HOUSTON – 2024 is a year of nostalgia, new songs and experimentation, according to Reik.
Formed in 2003, Reik the Mexican pop rock group currently consists of Jesuús Navarro on vocals, Julio Ramirez on acoustic guitar and Bibi Mariín on electric guitar. The album, Panorama is the first LP the band has put out since 2019’s Ahora.
Titling the tour “Panorama” was a genius move, and not only because that is the title of their latest album. The set dressing is minimal, largely reliant on a large, panoramic LED screen projecting accompanying images with each song. However, the setlist was varied, expansive throughout their discography and filled with medleys so they could fit as many songs as possible.
The show began with shots of the ocean, a blinding white screen, and flashes of the band members in coordinated visualizers. If the goal was building anticipation, it was accomplished, with the audience screaming at the mere sign of their idols’ images on the screen. Finally, the name of the tour appeared, and the band presented themselves for the first few notes of their opening song.
“Buenas noches Houston,” Navarro said. “Estamos nosotros tres aquí. Bienvenidos… a Panorama.” The band bloomed into “Baja California’s first few lines,” and the audience danced along. Not everyone seemed obsessed with the latest work, but plenty seemed at least familiar with it.
Navarro almost immediately began to unbutton the long, flowing black jacket he wore on stage. He was clearly dressed to perform. Ramirez was in a casual white shirt with gem details at the shoulder and a beanie, a little closer to resembling the vibe of the album the band was touring. Meanwhile, Marliín looks like an Abercrombie model in a casual t-shirt, jeans and a slouchy cardigan.
As the band dove into the titular “Panorama” followed by “El correcto,” all new songs, they took advantage of the fans’ excitement to see them push their new music before diving into a more formal hello. “Estamos estrenando show,como pueden ver,” Navarro said. “Estamos estrenando disco, estamos estrenando actitud, género de todo. Estamos felices y agradecidos de que están aquí. Son literalmente testigos de lo que está siendo el nueva etapa de Reik, los próximos varios años.”
He leavened the gratitude of the speech with humor, adding that the learning experience would also be about the types of styles fans were responding well to and the types of old songs they are sick to the core of hearing. However, he reiterated the gratitude the band still had to their base, with bandmates nodding in agreement before diving into the beloved “Sabes,” which was received by plenty of vocal accolades.
The band stayed in their formation, lined up at the front of the stage in front of their touring musicians lurking in the shadows. They stayed in panorama-style as they continued with crowd-pleasers like “Noviembre sin ti” and “Inolvidable.” Navarro twirled for effect, losing his scarf at song point through the early part of the show. By now, a lot more of the seats had filled up with late-comers, making the voices of the fans just that much louder in comparison to the band. However, the mixing of the night had been done especially well. There was no moment where the audio was too loud, soft or distorted.
When the band and audience felt it was time to catch a breather, the band bantered a little with the audience, taking time to introduce the following song, “A Vecses Bien A Veces Mal,” with a bit more backstory. “Esta es una rola que escribió Julio y tuvimos el honor y el gusto de hacerla al lado de Ricky Martin,” Navarro said.
The band bantered about how they were still coming into their own as songwriters when they received help and knowledge from singer-songwriter Julio Ramirez Juvelo and platinum-selling pop artist Ricky Martin to come up with the song, joking that they should skip it due to their inexperience as songwriters when it was created in order to get a reaction from fans, begging them to play it.
The hype died down for a more somber medley, though not any less well-received. It consisted of songs like the moody “Me duele amarte” and “Fui.” All songs had visualizers, although some were more intentional than others. Some songs had a visualizer of the band, clearly filmed with the sole purpose of being used to compliment the tour. Others had moving images of water or rain, depending on the mood of the song. Although “Fui” may elicit a ‘rainy’ type of mood at first glance, the fire made sense to any fan who had seen the 2009 music video featuring a firefighter risking it all as he runs into ta burning building. Needless to say, the art director had clearly put a thought into the images accompanying each track.
“Tu mirada” followed, eliciting cheers from the fans and licensed up with smoke columns shooting up into the air, temporarily creating a wall between them and the band. I want to make it clear that Reik’s hardcore fans are here for the new album as much as the hits. “Abril,” a call back to the somber hit “Noviembre sin ti,” was an upbeat callback to the old song, about healing and happiness. Ramirez led on acoustic, as the crowd took a turn at the song, making it an arena version of a sing-along.
More effects came into play as the show went on. Reik didn’t bring anything like moving platforms or pyrotechnics, but Navarro did seem to have a lot of fun with a wind machine during “Voy a Olvidarte,” making it a little more apparent why he’d made the clothing choices he had.
By now, fans near the front in floor seating took advantage of the excitement and went stage side, resting their arms on the stage. At first, staff asked people to go back to their seats, even guiding some back, only to have them be replaced with others. By the end of the night, they weren’t even trying. No one was being rowdy or blocking any exits, so the staff seemed to opt to let them be.
“Esta es una noche de estrenos y experimentos,” Navarro said before going into the next medley. People smiled and swayed along to “Náufragos” stopping in their tracks as the song seamlessly merged into a cover of “Vampire” by Olivia Rodrigo instead of another one of their own. Fans couldn’t decide between cheering Reik on or holding their breath, finally exploding into applause at the end of the chorus before the start of “Roomies” from Reik’s new album.
The medley ended to a cacophony of applause, with the rest of the band finally taking a bit more liberty in their movement around the stage. “Muchisimas gracias, Houston,” Navarro said as the noise died down. “Con esta nos despedirnos.”
They dove into “Indeciso,” a song the band had recorded in collaboration with J Balvin and Lalo Ebratt in 2019 as the first of their four-song medley, concluding with the song they knew would make the fans go wild; “Yo quisiera.”
Reik concluded their third stop in their new tour Panorama to a still mostly full Smart Financial Center. This is of no discredit to them, as people are known to leave early in order to beat the bottleneck when exiting the parking lot. You can catch Reik in a city near you.
I am a multimedia journalist with a passion for guitar-based music – be that rock-n-roll, bachata, or anything in between. When not in a mosh pit, I can be found knitting, collecting CDs, thrifting, journaling, or attempting to incite chaos among feuding global powers. I hold a bachelors degree in Broadcast Journalism and a masters degree in Mass Communication from the University of Houston, making me twice the Coog you'll ever be 😉
I'm a full-time music journalist/photographer from Houston, number one Paramore fan and Husky dog owner. I have a B.S in Radio-Television-Film from UT Austin and a M.A in Mass Communications from the University of Houston, which makes me smart! On top of being an avid concert-goer and movie fanatic, I love bonding with others over the power of local music and media.
