Saturday, March 5, 2016

An Audio Visual Triumph - Sole Mio

Haven't done a post here for a while, but was moved to it after last night, the occasion......
Sole Mio's  "On Another Note" tour concert, Palmerston North's Arena 2 stadium.
Audio visual triumph..., magnificent voices, fantastic stage and sound management, more incredible given that the place is a bit of a barn.
There must have been close to the documented 5000 crowd capacity, good view all round aided by a couple giant screens.
The back-drops were a masterpiece, couldn't figure out if they were 3 large rear projection panels, or actually video panels themselves, of some sort. Anyway, they were great, switching scenes appropriately between numbers, and even doing a bit of video motion.
Pene, Amitai, and Moses............. what can one say.
We got the full treat from opera to popular, accompanied in some part by grand piano, other by canned orchestra, and then by their own uke, guitar, and double bass, rousing opera through popular swing to sentimental ballad, delivered by an impeccable and fulsome sound system.
They sang the whole program. As an audience we got a full nine yards, and some surprise to walk out after two encores to find it was only 10.30pm (from an 8pm start, on time too). No time-wasting warm-up act here.
Their quiet dignity and cherishment of family and community values fueled the national pride tank.
Its Pacific for me......
the union jack can take a hike off the national flag.
10 out of 10, and much better in person than the CD