Extreme in the Azores, August 2004

review and photos by Macarena Hernández M..

Exciting, happy, incredible, brilliant, amazing days; I don’t know which is the best adjective to describe the days we spent in the Azores. I think it was like a real dream, but a beautiful dream come true. I had always thought about how it could be an Extreme show, but I would never have imagined they were so special occasions. The band members behave as if they were like one of the family, and they made all the fans feel, fans from many countries worldwide, as if we were too part of that great family.

I arrived Terceira, Nuno’s home town, August 6th. I was nervous, excited but afraid too because I was going to tour alone and I hadn’t any kind of accommodation either of the islands. As soon as I left the plane, I approached to the information office in which I found a so nice girl, Sara, who helped me not only to find a place to stay there, but also to meet the band that day. While she was trying to get a room for me, I explained her the reason for my trip, so she could realize I was very excited about attending the Extreme and Population 1 shows. Once she found my room, she helped to find other one to Kosei, a Japanese man who had arrived to Terceira for the same reason. Then, Sara told us she knew one of Nuno’s brother, Luis Bettencourt, the organizer of the Azores’ Festivals, and she offered to take us to Praia da Vitória, the place in which the first show would take place, and to look for the band there. We were looking for them in many places until we found Nuno, Gary, Carl with more people in a square. It was a special meeting, we hugged them very hard and we took some pictures with the guys. Then, they introduced to us Martin Favorite (the band manager), George Bettencourt (Nuno’s brother) and Adrian Bettencourt (Nuno’s nephew). Gary invited us to be in the festival with them that night, so we accepted the invitation. Irune, José and Juan (fans from Spain) joined us to go that night to meet the band again. We found them having dinner. They approached to talk and to appear in more pictures with us. We could hear about they were going to rehearse the following day in the auditorium and ofcourse we were there to listen to the rehearsal.

Nuno, Macarena and Gary

We were waiting for the show right at the front for three hours, and we achieved to be in the first row. It was so exciting, especially because that was the first Extreme show me and Irune attended in our lives. The show was, as the other three concerts, amazing. Nuno is a real God playing the guitar, Gary is a real angel singing and bopping, and the other musicians are an impressive spectacle to see.

Nuno

Gary and Nuno

Mike

I remember Gary was kind enough to me to throw his t-shirt. He looked at me and he simply threw me it. In that t-shirt you could read: “Who the f… is Nuno Bettencourt?” I could catch it, I had it in my hands, but a guy, a so drunk guy behind me took the t-shirt with violence. He and his friends were bothering everybody and pushing us during all the show. Well, I have to forget that bad moment, the only one during the show. Once finishing the concert, we were to the backstage to meet the band. They signed us some CDs and ofcourse we took pictures with them.

Gary and Nuno

From Terceira, I went to Corvo, but this time I was accompanied by Bonny and Christina, the two Korean girls who were with me during all the tour. Corvo is a so small island (about 17 square Km) in which only some 400 people live there, so you can imagine what difficult was to find a place to stay there, but thanks to Luis Bettencourt we were lucky enough to get a room, and on top of everything, for free! Two days before the show, we were spending a so nice night talking with Joe Pessia, Kevin Figueiredo, the band members of "The New Princess" (Donovan Bettencourt’s new band), and any other musician. Nuno and the rest of the guys were in San Miguel. The day before the show was the incident with Carl. He had an operation for appendicitis, so he had to miss the Corvo show. Joe Pessia stood in for him.

August 15th was the second show. We were attending the rehearsal again. Nuno was there checking the sound for many hours. He is a perfectionist person. About 150 people were watching the show, so it was like a private concert, only for their fans, unconditional fans like Christina, Bonny and me, the only three foreign Extreme fans who were there. In the middle of the show, Nuno phoned Carl at the hospital to wish him a speedy recovery. But Carl was not the only one who was ill at that time. We could know about almost all the members were suffered from a food poisoning, but they didn’t show their discomfort, like real professional people do. After the show, we were talking again with the band.

August 18th was the third concert. We arrived to Sao Jorge that day, and we went towards to Rosais, the town of the show. When we arrived Rosais, Nuno was there checking everything. We met there other Extreme fans, like James and Dave from UK, Arturo, Héctor and Marta from Spain, and Marcos from Brazil. Gary and Carl asked us about what songs we would like to listen to during the show and any of the songs we mentioned (like “When I First Kissed You”) sounded there. The others (like “Am I Ever Gonna Change”) sounded in the Maré de Agosto Festival, in Santa Maria. After Sao Jorge show, Nuno gave us Population 1 EP, t-shirts and caps. The day after, the Korean girls and me got the same flight to Terceira again as Nuno, Carl, Mike and Luis. We could see Gary, Joe and Steven got the first one to San Miguel.

And now, the third show in Praia Formosa, Santa Maria. They were checking the sound when we arrived there. We could see again James and Dave, the guys from UK, Marcos from Brazil and we could meet too Dirk, a fan from Switzerland and more fans from UK. That last show started at 3:30 a.m., after two other bands played in the Festival. We were in the first row as in the other shows. The concert lasted more than 4 hours, so the day dawned as the concert was ending at about 7:35 a.m. It was a so emotional show. Even I could realize how Gary was moved while "More Than Words" was being playing. In the middle of the version songs, Nuno invited to go to the scenario to Maria Bettencourt, Luis’ daughter, to sing “Bring me to life” by Evanescence. Maria, who is only 10, played the song wonderfully, you can tell it’s a matter of gen. The backstage time of that show was the saddest for us because we had to say good-bye to the band.

Gary

Before finishing writing, I would like to thank some people: the fans who, like me, were to enjoy the shows (Irune, José and Juan; Kosei; Christina and Bonny; James and Dave; Arturo, Héctor and Marta; Marcos; Dirk; Acore); the kind people from the Azores who helped us to get everything we needed there (Joao Pimentel; Cristina and Sara, from Terceira; Carlos, from Corvo); thanks to Luis Bettencourt too for his kindness and for organizing these shows; George Bettencourt, Simon, The New Princess members, for being so lovely people; and of course, thanks to Population 1 and Extreme, including Carl, for making a dream come true. I personally and especially would like to thank Gary Cherone for standing me everytime and everywhere.

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