Antonia Font at the Liceu: as always and better than ever

BarcelonaAs always, yes, and better than ever. This was the concert of Antònia Font at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, with sold-out tickets and the progressive feeling of living an unforgettable night. Specifically, two hours and twenty minutes immersed, group and audience, in magic. How many artists would not want to end up a tour With performances like this one, which confirm that the return of Antònia Font in 2022, nine years after the farewell, has been a very good idea. "We didn't expect this. Now it's time for us to rest," said singer Pau Debon at the end of a performance that ended with the audience taking the lead role in Living without you.

The concert at the Liceu, where they had already performed in 2008 (in symphonic format), has been as always because the Mallorcan quintet continues to activate an unbreakable emotional connection, with Pau Debon as the mediator of the god of modern melody, a Joan Miquel Oliver author of verses, entities, lovers who eat each other and feelings that lose their way. It has been as always because the repertoire has maintained the script of a good part of this tour through theaters and auditoriums that began on January 25, 2024 in Sant Cugat del Vallès. That is, brushstrokes of the album One minute strobe, with the beautiful sound melancholy of Song of light and Oh la la; a sufficiently relevant segment dedicated to some not-so-innocent miniatures from the album You are here (2012), like the vibrant postpunk of Punyeta món and the gloss Letters from Ramiro; and, of course, many undeniable songs that have also been performed like never before. Yes, the two concerts at the Palau de la Música last year were magnificent, and the enthusiasm of the public at the Palau Sant Jordi in 2022 and in general throughout the subsequent festival tour is surely unsurpassed. But the concert at the Liceu, organised by the ARA, was something else.

Antònia Font have arrived tired at the end of the tour - "destroyed", said Pau Debon - but the impression they have given on stage is that of musicians in a state of grace, surely with the wind in their favour of a sound system that this time has been up to the group's level and that has allowed us to properly appreciate riffs Jaume Manresa's keyboard and the texture games that Joan Miquel Oliver uses with the guitar. In addition, Pau Debon has sung better than ever, with a mature voice and in a position to sing the melancholy of Behind a magazine and Inside this igloo like anger and rage Robot, which ended in full catharsis. Even in the first part of the concert, he stood out like never before Armando Rampas and I love you all the same, and has wisely assumed the moments when Antònia Font seemed to be claiming itself as a rock group, especially at the end of Robot and one Rhyming Astronaut that Pau Debon has sung while moving around the Liceu's audience. And it wouldn't be the only time.

Pau Debon has served as frontman to the very end. He has chatted when necessary, made jokes about the lights at the Liceu – "smiley faces, like the acid house emoticon" – and often bridged the gap between himself and the stage. All engines He has also experienced it in the audience, soaked in the unwavering enthusiasm of an audience that sings the verse-turn with the same intensity as the first day they understood the magnitude of what is expressed in verses like "We loved each other, / we destroyed each other, we almost always dedicated our days, / we sexualized each other, we gastronomized each other." After Bathyscaphe Katiusca, has made a mutis to reappear on the third floor, from where he has sung Clint Eastwood. Back in the stalls, he made the audience dance the waltz of Vitamin only while recommending them: "Everyone comb their hair to look good in the videos." And, in full ecstasy, she shared Calgary 88 with a Liceo converted into a choir quite in tune and at the height of this romantic marvel. "We will remember it all our lives," he said, who knows if he was aware that this was what many people thought tonight. As always and better than ever. Next stop, the Mallorca Live Festival in Calvià, on June 12.