The Cranberries' return (and welcome back, lady and gentlemen)

(c)José Sena Goulão/Lusa

About The Cranberries' gig last night: it was one of the best gigs I've ever seen in my life, and in many ways it was perhaps the best one (yes, in some ways it was better than any Muse concert I might have seen). For one reason only: few bands create such a strong bond with the crowd. In fact, for most bands, interaction with the crowd means "hello, *insert country or city*", "thank you", "see you next time". Note: in a gig, it isn't absolutely necessary to bring the public to the stage, so to speak; I've seen Brian Molko, Placebo's frontman, being outstanding on stage without ever even looking at the crowd, and Muse are good enough live to make up for this (we don't even remember it). But, regardless of the amount of pyrothecnics on stage, if a band gets warm with the crowd the concert enters into another dimension. So far, the only bands I've seen doing that really well were Vampire Weekend, three years ago (when no one really knew them), Audioslave, thanks to Chris Cornell and the tremendous guitar showdown of Tom Morello, and Rage Against the Machine (hello, Tom, once again). But Dolores O'Riordan, well, is unmatched: she has the energy, she has the voice (and what a voice), she has the ability to make the crowd feel special, she enjoys doing it. I was watching her and the band last night and was thinking "they are really doing this for us". She came to the edge of the stage, she joined the crowd, she sang with us. Or rather, we sang with her. Every single song (even she was surprised).

The show started with Analyse, followed by Animal Instinct - by then, the whole arena had surrendered already. But Linger, a few songs later, would be the night's first peak, but truth be told, the night was so hot already it would never become just warm. Ode to My Family was cute. Salvation was a riot. Zombie was... well, Zombie was Zombie, one of the most powerful songs of the 90's. Promises (an old favourite) was remarkable. And Dreams, to end the show (as expected), was epic. The rest? The rest was nothing short of absolutely amazing. Welcome back, 90's. We truly missed you.

(for pictures and reviews, check this, this, this, this and this)