What better reason to reschedule a flight than a concert with one of my favourite bands? And a mini meet & greet and jamming session in one of Bucharest prettiest bookstores, of course.

My latest trip home was supposed to be a rather short one, but how was I supposed to know when I booked my flights that The Mono Jacks plan on launching their latest album with several concerts in a row and events, and so close to the dates when I’d actually be in Romania? I mean… I couldn’t miss that, could I? So here I was with a rescheduled flight, in Cărturești Carusel waiting for a meet and greet with the band members, not that I went to talk to them, but I really, really hopped that they’d play a few songs, and they did. This event was a promo for the album launch that was going to take place 6 days later at Sala Palatului, event venue in downtown Bucharest. The bookstore event was practically 30 minutes of seeing the guys goof around, talking to fans and playing a few of their songs under the formula The Mini Jacks.

6 days later though, Friday May 12th, I was ready to see them live in one of the most prestigious event halls Bucharest has. The concert started a bit after 7 pm, when the lights were dimmed and the intro of a first song could be heard in the speakers. From the first chords it was quite hard to guess what they were planning to start the show with, but that uncertainty faded the moment we all heard the guitar chords of “Gândurile”, which is one of their fastest paced songs, with an extremely catchy guitar and quite dark lyrics. They’ve had the concert intro of ultimate rock stars, which they are, if I am being honest. Though not a song from their latest album, the track made sure we were all drawn into the event in a heartbeat and ready to listen to one song after the other.

The new album was released a few weeks before the event, and the band had already toured Romania and promoted their record by playing in front of their fans all over the country. The vibe of their music is quite melancholic, dark, occasionally very dark, sometimes lovely and optimistic. They have a sound of their own, they play around with lots of catchy guitar riffs and powerful vocals, either soothing or fiery. The band, usually a quartet – Andrei (guitar), Cristian (bass), John (drums), and Doru (vocals) – had a guest artist with them for the evening, Vlad Cotruș, guitarist in another Romanian band, Urma. The five of them kept us on our toes for two whole hours. Besides the fact that they seemed to really enjoy what they were doing on stage, they interacted with the audience, they are all extremely talented and played flawlessly. Doru, the lead singer, is quite a frontman, with charisma, a voice that’s been singing to listeners for over 20 years, daddy dance moves, and a contagious passion for the music. With inside jokes, anecdotes, lots of smiles and fun, the guys walked us through some of their already grounded hits, as well as new songs. It was really impossible to take my eyes off them and to stop smiling. For one of their songs, 1000 de da, they had the Children’s Radio Choir with them on stage. It was amazing to hear how the crystalline voices of children blend with the rock tune.

Though they played for two hours, they still left so many of their awesome tracks on the outside of this setlist. There were even a few of my favourites that didn’t make it, even some of their classics, but many others were included. It was one of those concerts where I knew all of the songs they played. And even though I would have listened to them for a while longer, after two hours it was quite obvious that it was time for us to head home. They closed the show with the evening’s only English track, Push the Pedal. Video of it below.