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Sunday, December 11, 2005

Avraham Fried "25" Concert - The Amazing, II

Part III - Click for Part I: Intro, The Ugly, & The Bad and Part II: The Good & Amazing

All right, second wind: I think the 5 Dimona men were great, livened things up a lot, and their deep harmonies were gorgeous.

Ohad Moskowitz: Young, tall, energetic... and a ridiculous range. Interestingly, he only showed it off a few times in his own set, sticking to relatively safe, though very good, songs; but when he did a duet with Avraham Fried, he hit a note that was so good, Fried himself had a look of "Wow" on his face, and even made a comment afterwards: "People, that note Ohad just hit - don't try that at home." You can see why he's popular in Israel - he's very good, he doesn't come across as full of himself, and he really works well with others - singing with the Dimona men for a few songs, with Fried on Fried's set, and with one of the Kinderlach for another song - essentially giving the 'fancier' part of the song to the kid to sing. Excellent.

The Kinderlach Boys Choir. WOW. That's honestly the best description. The 7 kids are really, really good - and ridiculous for their ages. They dance very well; they sing beautifully. They're incredibly talented, period. They all sang extremely clearly, and never seemed short of breath despite the constant movement. The older ones do a great job of silently directing people back to where they should be if need be - on stage. They each have distinct voices, and each is very well-suited for their respective solos (which all have). They harmonize in excellent fashion, and some (if not all) have extra talents above their normal ones - including an amazing rapper, for example. I was blown away, especially by their chair dancing (which reminded me eerily of some MTV videos, but hey...) finale, which is an original song, and which they performed flawlessly.

Avraham Fried. I didn't originally think I'd be as into him - but on stage, you remember just how talented he really is, especially when they do medley after medly combining so many of his great hits. You forget just how many songs are his, and how much range he has. He's nice, friendly, knows how to "get" an audience, plays well to the audience, shmoozes and listens to the audience... just a great performer. He picked great songs to highlight, such as "Ale Katan" - and then had Yishai Lapidot (the composer) join him for most of the song. He brought in Ohad, and let Ohad take the really great notes - yet still sounded incredible himself. He showcased a completely new single, "Al Tirah", which I thought was pretty good; and had Shloime Kaufman of Emes - who was leading the choir - join him for his recent (excellent) single.

Shloime Kaufman. The addition of my friend Shloime to Fried's song, singing all the harmonies, made the song absolutely breathtaking. It was truly exquisite. Shloime also did a great job of organizing/directing the choir, which included another good friend of mine. Note to my dear South-African friend: You are starting to look fatter than ME!! Look at Shloime, and look at you. Shloime looked good in the sweater, because he's tall and thin. You, however, looked humungous, even with the slimming black sweater. But I still love you, man. :) You guys were awesome.

I loved the concert. Who'd have thunk!?

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4 comments:

  1. What? No... I thought of that right away, but I really don't think so. Hmm... now I'm wondering. The reasons I didn't think so: You could clearly see the kids setting up for their own solos - they would be a couple steps off in their dancing, but were clearly waiting for their notes to sing. They talked a couple of times between songs, and sounded exactly the same: Whenever I've seen lip syncing before, I've always noticed right away that it's different. Plus, they were right on every time! How could they have done that!? And they made sure to avoid the mikes when they were whispering instructions to one another...

    Hey - even if they were, they did it so well, they're still really talented. I never heard the CD, which is probably part of it: Had I, I would know right away if it sounded exactly as it was recorded. I didn't think last night did; I just thought it was really good.

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  2. Ezzie, I was at the concert last night also, I didn't know youd be there, shame.

    This is my 4th year in a row at this show. It's usually very good. Isn't Ohad amazing?

    I also ask my wife the same thing every year, why do people come so late, they KNOW what time the show is? Shabbos ended like 5.15, come on .. you have plenty of time to get there early and get seated.

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  3. Yah, sorry - I completely forgot I was going until Friday, and my computer was down. Ohad is really great - I was impressed.

    Yah - I meant to write that Shabbos was over over 3 HOURS earlier. It's not like people were coming from Baltimore.

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  4. Ez, Mindy is right, they were lipsynching (shhh). And about Gabi, he's married, there's cholent, what do you want him to do, go on a diet? eat less? ;) Looking forward to our next dinner @ Shlo and Yoninja's

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