Arjona gets welcomed to the 'hood
Agannis Arena, Boston, September 7, 2009
Reviewed by Jeffrey B. Remz
The start of Ricardo Arjona's show was not exactly typical. A few guys came out and milled about the stage with sax and guitar in hand playing a little bit with a tenement style setting surrounding them, including a barber ship and bar serving free beer. A few others soon came out including a policeman talking it up with the locals. The stage filled with more and more people.
Maybe this was an attempt by Arjona, the Guatemalan star, who has expanded far beyond his homeland, to make everyone comfy before his entrance as if he were coming to their neighborhood. If that was the goal, he succeeded and more in what would become an engaging, musically entertaining, warm night of music.
Arjona, touring behind his very fine "5to Piso" CD of last year, cut a commanding figure with rugged good looks, longish black hair and a very easy going personality.
He sings well, often able to easily put his stamp on the song with the requisite depth of emotion, though at times he was slightly overshadowed by the force of the music. The emotion was perhaps no more apparent than on the sad Mojado, about an immigrant going north. As he did other times during the night, Arjona sat at the foot of the ramp with an acoustic guitar in hand. A simple delivery spoke volumes to the overwhelmingly Latino crowd.
Arjona certainly had no problems connecting with the crowd, who often would sing along with him (especially the women), in a very real way. He also easily talked at length numerous times during the show. He acknowledged people having problems with the situation resulting in the election of a black president in the U.S. He later engaged the crowd with humorous comments as the fans easily laughed.
Arjona wrote a lot of good songs ranging from the ballads where his voice shined through best, to the uptempo, which worked particularly well during the end of the 2:20-minute show .
Arjona was aided by an able nine-piece backing band (these were the folks who populated the stage before his entrance). Fernando Acosta on saxophone and backing vocals was liveliest of the batch, adding much energy. But he was not alone with everyone having a hand in making for a lively evening.
The colorful staging worked particularly well though that seemed questionable at the outset. The barrio setting with a large screen of an apartment building at the rear, middle of the stage and a real staging of buildings to either side resulted in the band members being on four different levels for most of the evening, although, at times, seven were together on the ground floor. While the separation could have resulted in a disparate sound, this was a band that apparently has spent a chunk of time together. At one point, Arjona used the backing screen for a virtual duet on Ni Tu Ni Yo with Mexican singer Paquita la Del Barrio.
With outings like this, Arjona was more than welcome to this neighborhood.
