GP Week

In the surroundings of Allianz Parque Stadium, the streets, which were warming up at 28ºC marked on the city clocks in that 11/12/2022, were evenly shaped between fans of the headliners Twenty One Pilots and The Killers, but also of Fresno, the opening band. Wearing T-shirts of the aforementioned bands, these people walked with evident happiness and pride.

At 1 pm, exactly one hour after the gates opened, the public that was already filling the white lawn of Allianz Parque could still evaluate the best place to stay and watch the festival with an ideal view. And in this movement, the ambient sound was in charge of DJ Olisch.

Filling the room with danceable tunes that ranged from techno lounge, house music to remixes of iconic Brazilian songs, Olisch at least created the illusion that time was passing faster for all those who spread out among the three sectors that divided the stadium's field. At that time, the only spaces sufficiently occupied were the bathtubs next to the fences that divided the seating areas from the audience.

When the clocks struck 1:55 pm, as the security information was played on the screens, the ambient music stopped. It was then that shouts and whistles began to resonate as the stage assumed a disturbing silence.

When the speakers played the first sounds, the screams increased synchronously as, one by one, the members of Fresno took their places on the stage. And even before the first song, the group did a brief intro as a warm-up, officially opening GP Week.

Then Lucas Silveira got on the microphone and started playing the melancholic and reflective Vou Ter Que Me Virar, a song that made the audience dance softly and jump during the chorus. The clapping also emerged in rhythmic tempo stimulated by the frontman, who did not hide his satisfied smile.

Coming out of the melancholy, Fudeu came as a foot in the chest. Aggressive, it was the ideal environment for Silveira to start a brief speech against former president Jair Messias Bolsonaro and gaining a legion of supporters in the audience. The feat was to be repeated seven songs later, when the group played the representative Eles Odeiam Gente Como Nós.

"Eu entendo como é não se enxergar da melhor forma porque os olhos de fora contaminam o que achamos de nós mesmos", said Silveira, drawing shouts and applause in agreement with his speech, which also criticized conservatism and personalism. "E o que posso dizer a eles é: pau no cu deles“, said the singer with a commanding tone, being long applauded by the audience.

Aside from the political issues, Fresno's concert had other highlights among the 19 songs of the set that deserve to be highlighted. Quebre As Correntes, for example, was brought back to the times when the group was known for its emo songs, back in 2006. By the way, in the audience there were many individuals with the retro look of that time.

Already Casa Assombrada, a song that recurrently figures among the 10 most played songs in the brazilian pop/rock category by Crowley's ranking, was accompanied with clapping and cell phones that brushed the surface while recording the performance. Visceral choruses during the chorus were also witnessed in a way that contaminated, with its ample drama, even the already well-occupied sectors of the bleachers.

"Somos a única banda brasileira nesse bagulho, então a gente vai encerrar com uma música bem brasileira", said Silveira when he started the rocky reinterpretation of Eva, a song written by Umberto Tozzi. This is how Fresno ended their participation in GP Week, with a contagious joy.

With a lot of charisma, Lucas Silveira was a key piece in the link between the public and the band. He helped to make the performance a good mix between stoner rock, indie and emocore with a precise, sharp and well executed sound, including conscious and representative political protests.

At the same time, the performance showed a Fresno mature and aware of its melodic experimentation, which now moves as far away from the Polo style emo. Still, the dramatic and melancholy are kept in terms that eschew the relationship theme as the only bias to reach the listener's emotional scope.

The Band Camino

At exactly 3:29 p.m., with a fuller stadium, including a good capacity in the stands, the newcomers from The Band Camino began their presentation with the infectious Know It All. After its performance, Jeffery Jordan, taken by a shyness and insecurities, took the microphone and sent a brief introduction: "hello Brazil! We came from Nashville, Tennessee!".

Like Jordan, the audience itself looked at the trio with suspicion, full of doubtful and constantly analytical looks. This covered both the stage presence and the quality of the songs that, for the group, would be presented on that sunny November afternoon.

Even with this start of receptivity ruled by strangeness, the trio counted on icy and subtly bureaucratic clapping from the audience during the performance of the swinging and soft 2/14, the fourth track of the set whose introduction was built without time to breathe.

Showing versatility among the members, The Band Camino was also responsible for presenting songs with different layouts. An example of this is I Think I Like You, which was sung by guitarist Spencer Stewart, who showed consistency in the falsetto, while Jordan was dedicated to the song's base guitar.

Never A Good Time, the next in the sequence, with its melodic and catchy rhythm, attracted a good portion of the audience. However, it was only 11 songs after the start of the show, in California, that the audience's empathy was finally won over. After all, at the time, people were clapping their hands to the rhythmic beat of drummer Garrison Burgess. Despite a tired look, Jordan's performance of the track ended with a long round of applause.

Another highlight of the show was the song See Through. In a party mood and with a clear approval from the public, the trio introduces Mateus Asato, a Brazilian who has taken on the role of third guitar.  The musician stayed on stage until the end of the setlist, which lasted for two more compositions.

The distorted and contagious pop rock Daphne Blue was in charge of closing, at 4:29pm, the first performance of The Band Camino in Brazil - and in South America - with the message given and the goal achieved: the audience was conquered in a strategy that counted on a respectful set that 'educated' the audience in relation to the sound of the Tennessee trio that, until then, was unknown to most of the audience.

Hot Chip

By mid-afternoon, with the sun shining exclusively on the right side of the bleachers, the stadium was already mostly full, but still with large empty spaces between both sectors.

A little less than half an hour after The Band Camino's debut in Brazil, the English electronic music quintet Hot Chip began their performance as the middle band in the GP Week line up. And in the process, soul pop band Down was responsible for introducing them to the audience.

With Felix Martin and Alexis Taylor, drummer and vocalist, respectively, showing the rhythmic tempo with the opaque sound of drums between the drumsticks, Flutes came to life with the right to the obedience of the audience as to the execution of clapping at specific moments of the chorus.

Ready For The Floor was another song with great audience participation, who danced in a ballad mood and raised their fingers whenever Taylor said "you're the only one, darling". This interaction was maintained linearly in Straight To The Morning, the next track.

The romantic Melody Of Love, on the other hand, had couples dancing hand in hand and, at Al Doyle's invitation, had the audience in the bathtubs waving their arms to the sides, eliciting shy smiles from both him and Taylor.

I Feel Better, the 12th song in the quintet's set, was responsible for closing Hot Chip's performance at 5:56 pm in a festive atmosphere and with new and lively audience interaction.

It is true that Hot Chip managed to attract attention, gain participation and make the audience dance from a true ballad atmosphere created by the quintet. Still, for the overwhelming majority of the audience, such a performance was received as an intermission, a breather of rest before the first headliner.

Twenty One Pilots

With the night in full stage and temperatures appreciably below the initial 28 degrees, the stadium was finally taken and with less empty space compared to the Hot Chip show minutes earlier.

With no sign of the duo yet, a wave of euphoric screams broke through the buzz of side conversations that sounded the Allianz Parque. Finally, this event had a reason to exist. And this happened at 6:59 PM when the stadium went completely dark, forming a sudden and frightening pitch.

With great fervor and excitement, the audience plunged into unison chants and screams that filled the entire performance of Guns For Hands, the euphoric opening song of the Ohio duo's show.

With no pause for such euphoria, the rappy, intimate Morph had the audience dancing in tune with the melody while consistent choruses of shrill screams gave the song another sound. 

On that same level of interaction was The Outside, a song in which the audience raised and lowered their arms at Tyler Joseph's command, which made the stadium into a kind of giant ola. In addition, the song, full of groove and pressure, relied on the timing of the clapping in sync with the rhythmic tempo.

Mulberry Street, another highlight of the show, had the right to a dance of cell phone lights enthusiastically rehearsed by Joseph, who had fun and laughed while finding the right words for his commands to be obeyed individually in each sector of the stadium. The Allianz Parque turned into a perfect synchronized waltz of smartphone lights.

The singer's attitude was very well received by the public, who could not imagine what the duo still promised that night. During the medleys The Judge/Migraine, Then Hype/Nico And The Niners/Tear In My Heart, and House Of Gold/We Don't Believe What's On TV, Tyler, Chris Salih and backup members Skyler Acor, Todd Gummerman and Dan Geraghty positioned themselves at the front of the stage for a literal folk luau with even a bonfire in the center of the stage.

With a solo by trumpet player Dr. Blum, who played parts of MPB songs merging them with a funk groove, Tewnty One Pilots' performance still had an incendiary performance for Jumpsuit and daring moves worthy of recording.

During the execution of Ride, Joseph went to the far ends of the stage, greeted some of the fans and made the performance a moving one that, due to his daring attitude, was filled with flashes, curious looks, and photographs from the most varied angles.

Still, the highlight of the show was yet to come. And that was to happen during the performance of Stressed Out. Without understanding what was happening, the public just followed, with surprised looks, Joseph's strange movement. Without time to think, the singer climbed the scaffolding of the show's sound control area and, from the top, made the execution of the single a grandiose and, no doubt, memorable moment.

In the melancholic-nostalgic Trees, curiously and as a single body, the stadium jumped during all its little more than four minutes of duration, closing, at 8:30 PM, Twenty One Pilots' performance.

Insanity, daring, and stage presence. These are just a few keywords that can define how the Twenty One Pilots' show at GP Week went. With a set of 17 songs and three medleys, the Ohio duo gave a performance that managed to fuse emotion and excitement with several high points of band-public interaction and, also, unexpected audacities from the duo. Nothing short of memorable.

The Killers

By 9:23 pm, the night was at its peak. There were no more bottlenecks in the entire stadium, with some of the audience, in a sweaty way, trying to find the best view of the stage among the micro-spaces that were left. This lasted a little less than 10 minutes, enough time to take a breath.

Suddenly, the stadium lights went out and the big screen came on. But without a sound or a person on stage, only the deafening screams of the audience breaking the purposefully provocative silence. It is then that Brandon Flowers' voice is heard through the speakers.

At 9:34 PM, slightly and imperceptibly four minutes late, The Killers took the stage bringing the sights, the atmosphere, and the excitement of Las Vegas to the concrete jungle of São Paulo. 

This is how the stadium literally went down. Screams and roars were heard from all sides while, just like in Trees, Twenty One Pilots' last night, the Allianz turned into one body making people lose their individuality. There was no way to stand still and not jump. The very option of inertia made people jump during the opening My Own Soul's Warning.

In When You Were Young, the feat is repeated. Despite the soft, introspective and moving melody, when it reached the chorus it turned the stadium into a kind of riot, making the whole audience jump throughout its execution.

"São Paulo, estamos vivos! Foram quatro anos…Vocês descansaram da gente? Vamos descobrir agora!", Flowers scratched in an understandable Portuguese as he pulled out Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine.

It's a mistake to think that the show was behind Twenty One Pilots in terms of interaction and even in the mood of both the band and the audience. An example of this was Smile Like You Mean It, a track in which Flowers encouraged clapping to the rhythmic tempo of the song, turning the performance into a true festival atmosphere. After all, between jumps, shouts and choruses, people were seen on each other's shoulders gesticulating, singing with their eyes closed as if in a complete frenzy. The same thing happened during Shot At The Night.

If it can be said, Somebody Told Me was responsible for one of the important highlights of The Killers' performance. After all, in it the entire stadium sang along and celebrated their performance with jumping jackets, silly smiles and looks of satisfaction that created another perfect party atmosphere. At the end, the joy of the audience was such that the clapping of thanks went on for long seconds.

With Boy, the song composed for one of Flowers' sons, as the first breather track, the group's performance still had several memorable moments. The first of these was during A Dustland Fairytale, as, on their own initiative, the audience filled the stadium with lights from cell phones, giving the performance of the track a more moving atmosphere in a way that surprised the singer himself.

In For Reasons Unknown, the same standard Billie Joe Armstrong feat is reproduced by Flowers. Before it even begins, the singer stands at the front of the stage and looks for drummers in the audience, which is peppered with a few arms raised in desperation to be seen by the frontman. It was then that Raphael, one of the people positioned near the stage, was called to play the song, leaving Ronnie Vannucci free to act on percussions.

Despite its reduced interaction, All These Things That I've Done featured important choruses during the bridge verses. At its close, the quartet left the stage as the lights went out with only the big screen, reproducing the image of a meteor, remaining lit.

When the big screen image was changed to that of a starry sky, the group returned to the stage and pulled out the danceable and infectious Spaceman, the first of the encore. The song chosen to finish the Las Vegas group's performance was Mr. Brightside.

The track, by the way, had a curious effect: it took the audience out of the comfort zone of tiredness, and only made them sing. There were no screams or jumps as is expected in a closing song, but choruses that were even punctual during its execution.

This is how The Killers delivered a lively, contagious and festive show to the GP Week audience. The band, who hadn't been to Brazil for four years, revived the early 2000's with their mix of indie rock and alternative rock in a very festive way.

Marked by mixing mainstream and indie, past and present, raw and industrial melodies, boldness and timidity, GP Week achieved its mission of offering a nine-hour burst of music to a public still sore from a suffocating and recently overcome election period.

Bringing indie, folk, alternative rock, synth-pop and emocore to the same stage, GP Week managed to please teenagers, young people and adults alike with its versatile line up and a remarkable sense of freedom in putting a national band, an unknown band and an electronic band on the same stage as two giants of contemporary music.

In the end, both bands achieved, in their own ways, their goals of being branded and for gaining both the attention and the empathy of the audience. Of course, in the process, there were highlights. Fresno, for example, showed maturity and timelessness.

The Band Camino, who arrived shy, managed, with education and charisma, to finish the set with the audience in hand. Twenty One Pilots surpassed any and all expectations with boldness and unimaginable attitudes, as well as offering a precise sound and a very consistent performance.

The headliner The Killers killed the crowd's nostalgia and vice versa with its set of 20 musics. They did not disappoint, even though they brought a selection of 'more of the same' songs. It is undeniable, at the same time, that he delivered a show worthy of applause and satisfaction. Still, it is unquestionable that it was Twenty One Pilots the star of the night with their maximum detachment and independence.