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.

***

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.

***

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.

***

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.

***

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”.

***

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.

***

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.

Best of 2017. 3 albums more

Every year I'm trying to cover the pool of the albums as vast as possible but every time there are some great albums that appear afterwards. The albums below were released in November/December when the most of the poll was already completed. The part of me feels guilty for not including them in the Top50 but the other half of me feels happy for that because to include the new ones in the list means to throw some other great albums off the list what could be quite unfair to the albums that were accompanying me for the most part of the year. Nevertheless, ignoring them completely would be sort of a crime.

Paciente Cero "La Constante de John Doe" (p)self-released

Rhythmically this record – as intense as introvert – stands both legs in contemporary neo prog in alt-rock wrap-up. You know this over-the-top sound most common for the neo prog bands – Paciente Cero sounds more stripped-down than that, more down-to-earth. What they’ve got instead is the possibility to broadcast the clean emotions rare for usual prog rock. Whatever the frontman Rafa Tuñon sings about (you’d call them ‘socially oriented’ based on the lyrics) you can feel with the tips of your fingers that he really cares. The rhythm section (Marco Pedroza and Julian Jimenez) is astounding. The only guitarist Hector Baladron has got the tough task and he does the best in making the band sound truly natural.

Possible place within Top50: 20 - 30.

SPOTIFY

OFFICIAL SITE

Lula "Vida Salvaje" (p)self-released

The Comunidad Valenciana rock scene mainstay Patricia Escoin started her career back in the 80's as a singer for Los Romeos and never disappeared for long since. Now she fronts both indie rock trio Lula and power pop quartet Los Amantes. The latter’s “Open 24 Hours” longplay was good but the new one by Lula is something really special. The thick sound, the strong melodies, the nice guitar work plus the Pat’s voice which I consider one of the sweetest female voices in rock worldwide (maybe Veruca Salt’s Nina Gordon is the closest reference).

Possible place within Top50: 10 - 20.

BANDCAMP

OFFICIAL SITE

Berri Txarrak "Infrasoinuak" (p)Only In Dreams

In August of 2015 we were on the round trip clockwise through the Spanish north and had a brief stay in Bilbao. Amongst the pre-selected places for mandatory visit there was the record store Power Records. In the shop I was searching through the records when the shopkeeper came to me and asked: “Are you going to purchase this one?” pointing the finger at Berri Txarrak’s triple LP “Denbora Da Poligrafo Bakarra” in my hands. “Sure”, said I. “Ooh, you might’ve said nothing more, you are my men!” he said smiling.

I’ve never been a huge fan of the Basque power trio (imagine Bob Mould’s Sugar on speed), rather I always was some kind of ‘interested in’. But “Infrasoinuak” is the turning point when I could call myself a fan. I somehow missed the album at its release, so once when I learned of its release I purchased it via iTunes and in the next couple of hours I listened to it three times in a row. I went goosebumps in the process. I went completely mad sporadically playing air guitar with one hand and air drums with another. Melody-wise it’s a huge record. It’s not so colossal in size as “Denbora…” was, but it’s hard, it’s fast, it’s way more melodic than anything they’ve done previously.

Possible place within Top50: 01 - 10.

OFFICIAL SITE

#Sonorama20. The Report. Part Three

There are some bands whose fans/haters ratio is close to 50/50. This pool of bands is widely known as ‘successful bands’. You know, even some freaky outfits like Ojete Calor or Las Bistecs surely have more fans than haters. But when you start talking about Love Of Lesbian… Indie community is cruel to its former babybirds now flying too high. The commercial success, the recording contracts, the number of gigs per year, the ability to sustain 10000+ crowd – sometimes these things come with their opposite sisters. The most important thing there is – it’s not about envy. There’s some kind of real ‘not commercial/too commercial’ dichotomy: the ones considered 'too commercial' are consequently considered free from any form of artistic aspirations. For me, I’ve got a bent for ‘little’ bands, and one of this blog’s aims is to speak about lesser-known bands. But also I like a lot of commercially viable bands, and, frankly speaking, I don’t feel guilty about it.

11/08/17. The Morning. Locations: Santa Catalina stage, Maria Pacheco, El Charco stage

This Saturday morning Rufus T. Firefly were set to return onstage as 'artista sorpresa' at Plaza Obispo Acosta where the new Santa Catalina stage was arranged. When we came at the place there was only a handful of potential spectators. They were hiding themselves in the shades of the buildings around, as this morning was really hot. But we weren't the last ones to come, and quite quickly the square got full with the people that pressurized us to step into the light. The band partially used the gear of Second who were set to perform here in the next timeslot. Rufus played the [more or less] same set of songs as two days earlier in camping and though they again omitted my favorite song “Demerol Y Piedras” off “Nueve” the satisfaction was 110%. 

Anyway, in the middle of their set I left the venue and made a run to Maria Pacheco stage, where El Lado Oscuro de La Broca were performing at the moment. I had a fear of being too late so this fear forced me to run pretty fast. The Zamora-based quartet played the songs from both of their albums. As loud & noisy as melodic, the strange birds in El Genio Equivocado's roster were successful in transcending their studio shoegaze-on-speed guitar swirl into the live performance. For a couple of songs the band was accompanied by a girl who later revealed to be Maria Mieres, the singer of San Jeronimo whom I like as well. 

When the band completed their set I met with Joan and Rafa (also known as Pin y Pon djs) - the heads of El Genio Equivocado - and then returned to Santa Catalina.

If Rufus got Plaza Obispo Acosta full with the people, Second got it totally overcrowded. The crowd splashed out onto the square’s sidestreets where people were staying without any hope of seeing the band. Fortunately, Tanya managed to secure the great place in two steps from the stage so we were happy to observe the performance from the close distance. Second have got a lot of good songs. They’ve got a lot of great songs. So every Second show is the total pleasure.

When Second's show was over, and the people started walking around to find themselves some beer, we decided to walk away. But when we stepped aside we noticed the guys from Rufus T. Firefly packing their equipment into the van and decided to catch Victor for a photo. But we felt it was the wrong moment to distract him as he looked too loaded with all these pedalboards and other things so we stayed aside waiting for the moment he’d get free. Right before our eyes there was a gap between the vans, and in this gap we noticed another person we’d like to meet and greet: Josete Diaz from Villanueva who stayed at the opposite side of the square. We approached him and hugged him and talked to this nice and friendly person for 15 minutes or so. And what made this moment even greater was the sudden appearance of Javier Ajenjo. Thursday’s night we met him for a brief talk, and he proposed to meet the next day to have a lunch together. But the next day it became apparent that to access him in the middle of the day is rather impossible. I can’t even imagine what amount of calls and messages he gets through the day to keep the festival moving along. Really. It’s huge amount, and our message was somehow lost in this vast ocean. Apparently, Javier also considered it way too optimistic trying to cut an hour at the midday for us, so he asked would it be ok if he reserved a table in the restaurant for us. We said ‘It would be great!’ and he did so. We left Javier and Josete with our heads in the cloud nine.

Then we walked half-round the square to see what’s going on with Rufus. Fortunately, we ran into Victor who walked to the minibus with only a pack of beer in his hand. This moment was right, and we jumped in front of him: “Holaaaa, somos desde Rusia!” De facto he’s one of our favorite musicians standalone, and we’re always happy to see him performing even with other bands (Mucho, Zahara, etc.) When we told him our goodbyes and finally left the Plaza Obispo Acosta, the next POI we had in our schedule were El Mato A Un Policia Motorizado at El Charco stage.

We caught most of El Mato’s performance but we could hardly say we beheld it. Initially we rushed right to the stage to make some good photos, and then started roaming around to find some shade to hide in. But what we really found was the company of Jose, the frontman of Yo, Estratosferico, and his friends Gloria and Alberto. Together we talked for most of the show about different things and rarely paid attention to what was happening onstage.

Suddenly I noticed some persons whose faces seemed so familiar to me passing along in ten yards before my eyes. I couldn’t stand but ran for them to get closer to prove them to be Juan Alberto and Nani from Niños Mutantes. Upon returning to Jose and friends I said: ‘Yeah, that’s really the guys from Niños Mutantes!’ ‘Have you already met them?’ Jose asked. I told, no. And that moment I noticed them returning to our location and standing just in front of us. ‘Do you want to?’ asked Jose. ‘Yes, we’d like to!’ I replied, so Jose walked to them and asked to join us for a minute. We briefly talked and the man who accompanied Juan Alberto and Nani (probably their manager) made the photos on my phone. But something went wrong, and later when we looked into the photo gallery in my LG we saw no photos with Niños Mutantes. What a disappointment, especially taking in mind that we were going to meet them later in restaurant and could repeat the photo session!

The first person we ran into when we entered the restaurant La Cantinaccia was Juan Alberto. ‘We ain’t following you!’- what we could say?!

We felt like we’re stepping into the paradise. Oscar from Delafe right next table to us. Guys from Sidonie just upstairs. Niños Mutantes deeper in the hall. Maryan Frutos, the sister of Sean, passing around. Sean himself… We asked Oscar for a photo, asked Mark Ros and Ramiro Nieto for a photo… Sean Frutos smiled noticing at us at the table. We didn’t ask him for a photo as we’d already made it two days ago.

When we were close to finish our lechazo the doors opened and the guys from Izal all covered with sweat entered the hall. We understood they were today’s concierto secreto.

‘Two years ago, in the VIP zone!’ – Mikel exclaimed, pointing a finger at us when we tried to catch his attention. ‘Sure!’ – we were completely shocked (in the good way) of the fact he remembered us. We tried to tell Mikel that we just wanted to express our respect and love and we didn’t need no photos, but he was like ‘Whaaat, no photos? No way! Hey men, let’s go make a photo with our Russian fans!’

It was a moving moment. It ALL was a moving moment. For such a shy person like me to find myself in a situation like this… I felt my heart breaking free from my chest with my feet off the ground. I asked a waiter for a blank sheet of paper, wrote a heartfelt message to Javier and all the bands there and stack it to the wall there.

11/08/17. The Night. Location: Recinto ferial

We had to omit the actuation of Echo as it coincided with the Viva Suecia performance at much larger venue. Initially I thought that deep, sad and inward-looking music of the Murcian four-piece is not for all and everybody, and I hardly could expect, say, in 2015 that two years later this band would be so embraced by the public. But that’s what it is, and that’s what they deserve for sure. 

Having Facto and Las Flores Azules peeled off, Delafe is still around. He is the greatest performer but all through his show I couldn't escape the feeling the greatest performer was sad. I dunno why but I felt so. 

Then we ran to the VIP zone to observe the mutual performance of Santiago Auseron (Radio Futura) and Sexy Sadie. For me personally, ‘Santiago Auseron sings the songs of Sexy Sadie’ could be much more preferable situation as compared to 'Sexy Sadie play the songs of Santiago Auseron for him to sing' as I’m not the biggest fan of Spanish 80’s rock’n’roll stars. So we escaped the main stage searching for some better life. In 5 minutes we found it at Burgos stage where Kokoshca were performing. This band was one of the previous year’s discoveries for me. Live they were great, the same as their studio incarnation. 

Tierra Vertical became the second biggest discovery for me. I can’t recall now why I was floating around recinto ferial alone, and why I decided to enter La Carpa – but surely it was the moment of blessing, as Tierra Vertical were amazing. As far as I know the guys are in the process of recording right now, and I hope their album will get their live emotion captured. All good bands have some twist in their music that sets them apart from the common pool, and during these minutes in La Carpa I felt like this band has got it.

Berry Txarrak captured us with their groundbreaking music. We occasionally passed along the Aranda stage coming from the marketplace, but stopped and stayed there for the whole set of songs. I have never made my wife to fall in love with post-hardcore, but this Sonorama she sustained two post-hardcore concerts (Willis Drummond and Berri Txarrak) being fully amused with them in the best way possible!

After having some calimocho we headed to the Burgos stage for seeing Eladio y Los Seres Queridos. Eladio Santos and his band didn't play my favorite tracks off "Orden Invisible" but it was no problem as they got a lot of songs to be satisfied with.

Meanwhile, the main stage was under preparation for something special. Earlier we thought the secret show of Los Planetas was being hidden under “Tarta de Cumpleanos” moniker, but when we met JuanMa and Julian from Igloo they told us: ‘No, there would be no Los Planetas’. Nevertheless, there were Los Planetas exactly. The Tarta de Cumpleaños section started from Shinova’s “Volver” as the soundtrack while the stage was covered with the white cloth, and lots of photographs were projected on it from the inside. After the song ending the white cloth fell down, and the well-recognizable silhouettes of J and his partners appeared onstage. After listening to 7 or 8 songs we left VIP zone and headed to Aranda stage to win the first line places for La Habitacion Roja.

For the next hour our only regret was because of the perfect performance of La Habitacion Roja we missed equally great show of Kitai. But it was worth it as Jorge, Pau, Marc, Jose and Jordi were on the peak of their stage form. It was our forth LHR's show and they did it again making us completely happy. Staying right in front of Pau Roca we sent him our remote greetings. Earlier we wrote him a message of love and respect, and he answered hoping to see us on the first line of the audience. And we were there, really!

It was 3 am and only Shinova ahead. They're probably the best band in creating the catchiest singalong choruses #rightnow. As the Next Big Band they're on the verge of becoming 'successful' with all the aforementioned consequences but it doesn't matter when you stand inside the crowd singing along to the best singalong chorus around. And they're the nice guys, we know it, really!
(Unfortunately, we didn't manage to make the good photo of the band as we stood too far).