The last day of Sonorama is usually the one you start to feel yourself exhausted. The hotel lobby was all quiet at 10.45 am even though it was full of young people - just because the young people was totally worn out. For me and Tanya, we were quite brave, but somehow we made our biggest mistake making the decision to come to Plaza just in time to see
Rufus T. Firefly at 2 pm. This decision ruined our morning session almost completely cos when we came to plaza we were forced to face one simple fact: even the tiny streets that adjoined the Plaza del Trigo were already overcrowded. We did our best trying to find the appropriate place to see
Rufus but occasionally we appeared at epicenter of water pistols war. The people closest to us was more interested in shooting themselves by water than in listening to the band, so we spent more time avoiding from the water drippings than looking at the stage. The footage was troublesome as well.
Victor Cabezuelo and his pals were great anyway. Live they sounded even better than on "
Nueve", the album that made it
to the very top of my year 2015 's top list. One of the most heartfelt moment of the festival was when
Victor changed the lyrics of the song "
(escribe aqui el nombre de la persona a la que mas quieras)" and sang "
Si al final moriremos igual, yo prefiero morir en la Plaza del Trigo" (if we're going to die anyway, I prefer to die on the Plaza del Trigo) instead of "
Si al final moriremos igual, yo prefiero morir ahora mismo contigo".
Rufus T. Firefly
When the
Rufus show was over we felt like there was enough time to find ourselves the better place for today's
concierto secreto, so we decided to step back to escape the water wars. It was another totally wrong decision as what we managed to get finally was the place from where we could see nothing that was happening onstage. Was it
Xoel? Was it
Zahara? For God's sake, what is going on there? Was it... who was it, really? It was bad, it was really really fucking bad to stay pretty close to something important having absolutely no idea what is it. So we turned our backs and paved the roundabout way to Red Bull stage where
Willy Naves were performing. They sounded interesting so we stayed there until the performance was finished. We noticed
JuanMa behind the bus and talked a bit to him ("
Supersubmarina? Oh no, I walked away to sleep").
Willy Naves
Our next stop should be the Carson camping stage where the post rock band Blusa was schediled to perform. I contacted their drummer Antonio and, unfortunately, he revealed to me that the performance of Blusa was cancelled due to the injury of the band's bass player. The second disappointment of this morning.
For the last night of Sonorama we came to recinto ferial right at the start of Zahara's performance. Zahara Gordillo Campos tours with her latest album "Santa". Also she presented some songs from the previous albums like "Lenador Y La Mujer America" from "La Pareja Toxica" but 90% of the set was dedicated to "Santa". Onstage we could see some familiar faces - Victor Cabezuelo (Rufus T. Firefly) on synths and Ramiro Nieto from The Right Ons on drums (two days ago he played drums for Tulsa). The performance was concentrated mostly on the personality of Zahara much like the shows of Garbage are concentrated mostly on the personality of Shirley Manson or the shows of Blondie are concentrated mostly on the personality of Debbie Harry. So the impact of other musicians was some kind of shadowed by the anthropomorphous fountain of feminine power. When she was dancing, when she was playing acoustic guitar, when she was playing drums, when she crossed the security border and entered the crowd - all eyes were on her. Even Tanya who initially was kinda sceptic on Zahara summarized the show with the words "very bright, very smart, very talented girl!"
Zahara
One of the first bands to appear on Sonorama 2015 lineup were Mercromina (the legendary shoegazers from Albacete returned to activity the last year). In contarst with Zahara their show was built around the sound rather than on the visual side. The musicians were static, and the rich and deep guitar reverb along with the trademark baritone of Joaquin Pascual were the only dominants of the show. For the song "En Un Mundo Tan Pequeno" Joaquin's daughter Angela came onstage to sing the lyrics with her dad. As Mercromima is one of my Top10 bands it was the pure pleasure for my ears to be there.
Joaquin Pascual (Mercromina)
Then we rushed to VIP zone to find some palce to behold the performance of Xoel Lopez. Xoel was alone onstage. Two years ago he was supported by the full band, but now there was just Xoel and nobody else. Though I don't quite like the "Paramales", his latest effort, he is - and always will be - on the very top of my favorite musicians ever, so it was no way for me to miss his show.
Xoel Lopez from afar
Nevertheless in the middle of his set we went off to see Havoc on Burgos stage. And this came out as one of the best decisions ever made by us because we appeared to attend one of the best performances of this year's Sonorama. Initially we planned to catch a song or two and then come back to Ribera stage for the final part of Xoel's performance, but these plans had never come true.
Havoc (initially PLV Havoc) was not lucky enough to have the timeslot which wouldn't coincide with the Xoel's (less lucky were only Berri Txarrak who were set to perform in the same time with Vetusta Morla) so the crowd before the Burgos stage wasn't any substantial. That was better for me as in seconds I went crazy and needed some space around to jerk and jump quite freely. When Havoc finished the set with the trippy version of "Cazador De Ballenas" it was almost physically painful to stop cos I wanted more of this energy, more of these catchiest of songs. Surely the best gig of the fest along with Dorian and La Habitacion Roja's concierto secreto.
Havoc
Returning to VIP zone to take some wine and to meet JuanMa for the last time here we were attracted by the sounds from Castilla Y Leon stage where Bigott was performing. As for Arizona Baby I've never liked his albums at all. But live he caught my attention pretty easily cos he sounded more cohesive, more guitar-driven and less quirky and psych. Instead of sounding synth-laden psycho pop he sounded rock. And it was cool. then we met with JuanMa and he encouraged us to see his friends Eladio Y Los Seres Queridos so in 5 minutes we returned to Burgos stage. And Eladio Y Los Seres Queridos were fantastic too. The name of the band was familiar to me as I had been noticing it here and there for years, but I never heard their songs before. So the band became one more discovery for us.
Eladio Y Los Seres Queridos
The next stop was the show of Correos on Castilla y Leon. The Basque band recorded the new album "Seres" here in Aranda. The show was a mix of the new songs and the old ones. As I purchased "Seres" on iTunes right at the moment it was issued we already knew all the songs. Energetic as ever, Correos confirmed their status as uprising and unmistakably catchy band.
Correos
The next show should be some kind of apex of the festival. Vetusta Morla gathered the largest crowd before the Ribera stage. Spending time with Correos we had no chance to get closer to the stage so for Vetusta we returned to VIP zone. In VIP zone I noticed Mikel Izal and asked him for the photo. He didn't decline. It was nice because Izal is one of our favorite bands.
What should I say about Vetusta Morla... Vetusta is Vetusta. I suppose, to stay on the first line before the stage on their concert could be the fantastic experience - but to get there we should skip Correos and probably most part of Eladio, that was no way. So we watched Pucho from afar. On the tiny dancing zone within VIP zone I went mad dancing and shouting out the lyrics of "Valiente", "Cuarteles de Invierno", "La Deriva", "El Hombre del Saco"... And maybe it was even better because how could I dance before the stage being pressured by all these bodies around... Anyway. I shouldn't be asking for more as all that I already got was great.
Vetusta Morla
Devastated, we came down to the ground and stumbled at Castilla Y Leon to look at Neuman. So we looked at Neuman whom I like alot but my feelings were cut short at that moment. Then we looked at Sidonie from afar as the sea of people before them was as huge as before Vetusta Morla. And then abruptly Sonorama 2015 ended up for us. For the final time we came to VIP zone just to take our final cups of wine cashing out the funds drawn to our NFCs. We were as happy as killed by the necessity to live again our everyday lives starting from the next fucking gloomy morning. Right at the ladder we run into Correos. I quickly captured the attention of Fermin Bouza with my classic "Fermin! Por favor una foto con dos fanaticos rusos!" and we took a photo together with all of them. The guys were smiley and nice.
What should I say to wrap up my report... "La vida es lo que pasa entre Sonorama y Sonorama", says the slogan of the festival. In fact no. No, life is not what passes from one Sonorama to another Sonorama. Sonorama is mere life. And what passes between Sonorama and Sonorama is just something that passes from life to the next life.
Sincerely yours,
Mikhail, el ambassador del rock espanol en Rusia
