the classics fit, the London group has displayed its funky power with rhythms and dances that its vocalist, Jason “Jay” Kay, has performed tirelessly on the stage, reminding the audience that “he does thirty years” since the band, which has not set foot on Spanish soil since September 2022, began.
“Some of you are still here, some of you were just a thought, maybe there are children.
We have to go back in time one more time, before they give me a cane and say ‘I used to be a rock star’”, joked the singer a few minutes after bursting onto the scene, aware that they had to play it safe to satisfy fans of as long a journey as the band.
Among the whistles from an audience dressed in tufts to match that of the vocalist and weighed down by the accumulated half-hour delay in the performances, Jamiroquai opened the recital with the song “Main Vein”, followed by “Little L ”, after which Jay could not help but get rid of his striped tunic and reveal his black and white tracksuit against the Madrid heat.
The long-awaited “Space Cowboy” has started the first claps and the involvement of the public has become latent with “Alright”, where the chorus sung from memory by the attendees has made the singer record the scene with his own mobile phone.
On a night in which there seemed to be no surprises, the unexpected interpretation of “Traveling Without Moving”, which Kay has admitted not having performed “for a long time” has been received with an enthusiasm magnified by “Cosmic Girl”, a song that has given rise to the already classic sea of mobiles in the air.
“Emergency On Planet Earth”, dedicated to “all the fucking politicians that we continue to elect while there is an emergency on earth” has opened the final stretch in which “Love Foolosophy” has heated up the atmosphere with an apparent closure to the charge of “Virtual
Isanity”, after which the vocalist has stretched out on the ground to get to high five the hands of the first row.
Despite having exhausted the time stipulated by the festival, the enthusiasm of the fans has not allowed the band to leave without closing with “Deeper Underground” and saying goodbye with an effusive “thank you” in Spanish, which seems to reflect that part of the fun of the attendees had also been shared by the group.
The day, opened by “Colectivo Panamera” and “Balkan Paradise Orchestra”, shone to the beat of the indie band from Cartagena “Arde Bogotá”, which made a larger audience dance than expected with songs like “Los perros”, the first of their repertoire, the euphoric “Virtud y punishment” or “Cariño”, which has closed a recital in which they have confirmed their return to Madrid on November 11 with a concert at La Riviera.
The presence of “La MODA” as one of the main attractions of the poster has been clouded by a half-hour delay that has displaced successive artists in time and that, however, has not detracted from the desire of a dedicated public in a repertoire of hits where “Gasoline” has stood out, the indispensable “Heroes del sábado” or “1932” as the final climax.
Nightfall has coincided with the turn of “Alizzz” who, far from the sound he is used to on his records, has covered, with great prominence of his electric guitarist Ferrán Gisbert, hits like “Ya no siento nada”, “Antes de morirme”, a song he produced for C. Tangana and Rosalía, or “Que pasa nen”, dedicated to the Catalan audience.
Behind him, the Mexicans from “Son Rompe Pera” have fused cumbia with rock and ska to gather a crowd that was divided between their concert and the main stage awaiting the arrival of Jamiroquai.
The festival plans to close its last day with performances by the Argentine electronic rock duo “Peces raros” and the Colombians “Bomba Estéreo” in an edition marked by the presence of Morat, the celebrated dose of bachata by Juan Luis Guerra and the Jamiroquai British funky twist.