Penza, 21 June 2016. PenzaNews. The Penza concert of “Leningrad” musical band held in the evening of Sunday, June 20, at the “Diesel-Arena” sports and entertainment complex, left an outstanding impression on the local public.

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The concert’s warmup schedule featured performances by Penza musicians, who sang their own songs and a special song dedicated to the arrival of the renown band. To film the clip on the spot right during the concert, they asked the audience to raise and wave banners depicting Sergei Shnurov.

The band “Leningrad” went on the stage shortly after 20.00, after the audience’s patience was nearly exhausted: during the warmup session by Penza musicians, people kept chanting the name of the band from their seats between the songs.

The performance of the renown band for thousands of people at “Diesel-Arena” immediately began with the song “Show,” which immediately and entirely conquered the public’s attention

Throughout the concert, Sergei Shnurov and other band soloists kept energizing the public, keeping in touch with them and addressing the people: “People at the top rows, clap along!”, “We won’t be singing until everybody’s clapping!” Before one of the songs, the leader of the band demostrated his typical tongue-in-cheek behavior by saying: “Alright, now let’s do… How do they say it in Russian […] a flashmob!”

The audience got a moment to stretch during the first break at 20.50, with many people visiting the stalls selling snacks and drinks right next to the stage.

During the second part of the concert, Sergei Shnurov kept combining songs with jokes. In particular, he preceded the song “Krokodily” [Crocodiles] with a question to Penza citizens: “Have you got any crocodiles in your waters?” After hearing an affirmative reply from the audience, he concluded: “Then we […] chose the right place!”

The second act captured the hearts and minds of all people in the audience: while the people in the fan zone and the dance zone threw lost themselves to dance right from the beginning, the second part of the performance forced many people to stand from their seats to dance to music.

The second break in the performance, at 21.40, was announced by the “Leningrad” band leader in an unusual manner: Sergei Shnurov said that the band finished the concert, but plans to return back to the stage soon to play several more songs for those who do not rush to watch the Euro-2015 Russia-Wales football match.

Even though some of the Penza citizens left the stalls after the announcement, a part of them returned back to their seats at the end of the break.

Coming to a conclusion that only “our people” are in the audience right now, Sergei Shnurov performed a new variation of a song – “Plachu and Plachu” – trusting the people to stay mum if it fails. Afterwards, “Leningrad” performed a song “Nebo v Almazakh” on request of the audience.

Throughout the third act, Sergei Shnurov kept asking people whether they still want the band to leave the stage to stop distracting them from the football match broadcast above the stage: some people in the audience came to a conclusion that the “Leningrad” leader did not like combining his concert with a live broadcast of the football match before the concert was over.

The artists kept energizing the audience throughout the event – such as by asking them to light the stalls with their cellphones to create an impression of a starry sky.

At a certain moment, the “Leningrad” band leader asked some of the birthday-people of the day to raise their hands, and then summoned one of the ladies in question. After the girl was practically pulled to the stage by the supportive fans, Sergei Shnurov explained her the moment to accompany him in the song and then danced a birthday dance with her.

This small event marked the end of the concert.

As Sergei Shnurov admitted, the Penza audience gave him the best accompaniment during the song “B Pitere – Pit,” and suggested that the similarity between the first letters of the city and the song title could have caused that, staying away from further speculations over the topic.

The musician thanked the audience, and wished them love and luck.

The concert featured over 30 songs by “Leningrad,” including “WWW,” “Mamba,” “Ah, Uyekhala Zhena,” “Menedzher,” “Patriotka,” “Sumka,” “Super Good,” “Baba-Bomba,” “Ochki Sobchak,” “Exponat,” “ZOZh,” and more.

It took the Penza public quite some time to finally disperse after the concert: the impressed people kept sharing their mood over what they had seen and heard, and the mood remained upbeat even outside the sports complex.

At the same time, around 200 people assembled by one of the entrances to “Diesel-Arena” to watch the live broadcast of the Russia-Wales football match, which ended in a loss – 0:3 – for the Russian team that failed to advance to the play-offs. The football fans were watching the match, which was broadcast to the wall of the building, standing or sitting at the curbstones and on the green.