By Mariana Marcaletti
Herald staff

In general, when mythical bands finally make it to Argentina, a long time after they reached massive acclaim all over the world, it’s believed that they are on their way down. Most are old, no longer perform in developed countries and come to this forgotten nation to amaze local fans who are always pleased to welcome international groups.
Against all these commonplace assumptions, the Cranberries came to Argentina for the first time to debunk the aforementioned beliefs. They are neither ruined nor a failure in other parts of the world, and the Irish pop/rock band led by Dolores O’Riordan is more current than ever. Although they have been separated for the past seven years, the band proved to be smart enough to overcome their obstacles, astonishing their audience with an impressive comeback.
After their US tour, they hit Luna Park stadium last Friday and Saturday as part of their Latin American gigs. Before taking off for Europe, Cranberries chose the best of their 90s repertoire to give people what they wanted. Teenage girls wearing miniskirts queued up, grownups took their daughters to the show and a mainly young, all-female audience crowded the venue the first night, when tickets were sold out the same day they were launched.
Punctually, Dolores O’Riordan overpowered the stage, wearing a colourful dress, shiny silver trainers and a jacket with glossy sleeves and an angel-shaped figure on the back. Singing How, she calmly began the show. Animal Instinct and Linger took everyone by surprise, as the first song seemed to promise a gradual shift from ballads to rock songs. Instead, they cut the long story short and summarize their 20-year career with their most popular and memorable catchy songs. Shooting top-chart songs from the very beginning, it appeared to be a brief concert, but unexpectedly it lasted nearly two hours. The secret was that they simply have released too many hits over the past decades, so they had plenty of material to have fun with, from their debut album Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? to Dolores O’Riordan’s solo CDs Are You Listening? and No Baggage.
Although they announced they would include several songs of O’Riordan’s newest material, they were few: The Journey and Ordinary Day, the former about finding true love and the latter about motherhood, dedicated to her daughter. She also included Switch off the Moment, about insomnia, a meaningless reflection about sleeplessness.
Despite her skinny body structure, she seemed bigger and stronger than she really is. Instead of just grabbing her guitar to sing acoustic ballads as she used to do in the past, O’Riordan also gave room to her rocker spirit, moving from one side of the stage to the other, shaking her head, waving her hips, even lying down on the ground to create a mysterious atmosphere all around her.
The gig was all about her: boys shouted the most flattering compliments, girls look up to her, wannabe like her, want to behave as freely as she does. Glad to induce these feelings, Cranberries’ leader shook hands with people sitting in the first row and sang the most delicious hits (You and Me, Dreaming My Dreams with You, When You’re Gone) staring right into their eyes. For them, having her so close and tender must have been a dream come true. For the rest, it was a pity not to see her personally, and had to be satisfied with the huge screens.
The summit of the night was a song that the lady failed to remember. “This song is from our first album, or our second album? Well, it’s been 20 years so there are a lot of albums to remember. You probably know this one,” she jokes, giving way to Ode to My Family. Thanking everyone a lot of times, saying they’re gorgeous, beautiful and that she’s glad they are all wasted, she recreated the most popular Cranberries’ songs: Be With You, Free to Decide, Salvation and In Your Head. One of her finest gems, No Need to Argue (the song that lends its title to the album), which was re-versioned by several colleagues, wasn’t part of the show, unfortunately.
The effect Dolores O’Riordan provokes on her audience is impressive: a girl cried her eyes out when she revisited Daffodil Laments, a young man held his breath with the impeccable Empty, kids complained echoing Ridiculous Thoughts and suffered with Waltzing Back.
Deep inside, all of them occasionally related to the stories told in these songs, which come down to basically the same old tale repeated a thousand times: the poor, abandoned young girl asking to be loved and respected for who she is. Letting alone the great deal of depression involved, it’s unquestionable why most of her devotees are young women — they can identify with her lyrics, remembering how they felt when they were dumped, cheated on or ignored. Pretty, “for the señoritas tonight”, Limerick’s artist said, was the hymn that summed up the girly claim to be appreciated.
After Promises, the band finished with Dreams, and O’Riordan took an Argentine flag as a gift. Playing the role of the weak girl works wonders for her and the musicians, as Cranberries are still adored by thousands of girls who sigh at the tiniest sound of O’Riordan’s sweet voice. Maybe the secret of her success is her capacity to remain forever young, as if time hasn’t really passed and, therefore, made the band be still in the spotlight.