Concert Report and Review: "Juan Luis Guerra y 440", 04 March 2006, Cali, Colombia

"Mas de perfecto" (more than perfect) is Pilar's description. Wonderful. Fantastic. This concert originally was scheduled for 26 November 2005. One of the things I hoped to do, before I die, was to attend a concert of Juan Luis Guerra and his group 440, so for me this was a dream come true. I paid for tickets, a week or so before that first concert date and then they postponed the concert, because we were having unusually rainy weather and the concert locations in Cali and in Medellin are open air. After they postponed the concert I then had trouble getting a refund. This time, I waited until the day of the concert to buy tickets. I went to three (3) places and bought the tickets in the last place. A few days before the concert, they moved it, from the stadium where professional soccer games are played (there, the tickets we would have had would have been under cover, which is nice if it rains, but we would have been much farther from the stage), to the arena where they have bull fights. A much smaller place and completely open air. The weather was perfect, with the temperature at 26 C. (79 F.) most of the time. The temperature was fluctuating, from 25 to 28 C. The sky was perfect, with a 1/4 moon and many stars shining down on us. The concert was scheduled for 8 P.M. and began at 839. We got there about 630 P.M. and we were in the 3rd row in our section, in the center. The tickets are sold by section, so it's first come, first served. I believe we were approximately 50 meters (yards) from the stage. The sound system was perfect and they had two very large TV screens to get close up views. The warm up singer was a woman named Maía who I was not familiar with. She is from Barranquilla, Colombia. Pilar said that she is very popular in Colombia now and she has been performing for several years. The audience was far younger than Pilar and I had expected. Mostly they were in early 20's. They knew Maía and the words to her songs and were very enthusiastic. She sang for approximately one hour. Pilar found this morning that we have a CD I was given, when I bought FAB laundry detergent, that has one or two of Maía's songs on it. Pilar liked the way she dances and sings and will probably buy one of her CD's and pay more attention to her now. After Maía, there was nothing, for approximately 30 minutes. At 1009, Juan Luis Guerra began singing. The crowd (including yours truly) went wild. He sings live exactly like his CD's and video's. The same voice and the same tones. He tried to end the concert about 1130, but the crowd begged him back and then he sang again. This happened two more times. The concert ended just before Midnight. I am going to write a letter to Juan Luis Guerra (he lives in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) and in that letter suggest that they sell a DVD (if it's not already available for this concert, "Tour 20 años" (20 year tour). Pilar said this morning that she would gladly pay the money to attend this concert again. The security here would be unusual for people in the USA or Canada who are reading this post. They had separate lines for men and women to enter each section. Police women frisked the women and police men frisked the men. The audience was extremely well behaved and very enthusiastic about the concert at all times. This was the first concert Juan Luis Guerra has done in Cali in 12 or 14 years (I've lived here for 11 years). We bought 2 bottles of Pepsi and to my astonishment each one cost about US$2.45, the same price as the hamburgers we bought there. The price of soft drinks there cut down on our drinking and we should have bought a bottle of Rum or Aguardiente (spelling?) instead of the Pepsi's. :-)

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written by Lanny on 06 March 2006