Concerts in Warsaw and Lubawa – 26.08.2012

It’s been a really hard and exciting day for Michał. There were two events yesterday: the first one was a solo recital as part of the “Reading in Grass” (“Czytanie na trawie”) campaign in Warsaw and a full concert with the band in Lubawa. We have gathered for you a lot of materials from these events, which will soon appear in the Exclusive section Exclusive. You can now watch the recording of Michał’s entire performance in Warsaw: nagranie całego występu Michała w Warszawie. In addition, there are two sets of photos from the concert in Lubawa tutaj and tutaj. You can see a short vde of this performance here tutaj. We will keep on  adding information appearing on the Internet, as well as today’s and tomorrow’s coverage of both performances. We would like to remind all those of you who were not ale to attend yesterday’s events about the upcoming concert which will take place on 9th September in Charsznica 🙂

UPDATE:

There are some more photos from Lubawa Klik!

A 10 – minute recording from the concert in Lubawa Klik!

Our report from both concerts

WARSAW

The weather in Warsaw was rather suitable for sitting in a pub than for a concert. Gray sky and rain encouraged  hiding away in a cozy interior rather than taking part in an open-air gig, however the fans of Szpak are strong so there was a group of Michał’s local fans and some fans  who had traveled from other places waiting on ”Krakowskie Przedmieście”. There was also Michał’s partner from ‘’Dancing with the stars’’, Paulina, who had revealed that she would have the opportunity to listen to Michał live for the first time since the birthday party at the ‘’Kashmir’’ club in Sosnowiec. The stage where Michał was performing was quite small, unfortunately, and we all know that Michał feels best on large, high stages, where he has the opportunity to go crazy and observe the reactions of people. Well, it all depends on the event…

The bad weather and the early hour of the recital meant that there were fewer people than anyone would have wished for. I do not live in Warsaw, so I am not aware if the event had been advertised anyhow, but I think that there was not enough promotion, so many people from Warsaw were probably not aware that Michał was singing on ”Krakowskie Przedmieście”. The faithful fans, however, did not disappoint, which can be seen in the group photo. In addition to that, there was a group of people who were watching the recital sitting under the umbrellas in a pub “Skwer”. There was a friendly atmosphere there.

The performance began with a slight delay, and Michał chose a fairly balanced look this time. He appeared on the stage in black pants, which he recently wore during Gosia Baczyńska’s show, a black t-shirt and a blue jacket with puffed sleeves. Regarding the repertoire, Michał sang songs from ‘’ The X- Factor’’, mainly because he could not perform in Warsaw with the band. So we heard “Fever”, “I dont’wanna miss a thing”, “You are so beautiful”, ‘’Czas nas uczy pogody”, ‘’Dziwny jest ten świat”, and finally two songs from his EP – “Rewolucja” and “Sensualny”. At the beginning, Michał apologized for his problems with his voice and said that it could be a result – as he later said in Lubawa – of tracheitis. Despite the illness, he did great vocally. At the end, Michał sang “Sto lat” to celebrate the birthday of the action “Reading in the Grass”, during which the performance took place, followed by a session of autographs and photos. For the fans who treated the recital in Warsaw as a prelude to a real concert revolution, there were only a few hugs with colleagues, saying ‘’good- bye’’ to friends and a 200-kilometer journey to Lubawa. And just after Michał’s performance, it stopped raining! The aura of that day turned out to be really nasty.

LUBAWA

There is one thing that can be said about the journey to Lubawa: it was a looooong one. Oddly enough, the last 60 kilometers turned out to be really hard, and we constantly asked ourselves a question – like in “Shrek” – is it still far away ? We have decided to take a photo with the name of the town when we have finally seen it. While doing it we blocked a road with our cars making it hard for one man to access his own property –  because we were taking a photo with a word ‘’Lubawa’’ a few meters away  from his house 🙂 We do apologize again.

Unlike in Warsaw, there was much better weather over there; there were clouds in the sky here and there but it did not rain. I guess it must have been raining earlier, because in front of the stage there was mud instead of grass – like in Woodstock, which made my shoes look like I had been working in a field 2 days before the gig.

The stage, on the other hand, created a positive impression – large, on a raised platform, with a catwalk. Because we arrived quite late, there were a lot of people there already. Michał managed to gather a large audience, even though he was performing as the first artist that day. Due to the earlier performance in Warsaw, he was not able to have a rehearsal with the band, so a quick warm-up took place shortly before the concert – Michał sang a piece of “Venus”. There were also a few cheerful words from him to the audience. Surprisingly for all fans, who had seen more than one concert so far, Michał presented a relatively simple look contrary to what we could see in Lubawa. I have to say that the stylization was GREAT – rock style and very well designed. Leather pants, a black, shiny blouse and a studded jacket made Michał look like million dollars – or even like two million. In my opinion – and not only mine – it was one of the best concert stylizations so far. Of course, Szpak would not have been himself and he had to go crazy – he appeared on the stage with a huge plush head … of a cow. However, it was uncomfortable to sing with this head on so Michał got rid of it.

In Lubawa, Michał had some more problems with his throat. It was heard mainly in ballads while strong, rock songs came out much better. Michał apologized several times for his vocal indisposition, emphasizing at the same time that he really wanted to do this concert, because live performances and the possibility of contact with the audience were the source of the greatest joy for him. At the end of the concert, when Michał, once again, referred to the disease that he was struggling with, fans sang a well – known song:’’ Nic się nie stało; Michale, nic się nie stało” (Nothing happened; Michał, nothing happened), and they made him laugh. The support of friendly people who appreciated his talent was much needed that day, and, in spite of his throat problems, the singer gave a fantastic, lively show. He was chatting with the audience, did some stage madness, we sang together “Pretty baby” and there were many other attractions. Michał was great, fought with the illness like a hero, did not shorten neither the concert nor the songs, he even sang “Venus” one more time. One can argue whether it would have been better to cancel the concert, but we have to respect him because he did not give up and gave the audience everything he could. Respect!

After the concert, there were autographs, as usual, unfortunately for a short while, because the band ‘’Loka’’ was the next on the stage.

There was an additional surprise for the faithful fans who came to Lubawa from various Polish cities. Several fans invited Michał to a meeting, and he agreed, despite of being tired. Renatka from OFC took care of it all and booked tables in one of the restaurants in Lubawa and sent all interested people over there. Michał appeared at a meeting with Paulina and we hope that he had a nice time after such a tiring, stressful day. It was a great opportunity for the devoted fans, who had traveled many kilometers, to talk with the artist in more private settings.

Oh! This time, it started raining soon AFTER Michał’s performance. There is still some justice in this world 🙂 

PS. At the same time, we want to inform you that we will not be sending you the full recording of the concert. Michał was not completely satisfied with his performance due to the weaker voice, so both him and his team asked not to make the recording public. Because we know that Michał always wants to give his fans everything that is best, we fully understand and accept his decision, and we ask all fans to respect it. Michał, we wish you a fast recovery … see you in Charsznica in two weeks! ”

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