Maná rocks the crowd at sold out concert

If a great rock concert is about blasting the crowd into a delighted frenzy, Mexican band Maná hit the mark Thursday night.

Maná, which has won three Grammy and five Latin Grammy awards in the last decade, played a nearly sold out, two-and-a-half hour show at Allstate Arena in Rosemont.

The crowd was overwhelmingly Mexican, some driving several hours to see a band that in Latin America has achieved iconic status since its inception in the mid-1980s.

"This band is huge. Just huge," said Victor Hernandez, clutching his MapQuest directions from Indianapolis to Rosemont.

But Maná's music also has cross-cultural appeal, as their 2006 album "Amar Es Combatir" ("To Love is to Fight") exemplifies. The album sold more than 500,000 copies in the United States and had the highest-ever debut for a Spanish-language band at number four on Billboard's overall chart.

With an Irish background and little knowledge of Spanish, Joe Taylor, 73, of Palos Heights is not your typical Maná fan. He got into their music after his half-Mexican cousins introduced him to what he called their "spiritual rock."

"It's not a religious thing, it's just spiritual," he said. "It's got its own flavor."

The show was everything longtime fans expected- sizzling energy, favorite songs and a vigorous performance by frontman Fher Olvera, whose gritty voice delivers Maná's brand of alternative rock mixed with Latin rhythms.

If the sound on the recorded tracks is crisper, the vitality and talent of Maná's live performance generously makes up for any difference.

Drums virtuoso Alex González banged out an impressive seven-minute solo as he twirled, crouched, turned and crossed his arms over his back while grinning widely.

Much in the fashion of Bruce Springsteen and U2, the band uses its stage presence to deliver social messages. The concert opened with visual effects of people jumping over a high wall, reminiscent of the proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. And there were repeated exhortations to respect each other and save the Earth.

"They are not just great music, they talk about stuff that is going on in the world, stuff that matters," said Sharon Campos, of Villa Park.

This was Maná's third performance of the year in Chicago after two shows in March. Total attendance was 37,000, with $2.7 million in ticket sales.

Maná loves Chicago, and Chicago, apparently, loves Maná.