Curitiba Concert

Last night’s concert venue in Curitiba was an old limestone quarry, with 30-metre rock walls and a tree-lined perimeter. All 25,000 fans were standing and, like in São Paulo, chanted and sang throughout the two-hour set. It was an extra special evening for two members of David’s team: for João Mello, the young saxophonist, who was playing in front of his home crowd; and for Phil Taylor, David’s guitar tech for over 40 years, celebrating his birthday. David called Phil onto the stage and the whole audience sang ‘Happy Birthday’, or the Portuguese equivalent. João spoke briefly to the audience and they applauded their ‘own’.

There was a new song added to the set-list, the hugely popular Coming Back To Life, which On An Island made way for. The release of the scarves in High Hopes has received a huge cheer here in Brazil, which hasn’t been the case previously.

And the crowd had two surprises in store for David and the band: during The Girl in the Yellow Dress a cloud of coloured balloons was released which wafted across the audience, seemingly in time to the music; and for Run Like Hell, the final song of the set, before the encore, a group of fans in the front row held up handpainted posters each with ‘RUN’ on them. For the final few songs the rain poured and there were flashes of lightning, but no-one cared, and the concert ended with a moving Comfortably Numb. As David said: “You’ve been a fantastic audience”.

Last night’s setlist was…

First Set: 5 A.M.; Rattle That Lock; Faces Of Stone; Wish You Were Here; A Boat Lies Waiting; The Blue; Money; Us And Them; In Any Tongue; High Hopes.

Second Set: Astronomy Domine; Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-5); Fat Old Sun; Coming Back To Life; The Girl In The Yellow Dress; Today; Sorrow; Run Like Hell.

Encores: Time/Breathe (reprise); Comfortably Numb.