Danny Vera is only here for one reason. Not because he happened to be in the car for four hours from Middelburg. Not because he’s going to give us the afternoon of our lives. No, he’s coming to bring love. Yes, love. The charming Zeeland babbler presents himself as the great connector and he also draws from songs that were far ahead of the large craters that corona struck in our society.
Danny Vera live, that’s not just any guy with a guitar. He will be big, with thirteen men on the podium. In addition to guitar, bass, drum and piano, that means horns, strings and backing vocalists. When they have nothing to do for a while, they are good for the atmosphere management, so it is a happy bunch on stage. Vera herself looks like a charm, with his fifties crest and a – how appropriate, pink suit, which also matches perfectly with the lilac curtain and the luminescent letters that spell his name. Danny Vera brings richly arranged crooner country and rock ‘n roll ballads. Old music played with great pleasure.
But if you then pull out all the stops, it can sometimes also work well to send everyone away at the moment everyone is waiting for. That moment is of course single ‘Rollercoaster’, which in a very short time a evergreen and became Top 2000 winner. A song about all the loops, screws and unexpected braking moments that life has to offer. “I always used to have a story to tell about this, but lately I’ve been getting so many letters with better stories. This song is no longer mine, it’s yours,’ he says, just before he silences the field with only guitar and strings. Now is the time to grab your boyfriend or girlfriend and start muttering along.
THE MOMENT:
If you think thirteen musicians is exuberant enough, Danny Vera pulls in another gospel choir dressed in snow-white suits for ‘C’mon, Hold On’, a heart-under-the-belt song. “A little gospel never hurt anyone,” Danny says, setting up a nine-minute sing-along finale. That lilac suit may clash with the black Metallica shirts on the field, but Danny Vera gives Pinkpop a little summer trance.
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