When Pedro Santos entered the stage, he seemed a little nervous. That might have been because he felt the pressure to be on the same stage right before none other than Cian Ducrot. However, that did not seem to be the issue in this case. Santos seemed to be signaling to his guitarist that something was up. He was fidgeting with his receiver, when he told the audience in between chorus, that he could not hear anything. Even though Santos was visibly distressed, vocally, you would not have noticed had he not said anything.
During his song ‘Lady In Red’, the stage lights, obviously, turned red. The crowd pulled their phones out for a cute torchlit atmosphere. After this heartfelt song, Santos talks about how excited he is for his debut album. This next song is a new single coming out soon. Therefore, he taught the crowd how to sing along to the chorus. The crowd was eager to participate!
Santos ended his set with his debut single ‘Someone I Don’t Know’. He seemed to be having some trouble with his in-ears again, only this time he had built the confidence to keep on performing audaciously.
There was no more fitting way to open his set than how Cian Ducrot appeared. His band members appeared first; then, all the lights went out. Then boom! For a split second there appeared a spotlight on the stages’ staircase and there he was. You could have easily missed it, for how quickly the spotlight went on and off again. Then it went on again. And off again. This was theater at its best. Ducrot descended the stairs and the crowd went wild.
After his first song was introduced with as much spectacle as possible, Ducrot started his second song on the piano, by himself. The piano was positioned at the very center of the stage and was completely bedazzled. It even had a light strip that coordinated perfectly with the stage lights.
During ‘Shalalala’, Ducrot was playing his guitar and walked around on stage until he made sure he had jammed with every band member. His little tour around the stage ended with him playing on top of the piano center stage. It was very clear that Ducrot is not only a great singer, but also an amazing instrumentalist. A lot of the songs live were much different from the recorded versions, because of the many instrumental intermezzos.
While Ducrot sat on the piano, he asked the audience a question: “Have you ever had your heart broken?” If so, he asked to put your hand in the air and look around you, at each other.
Ducrot asked one fan, Emily, for her story. Emily told the story of how she had her heart broken. Her ex told her it was because of her mental health, while in reality, there was another girl. She found that out through friends. Ducrot asked if he could stand with her for his next song and give her a hug. While he started ‘The Book Of Love’, fans all around the venue were hugging each other in support of their different heartbreaks.
Back sitting on the piano, Ducrot started ‘Kiss And Tell’ by playing the flute. During this song specifically, people in the back where there was some open space, started dancing in circles. Much like you would see at a Paris Paloma show. As stated earlier, Ducrot also showed again that he will play any instrument himself and he will do it well.
After a song about how important it is to not be a dick, Ducrot declares it storytime. In this story, Ducrot got deep with the listeners. He talked about how in order to feel better and be at a place where you want to be, you have to forgive and forget. He had been walking around with a lot of hate and came to the realisation that he had to move on. Hating somebody can feel like revenge, but in the end, you end up hurting yourself even more. Much like journaling, Ducrot said his songwriting and singing helps him every day to show up, do his best and actively make the cliche to do so. Over time it gets easier. It also is not about how badly someone hurt you, but more about how bad you can take it in that moment. This storytime was an introduction to ‘What About Love’ that starts with the trumpetist playing on top of the piano. By the end of the show, all band members had had their chance to shine in the center, either on top of the piano, or playing the piano.
For one of his most popular songs, ‘All For You’, Ducrot had a request that some fans found hard to accept. The request was to put their phones away and not film the song. Ducrot believed they would have a much different experience if they would really try to be present during this song. There are enough videos of the song on the internet anyways. But for the people who really wanted to show their grandma a video of the song, Ducrot had made sure that the song was being filmed by his crew. The fans could log into a site that was connected to this venue specifically, so it would not work once they would leave the venue. Through this site, Ducrot would send the video of the song.
During the song, there were many people who got emotional and it seemed as if the ‘try to be really present’ had worked. The applause that followed was so long and the room felt as if the song had made a deep emotional impact on anyone who was there.
Toward the end of the show, Ducrot took the stage on the piano again. He was impressed that the audience came here today, even when there were no cars allowed in the city today and that everybody bought a ticket worth three good coffees. So he lectured his band to really do their best and told the crowd that they had a right to have high standards. What definitely was worth the ticket prices was the long note after what the crowd believed to be his last song of the night.
To everybody’s enjoyment, he came back for an encore. He could not have left without performing ‘I’ll Be Waiting’. The crowd went wild and the applause seemed never ending. Also, Ducrot seemed to be having some separation anxiety. When the band had long left the stage, he was still saying goodbye to everyone. It seemed he had enjoyed himself equally as much as every fan attending the show.
