Manu Chao @ Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, October 15, 2010

On September 11, 2001, I was in a coffee shop in Krakow, Poland (having been to Auschwitz the previous day).  I was killing a bit of time whilst waiting for a night train back home to Germany.  I was in the coffee shop for a few hours and even ordered a second piece of cheesecake (it was really good!).  After a while I finally plucked up the courage to ask what the music was they were playing, since I wasn't sure how big the language barrier would be.  The album turned out to be Clandestino by Manu Chao and I managed to find a record shop which sold it before I caught my train.  It quickly became one of my favourite albums of all time.  I had no idea what was going on in the U.S at about the same time and didn't actually find out until the next morning when I got to Dresden.  I've seen Manu Chao twice before and funnily enough, the first time was also when I was in San Francisco - in July 2006 when I was on my way to Vancouver.  He is ... outstanding live.  He sings mostly in Spanish, English and French, but it really doesn't matter if you can understand the lyrics or not (I usually can't).  He is a performer and it's a shame that he's not more popular in English speaking countries.