Pidur: Concert

Isn’t ‘psychedelic’ a word we all use way too much and in way too many wrong contexts? Surely, we’ve all overused it at times: like when we say something is surreal (but is just really a bit out of the ordinary) or hilarious (when it’s just really sort of funny). Well, I can literally say that Pidur was all of those three things: psychedelic, surreal and hilarious. I must confess I am not a connoisseur of Estonian psychedelic rock bands, but from now on I surrender to this style and particularly to this band because, oh boy, that was some show. Or concert. Or both. I don’t know anymore.

First of all, Pidur has a very heterodox music style. You can’t really get bored because each song has a completely different rhythm. The songs travel through a wide variety of colours, like a mixture between punk, ballad, rock and oneiric phantom-like sounds. All with the distinctive raspy voice of their lead singer. I would’ve said that it was the lead singer alone infusing the show with his careless, cheeky personality. But just behind him, with a deep, guttural and phantasmagorical voice, the bassist presented as an Estonian punk artist with a little tribute to the Rolling Stones and a tall top hat with black blazer which was, I hope, a direct reference to Rino Gaetano.

Please tell me he was referencing Rino and I’ll be a happy man. Anyway, his presence was as potent and vital for the concert as the lead singer and only if you were there you know it’s true. Sometimes just the personality of the artists on a stage can totally change the vision of their technique. From my not-such-a-musical-expert perspective, I can tell you there was just already enough show with these guys’ attitude on stage.

I especially enjoyed some of Pidur’s songs such as ‘Lonely Socks’ –finally somebody sings about important issues- or the delightful ‘Fly’ and ‘Cockroach Reggae’. Kafka himself would have risen from his grave to applaud those last two songs.

OK, that didn’t probably happen, but the fans absolutely rose from their seats during those songs and started to dance in the most enigmatic and peculiar way, rising to the occasion of such bizarre and amusing songs. It’s undeniable, they couldn’t help but dance to those songs, but were driven to give the last surreal touch of the evening. At certain moments I thought I was either part of a David Lynch movie or, even better, an Aki Kaurismäki’s scene. Tallinn is really not that far away from Helsinki, after all.

Particularly enjoyable was to see how some very well-done whistles were mixed with the throaty-voiced lyrics. The audience’s attention was kept throughout the whole concert. I’m personally not a big fan of attending concerts because if the style is too much of the same, I end up getting distracted thinking of the shopping list and so on. But Pidur’s music didn’t let me lose my attention for a single second. So, if you enjoy a good concert, you can’t regret listening to this eccentric band.

Author: Pablo