10 November 2011, 13:01 Culture

Yura the musician

DDT presented the “Otherwise” program at the Olimpiysky Sports Complex

Alexey Krizhevsky close

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The DDT group presented at the capital's Olimpiyskiy Sports Complex a new program, “Otherwise,” based on the songs of the album of the same name, the first in the last three years. The team of Yuri Shevchuk fully justified the name of the program: such a group has never been seen before.

A lone figure, outwardly indistinguishable from the technicians who had been fiddling around on stage for the past half hour, came out from behind the scenes and headed towards the microphone. As she approached, the hall buzzed louder and louder - and finally, the most short-sighted recognized it.

"Hi guys. We wanted to go out so gloomily, with a show-off, but it didn’t work out,” said Yuri Shevchuk .

The technicians continued to drag the absurdly hanging wires onto the grate, and the leader of DDT launched into stories - he announced the program and even complained that he would have to endure a whole hour and a half of new songs. “Are you guys finished yet?” — the man with the microphone asked a little irritably at the grate. The wires were quickly removed, the lights in the hall went out, and DDT musicians appeared from the darkness with flashlights in their hands.

It started anyway “gloomily,” that is (apparently, this is how this St. Petersburg euphemism should have been understood) quite powerfully and solemnly, with drumming and the hymn song “To those born this night.” On the screen-backdrop stretched across the entire stage, a curtain opened... According to the plot, Shevchuk explained on the eve of the concert, the lyrical hero of the new program is born during the days of the historic 22nd Congress of the CPSU . Throughout the show, this hero will undergo metamorphoses - become a participant in the consumption chain (song “Sunshine”), swing a baseball bat (“Crisis”), go into space. What happened on stage looked no less staged. A little more, and one could suspect that this is a musical based on new DDT songs: for example, during the song “Hey, who are you,” about a hundred spectators walked along the proscenium from the dance floor - the seemingly simple semi-impromptu looked like a well-staged crowd scene.

An hour and a half with good sound, allowing you to hear every unfamiliar line, with minimal breaks between songs - DDT organized a natural non-stop flight of 28 songs, immersing yourself in the world of the new album.

And there was something to dive into. The group, which had been confidently drifting from stadium rock to original songs for the last ten years, turned 270 degrees - moved back towards stadium rock, only this time of the European variety: most of all, DDT’s new program was reminiscent of U2’s recordings from the time of the “Zooropa” album.

Here and there some electronics appeared—incredibly appropriate, by the way. But the most important thing is the new texts and the manner of their presentation: for example, in some places Shevchuk doesn’t even sing, but half-pronounces complex thoughts in blank verse, in others he naturally screams against the backdrop of almost hardcore accompaniment. The only thing that DDT has in common, past and present, is folk two-voices on lyrical songs: the place of the ensemble “Rejoice”, which once performed with Shevchuk, was taken on this tour by the vociferous beauty Alena Romanova from the ethno-project Zventa Sventana - at this concert they were extremely They sang picturesquely back to back. And the audience, instead of the traditional choral singing of DDT’s brilliantly hackneyed hits, was forced to silently listen for an hour and a half to new songs about how personal freedom and love exist and flow against the backdrop of the freedom of the homeland and love for one’s country. So Shevchuk, it seems, was not in vain in apologizing, feigning excitement and urging patience: without such a prior warning, anyone who knew nothing about the new program and did not have time to listen to the new album before the concert could easily drop their jaw on the floor.

However, Shevchuk still gave the public a chance to sing in chorus. After the screen contemporary of the era crawled through years and metamorphoses naked and dirty to the Winter Palace in its modern form, the lyrical two-voice composition “Southwest Wind” sounded and the screen curtain closed, the group left to return for a wide encore, which de facto became the second part of the concert. Here (without video and multimedia support) “Rut” and simply “Autumn” and “Last Autumn” were performed. But it seems that there was a hidden irony in this repertoire decision: the audience was clearly hinted at the contrast that such a comparison of the program of the “old and best” with the new and difficult causes.

The concert ended, according to a long-standing tradition, with the song “That’s All.” Flashlights, lighters, cell phones...

The concert also broke another stereotype - the perception of Shevchuk as a socially and politically concerned tribune, using the stage and rock music for sermons. Over the past two years, Yuri Yulianovich, through his participation in rallies for the Khimki forest and against the Gazprom skyscraper, has given many reasons to talk about himself as a public figure. The pretentious name of the new program, oddly enough, did not mean at all what one might think: everything is really different, Yura is truly a musician par excellence, as was said at the famous meeting with Putin. Although it cost him visible effort not to jump into politics. Wishing the audience (as usual, verbosely) all the best in parting, he touched on the topic of future elections, advising them to ask questions of themselves and the authorities, but at the same time urging them to vote for whomever their heart desires. And, judging by the reaction of the packed hall, if his name had been on the ballot, the outcome of the vote would have been decided unambiguously.