Manu Chao - Baionarena (2009)

Global star Manu Chao presents a DVD called "Baionarena" - recorded in France in 2008. With 33 total tracks, it features a variety of recent hits,older classics and rarities performed at Manu's standard level of high-energy raucousness along with tens of thousands of fans. Whether you saw Manu Chao headline Coachella, Austin City Limits or one of his many sold-out theater dates across the U.S. "Baionarena" will help recreate that experience in the comfort of your own home. "Baionarena" also includes a special 30 min. behind the scenes tour diary along with the full concert.

Diminutive radical Manu Chao lives in a high-energy world that comes in any colour you like, as long as they’re red, gold and green. There’s another clue to his worldview in the name of his six-piece backing band, Radio Bemba, sort of named for Radio Rebelde, Che Guevara’s rebel station during the Cuban revolution. So it will surprise no one that on this live album the former Mano Negra frontman’s channelling of the spirits of Bob Marley and Joe Strummer plays well to his native French audience (he was born in Paris to Spanish parents fleeing Franco’s dictatorship). Recorded in Bayonne at the last show of a two-year world tour, it’s astonishing that Chao still has the energy to whip the crowd, any crowd, into such a delirious frenzy.
It’s certainly not just in the music much itself, often little more than a frenzied romp through the punky reggae party rulebook, all hyper drumming, parping ska horn stabs, frenetic three-chord strums and siren samples. So while the idea that pretending we’re all Jamaican gypsies living in a global dope squat is the world’s best foot forward may appeal to many of the million or so people who bought Chao’s last album, what really sets him apart is the utter conviction and passion with which he delivers his message of unity and rebellion, probably better understood through the accompanying DVD performance.
Though his Marley-esque cries of “ay yoh yoh yoh” could only be truly appreciated by those who were there, when Radio Bemba stop their running-on-the-spot dancing tracks such as the title song from 1998’s Clandestino or Desaparecido shine all over again. And even if there’s no room for gentler moments from his back catalogue like Clandistino’s ‘other’ tracks Bongo Bong and Je Ne T’Aime Plus, even through the haze of exhaustion just from listening to this double album you will be amazed at the sheer, neck-straining stamina and commitment.
It’s world music, yes, but in the greatest possible sense of such a term, both universal and uniting.

Tracklist:

01. Panik, panik
02. El hoyo
03. Peligro
04. Casa Babylon
05. Tumba
06. Mr. Bobby
07. La primavera
08. Radio Bemba
09. Bienvenida a Tijuana
10. El viento
11. The monkey
12. Clandestino
13. Desaparecido
14. Rumba de Barcelona
15. La despedida/Mentira
16. Rainin` in paradize
17. A cosa
18. La vacaloca
19. Hamburger fields/Merry blues
20. Tristeza maleza
21. Dia luna, dia pena
22. Machine gun
23. Volver, volver…
24. Radio Bemba/Eldorado 1997
25. Mala vida
26. Sidi h`Bibi
27. Radio Bemba
28. Forzando maquina/Mr. Bobby
29. Me quedo contigo (si me das elegir)
30. La vida tombola
31. L`hiver est là
32. Crèv` la vie
33. Pinocchio (viaggio in groppa al tonno)
Bonus:
- Videos
- Carnet De Voyage
- Photorama