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).
