WE PRAYED for rain and it came. As I was getting ready for the unexpected concert from Canadian rebel, Alanis Morissette, at the students’ week in Faro last Wednesday, the skies opened and the Algarve’s long awaited rain fell down heavily.
Ironic is the word. But, not put off by the downpour, myself and a few thousand other fans gathered for the late night open-air concert.
The singer demanded to be the first on the bill, after realising that she wouldn’t be going on stage until two in the morning. A change of pace for the 31-year-old singer that first emerged in 1995 with Jagged Little Pill – the album that would go on to sell more that 30 million copies worldwide, making history as one of the most successful recordings ever.
Alanis was on stage for the last time on her European tour, that started last month in Scandinavia, with dates all over Europe, from Denmark to the UK, Italy and Hungary. The tour is seen as the preparation for the eagerly waited Jagged Little Pill acoustic tour, taking place in the US and Canada over the summer
The So-Called Chaos tour is the first after the release, a year ago, of her last studio album with the same name. Alanis describes this last recording as “life-affirming”. The singer also produces some of the songs and sees it as the result of her newly found maturity.
The Faro concert mixed some new songs with the old favourites, involving the fans in singing the choruses for hits like Hand in my pocket, You learn and Head over feet. Alanis showed why she is one of the most acclaimed stage performers, giving a flawless performance. The excellent acoustics of the open-air stage added an extra touch to the overall enjoyment of the audience.
As the rain kept pouring down, some of the less interested fans made space for us ‘drowned rats’ to get to the front of the stage, join in and enjoy the enthusiasm of the crowd for Ironic and Thank YouIt was the perfect ending for the hour-and-a-half long concert, one that the Algarve fans will never forget. Luís Cunha
