Sonorama Ribera 2019. The Report

The fifth year in a row we come to Aranda a day prior to the start of the festival. This is because we love to soak up the atmosphere of the old town walking through the empty streets, sitting at the empty squares drinking wine, making photos at the empty Plaza del Trigo with the stage already built up. Avoiding any rush we purchase the food and drinks in the empty supermarket. We visit “La Cantinaccia” restaurant whose chief administrator Francisco we befriend – and it’s quite unattended as well. The next 5 days it would only serve for musicians and executives – but now, a day before the storm begins, it’s quiet and relatively unattended. The only place that’s not gonna change with the Sonorama virus breaking out and contaminating the area is our hotel “Kinedomus”. Samuel – the host and our friend after all these years – arranges such the calm and peaceful location that it appears like the perfect place to survive the fest. Just imagine: you’re jumping, you’re slamming, you’re running, you’re singing, you’re shouting, you’re freaking out for some like 8 hours in a row and finally you get totally worn out. Then you come to the place that is all about tranquility, and the only sound you can hear is the nature sounds. You sleep well and recharge your batteries for the new day challenges. The hotel offers the spa, the gym and the pool services but usually we have no possibility to use either of them due to the constant lack of time. At times we see other guests taking sunbaths at the pool between the morning and the night sections of concerts (yeah, ‘the morning section’ sounds like a joke as it lasts from 12 p.m to 17 p.m). But the locals are way more relaxed than us as they’ve got no urge to see as much performances as possible – the urge we’ve surely got. That’s because for the Spanish people Sonorama is one of the hundreds of festivals around. For us it’s the ONLY one. So we’ve got no time to rest. We can only change the clothes in between the sections and then direct our tired bodies to the new experiences.

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Despite the list of actions we are taking on a regular basis, as compared to all the previous Sonoramas this Sonorama would stand alone. With six festivals behind our backs we’re getting in contact with many persons around – musicians or music lovers/festival goers. It’s quite usual for us to do all these greetings, embraces and hi-fivings while walking around. We could even get involved in a company of friends for some time and float on from stage to stage being surrounded by familiar faces and treated like the part of the team. But this time we would be going to be (with this ‘be’ being strictly emphasized) the part of the team from the very beginning – and throughout the fest. Gloria would arrive to Aranda from Benavente at Wednesday, the 07th. Eva would arrive to Aranda from Leon, and Oscar with his girlfriend Loreto would arrive to Aranda from Guadalajara at Thursday, the 08th. Tito would arrive to Aranda from Guadalajara at Friday, the 09th. This would be our main crew. 

As all these things have already happened, now I’d like to declare that finally we appeared like the members of the community apart from our previous image as ‘these strange Russians’ hanging around in solitude and fright-like state of mind.
Moreover, Rafa Tuñon & his friends came to Aranda at Friday and we spent some time with them just like an year before, so I expect this to be our tradition.

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The next thing I’d like to declare is the following: my list of Top15 ‘smallest font size’ bands was a total winner. Every mentioned band was a stunner.

Presumido have perfectly kickstarted the festival. If their studio recordings are about “one part guitars/ two part synths”, the live performance had the opposite proportion – and it sounded great.

Ballena appeared as stylistic twin brothers of El Mato A Un Policia Motorizado from ‘the other side of the pond’ what was nice for me as I always adored El Mato. 

Crudo Pimento, whose mere existence could make any festival artistically viable cos they are different. Just different. “When you will talk about this later, please don’t call us indie rock” – Raul told to the people upon finishing the show. Not even gonna do this, Raul!

Igloo, our friends from Galicia Tanya and me were happy to reunite with. Our mutual opinion was it has been their best performance we ever beheld. Even without some live staples (“Gremlins de Ciudad”, “La Reina Ourensana”) being performed, this was the powerful and magnetic show.

Agoraphobia, the female four-piece that could make L7 jealous. This stage (Heineken, Plaza la Sal) was apparently too small for them, I believe they could set on fire much larger venue.

Invisible Harvey, the experienced singer/songwriter from Barcelona with his hi-quality songs. Prior to his performance I was a bit afraid of him being too subdued for such the large-scale festival like Sonorama – but Dimas Rodriguez fortunately dispelled all possible fears.

Echo. Initially we intended to see the performance of Australian Blonde as we liked them a lot but due to schedule complications (and the fact that some Spaniards are not so inclined to hurrying up, haha!) we arrived at Santa Catalina place right when the band walked out from its gates. We were like ‘Fuck it, who’s next up here… Wait, it’s Echo! Let’s stay here for them!’ And the young band nailed it. They made it worth it coming there even missing the show of the Gijon sound innovators completely.

Boogarins appeared like more consistent and cohesive band than many of their neo-psych peers. I made my friends (and friends of the friends) go to see them. We were all, like, ten persons with two packs of beer, so we won ourselves some clean spot on the grass and then enjoyed the concert sitting on the ground and drinking Mahou.

The Crab Apples, a photo reporter’s delight. If we lived in the world without digital photo cameras then it would be the hard show to capture for any photographer cos he’d run out of the daily stock of film within, say, 10 minutes of the action. Just add the really good songs and competent playing to the picture – and you’d get the idea of ‘must see’ event what it undoubtedly was.

Mostaza Galvez, whose performance I’d surely put into Top5 best concerts of the festival. The pure essence of what contemporary rock music should be: the great songs, the cool sound and – that’s probably the most important thing – ‘we’re doing this our own way’ approach. 

Basanta, whose pagan masks and competent songwriting impressed all the spectators. Really, two days after their show I overheard small talks in the crowd: “Have you seen Basanta? They were so cool!”

Alexanderplatz. I didn’t expect him to use ‘more guitars less synths’ live approach. When we were about to enter Plaza la Sal, I even told my compañeras: “It doesn’t sound like Alexanderplatz!” But then we turned over the last corner and it appeared to be Alexanderplatz after all - and it sounded cool. There were some minor technical problems closer to the end of the show, but they didn’t spoil the impression.

Apartamentos Acapulco, the one and only Plaza del Trigo performance we managed to see this year. The powerful shoegaze with grandiose post-rock’y climaxes that could shake you to the bone. 

Niña Coyote Eta Chico Tornado, the perfectly synchronized interaction led only by the eye contact between Koldo and Ursula.

Additionally, I’d like to mention two more bands of small font size that impressed me much. The first one is Yoghourt Daze. This trio made me completely unleashed. An epic win for any 90’s rock music fan. The second one is Margaux. We saw only 4 songs of them (as we were away in the Church of Saint Mary for Joan As Police Woman performance) but it was apparent that the band deserved more attention. Later at night we met their frontman Javi Teral at Mostaza Galvez’ gig and talked a bit. Nice guy.

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Along with Mostaza Galvez, Igloo, Niña Coyote Eta Chico Tornado and Yoghourt Daze, my list of the best performances also includes:

Berri Txarrak. By far the most impressive event we attended during this Sonorama. The legendary Basque band is going to close its activity this year, as it was announced in the very beginning of 2019. So every performance of Berri Txarrak is the last one: the last in Aranda, the last Asian tour, the last European tour… So it felt bittersweet to see this band playin’. They seemed like they were doing everything to make us miss them more. They were unbearably perfect. They looked and sounded like the best live act of the century.

Luis Brea. Frankly, I wasn’t familiar with his songs before this concert. For me it all looked like that: the man with visible anti-star approach walked out and within 5 minutes got the crowd at his knees. Then he grabbed us, smashed us, lifted us, put us down… «I wanna get all of his albums» - this was my only thought when Luis terminated his performance.

Luis Albert Segura. “I don’t get that idea of breaking up LA”, Tito pleaded while we were walking to the Castilla stage. “He and only he was that band, how could he break himself up? What’s the point?” Nevertheless, while Luis Albert changed the supporting band and switched to castellano, the music as well as stage presence stayed [more or less] the same. He surely is one of the best Spanish performers, and his shtick is still with him.

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They’ve got that huge 6 m2 poster that says: “Follow the band of the moment” on a wall in Aranda. Kitai is the band pictured on this poster. The official Kitai’s Instagram account posted this with some wording like: “Hey, bro, have you seen that? We are the band of the moment!” addressed to Diego Ibañez, the frontman of the real ‘band of the moment’ Carolina Durante.

Frankly speaking, I’d sing “Cayetano” to myself while doing some work or walking on the street much rather than any Kitai’s song – just like many other people. But if we talk about music… It’s incomparable. Carolina Durante is the simplistic down-to-earth post punk band with jangling guitars and slacker attitude. Kitai is artsy - in the best sense of the word - quasi-metal rockers with full-blown shows and inclinations to virtuosity. Their drummer David is probably the best drummer of the scene #rightnow. Their bass player Fab is the Spanish Flea. And Alejandro, the frontman, is that kind of performer who can switch from a friendly kitten to Pennywise the Clown in a split second. Anyway, Carolina Durante have got that smash hit, and Kitai still haven’t. But I’m just curious if Kitai are eager to have it at all.

Before their show we were just dead. The fifth day of the festival lifestyle made its toll on us. I didn’t even manage to approach Ursula and Koldo from Niña Coyote Eta Chico Tornado who were walking along in 5 meters from us cos all what I could do was just sit on the ground.

We survived somehow the performances of Despistaos (who were just awful) and some rappers duo (awful as well). We kinda enjoyed the show of Dinero – as much as we could enjoy it in our ‘low batteries’ mode. But then Kitai came out and for the next hour we were alive again cos this band onstage was an unleashed beast splashing its energy all around. For an hour we forgot about our fatigue, we forgot about the fact that it was the last gig of the festival, the last laugh of the laughter, the last spark of the flame.

Now I’d like to call it “efecto Kitai”.

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For the first time ever I was eager to see some international acts in Aranda, namely Joan As Police Woman and Deacon Blue.

I was a fan of Joan Wasser since… I don’t remember when. Back in the first half of the 90s she played violin (along with providing occasional backing vocals) in the indie rock combo The Dambuilders. So my fandom of hers dates back to this period. To see Joan performing in the Church of Saint Mary you should pay 5 Euros additionally, so no friends followed us there. But we paid this additional cost to dive into perfection, and it was well worth it. This was just amazing. In the middle of the set I found myself about to start crying. I turned my head to Tanya and saw my wife struggling to not let the tears run down her face. Even the big man right in front of me tried secretly to brush away the tear – but I noticed that anyway… I hardly could talk when we met Joan during meets & greets after the concert, but I managed to express our feelings to her saying something like “I don’t believe in god but now I would like to praise him for your existence” – and it was the truth.

The night before I was granted with the chance to fulfill one more ‘teenage dream’ cos the Scotland’s finest Deacon Blue were set to perform at Escenario Aranda (the 2nd main stage). Deacon Blue is the kind of band I never dared to think of mere possibility of seeing them live. It wasn’t even a dream for me cos it was like ‘Ok, let’s meet a dinosaur, find a pirate’s chest of gold, see Deacon Blue performing’ a kind of possibility. The entire concert I was smiling like a fool standing there in the first row right before the security fence. I felt myself young cos this band was the important part of my youth.

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In addition to the above mentioned I’d like to emphasize the following bands whose performances deserved the attention and the kind words to be said upon them.

The Levitants. We were too far (and this ‘too’ was more like ‘tooooooo’) to fully enjoy their show but even from the farthest point of view their strengths were apparent.

AA Mama. We managed to catch only the first song of their set before leaving for Australian Blonde (the mission incomplete, as you’ve already known) but it was such a good song. So their upcoming album is in the list of the most anticipated albums of the year for me.

Javiera Mena. They’ve got vibe, they’ve got sound, they could make you dance to even if you never intended it (like me who just wanted to make a couple of photos).

The Rebels. Tito made us see them, and for good reason. This band plays grunge and does it great.

Crystal Fighters. Basically I'm not a huge fan of their albums but live they are the top tier entertainers.

Nadia Alvarez. The 'contemporary Nashville country rock' musician with the pack of good songs.