I Went To See A Band...

[Ries]

From Konex, we made our way to CC Matienzo. A bit early for the show, we sat in one of the chill out rooms, talked and drank Fernet.
Finally, a bit after midnight (early for Matienzo), Morbo Y Mambo came on.

One of my favorite bands to see live, its a pulsating jam of psychedelia, afro-brasilian beats, jazz, funk, and rock.

It starts with the bass- a huge dub sound, vibrating your spine inside your body.
Then, two drummers- one on a conventional kit, the other on congas and percussion.
Add in heavily processed guitar, fat and smoky.
A keyboard player on multiple synths.

and in front, the two horn players- trumpet and trombone, but run thru electronics- doubled and reverbed and looped into fading echos.

Its a band that can never be captured on a record- or even on a video on a small screen.
you have to be there.
The music is so thick, its like entering an atmosphere of sound, you can lean into it and not fall over.

And, of course, its got a good beat, you can dance to it.
And everybody does. Matienzo suddenly fills up with a couple of hundred people, and everybody goes wild.
No vocals- the horns are the voices.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRzQLZA0wgw

At 2 or so in the morning, a dazed crowd staggers out.

 

[Ries]

If its Tuesday, I am in Santos 4040, to see La Grande.
It would be foolish not to, in my humble opinion.
the door is up to a still incredibly cheap 50 pesos.
tonight the food special was home made pastrami sandwiches, there was a guest bartender rocking it, and select microbrews in bottles.

Rather than play an extended first set with the house band, the band began to warm up, and, within five minutes, invited Martin Iannaccone on stage, on drums.
He is one of the founders of Tango Crash, a Berlin band of Argentine ex-pats who helped originate Neo-Tango in the mid 2000's- the modern mix of tango/jazz/electronica that was all over the place in 2007 or so, with bands like the Gotan Project and NarcoTango.
As long ago as 1998, Iannaconne was playing with Santiago Vazquez, in modern variations of tango like this-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkRQZ-2yQ3k

here is some Tango Crash- live in Paris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yPkDQWpB2I

tonight, he sat in on drums, and, after an initial hesitation, dived right in with a shit eating grin, helped, no doubt, by the fact that, a couple of minutes later, Juana Molina wandered up on stage and started scat singing, working her way into the conversation.
Kinda like if Joni Mitchell had casually walked on stage- no big deal, right?
Juana, also, was having the time of her life. No set changes, no rehearsals. This was live. They were making it up as they went along.

She stayed for quite a while, as an everchanging cast of drummers and percussionists came and left, Gaby Kerpel started playing synths, Axel Krygier came on to play flute for a while, Iannaconne changed over to bass, and eventually, Molina left and another amazing female vocalist came on- cant figure out who she was, but she was a fifty-ish folkloric singer, with impressive pipes, no doubt famous.

There is no club like this on earth.
Simultaneously humble and supreme, friendly and yet the music is worldclass. Its cheap, comfortable, and you can play ping pong if you are bored watching the best musicians in Argentina create structures of sound that have never existed anywhere else, and, most likely, never will again.

It looked like this on Tuesday- https://www.flickr.com/photos/fjalbertti/sets/72157659891812864/

 

[Ries]

I seem to keep going back to a few venues.
Including Santos Dumont 4040. Corner of Corrientes, right across from the Shell Station.
You cant miss it, there will always be some sort of hipster musician sneaking a smoke outside.

Saturday night, 3 solo sets by 3 different anchors of the Buenos Aires scene.

Manuel Schaller, theremin virtuoso. (I know, you didnt think there was such a thing, since Screech and Skronk)
He uses a rack of electronics to process the theremin, including what looked like an old school analog synth, and maybe an Ipad.
Here he is playing his concert for psychedelic babies-
https://youtu.be/bfCF_y5njMg
he was a bit funkier and faster on Saturday night, with various beats, found sounds, and backing tracks, constantly changing the output sound of the theremin.
Of course, this being Buenos Aires, there was a fog machine.

Then, Axel Krygier, solo, with a battery of supporting electronics to mutate the sound coming from his electronic keyboard.
He did old songs, fragments, told jokes, danced, and generally got funky.
A bit like this, but more spontaneous, and without a full band.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qNkx5CV9Jc

Finally, King Coya-
here is his teaser- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru2MDkqM9bw
and he had those dancers with him, too- but they were all dressed in black, wearing giant paper mache llama heads, with light up eyes, as the danced and pranced King Coya onto the stage, and then danced along to all his songs.
He played electro folk cumbia jams that had the crowd dancing right away- and the crowd was pretty amusing, ranging from somebody's 80 year old Abuela, to a small herd of kids under 5.
Only in Buenos Aires, are the crew of 4 year olds boogieing at 2 in the morning to Cumbia.
The Abuela was sitting in a plastic chair, tapping her feet.

Another one of those unique concerts that, in the USA or Europe, would be snooty and exclusive and expensive, if they even happened, but here, was democratic, fun, and cheap. All ages, all kinds of people, although an older crowd than many of the shows I go to. We werent the oldest couple there. which we often are. Lots of people in their 40s and 50s.
You get a much more mixed crowd at most any show here than you would in El Norte- less self enforced segregation by tribe, age, or "musical taste".

 

[Ries]

Tuesday.
La Grande.

Guests included
Big Mama Labratorio (Laura Zapata)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlDLrRcpZw4

Sebastian Schachtel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZLulDUgIrQ

some, but not all, of Tototomas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVymiJ1PNA8

Under MC, rapping-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk9q1Ppywrc&list=RDNP9PYrVqsos&index=3

plus a good half dozen different drummers, bass players, and vocalists.

 

[Ries]

thursday was a tough night to decide-
there was free Juana Molina concert in Parque Centenario,
Marina Fages was premiering her new album, with a full band, at Xirgu Espacio in San Telmo, which is a space that is so beautiful and lost in time.
and then, Tremor was playing.

I just saw both Juana and Marina in the last week, and I havent seen Tremor for a year, so I opted for Tremor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNRWclV9Mu0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hd26cmuuY0

They were powerful and loud and we all danced a lot.
Opening act was Pato/Milo/Diego, who are different every time I see them.

 

[Ries]

I didnt get tickets in time, so I missed the Pimenton show in the Cupula of the CCK- which turned out to be the last show at the CCk for some unknown amount of time.
Monday morning, the internet was covered with complaints that Macri had pulled the plug on the entire CCK.
Which turned out to be maybe not true, or maybe partly true.

The CCK had, indeed, planned to be shut over the holidays, until sometime in January.
But somebody seems to have hacked the website, most likely a disgruntled peronist employee, and made it say that they were closed forever.
The brand new head of the Federal Management System for Media and Public Content, Hernan Lombardi hurriedly made a public statement-
"The Cultural Center will remain open and the patterned activities. No temporary closure date or anything like that," said Lombardi.

However, there is no date set for its re-opening, and there are rumors going around that it will start charging admission (it has been entirely free) when and if it does re-open.
People are pissed, and not just punk rockers- lots and lots of classical and traditional folklore and poetry and jazz fans have quickly become addicted to the presentations at the CCK.

 

[Ries]

The final La Grande of the cycle, and the year. It resumes again in February.

Juana Molina has decided she just cant stay away- she sang for most of the night, mostly relegated to background singing after the first two songs, and frankly, she seemed elated to be singing backup.
The cast of guests was huge- three different guitarists, two or three bass players, at least ten different drummers and percussionists, two keyboard players, 4 or 5 different horn players dropped in, maybe 5 or 6 different vocalists.
Every song was incredible, and the audience was hyped. Santiago Vazquez, leader and drummer himself, was on fire, leading the band thru amazing rythymic pyrotechnics.
Then, at 11:30 or so, Santi announces the next singer- Julieta Venegas.
yes, THAT Julieta Venegas- winner of 6 Grammys, huge star in Mexico, most of South America, and spanish speaking USA.
Just like everybody else, she was dropped in the deep end.
This was not a band that was playing backing tracks to songs she knew- it was a tightrope walking jam band of tight musicians, improvising and turning on a dime, and she had to find a place to sing, and invent what she would sing, on the fly.
Just like most ace musicians who sit in with this band, she immediately had both a look of deer caught in the headlights fear, and a shit eating grin, simultaneously.
not exactly the way she looks in her slickly produced videos.
Juana Molina sang backup... also quite ecstatic.

This stuff just doesnt happen anywhere else.
no handlers, no set list, no rehearsals, no rider demanding brown M&Ms.
Just try to keep up, superstar...

here she is, in a video that got 22 Million views.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTr9HMnAWNE

here is more what it was like last night, for the 200 of us lucky enough to be there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KurYyOl12p0&feature=em-upload_owner
beer's cheap, too.

I will be there in February, when it starts up again.

 

[Ries]

I realized I never wrote about the last show I went to see in 2015.
On a hot and sweaty 23 of December, we went to Niceto, to see Kumbia Queers and Sara Hebe.
Fierce Woman night at Niceto.
Personally, I think that this would be a tough town to be a lesbian in- I almost never see proudly out lesbians, and I suspect the reason why is because they get hassled a lot, especially outside the hipster crescent of Palermo to San Telmo.
But they were all in attendance that night. Many, however, come in civilian clothes, and, like catholic school girls rolling up their plaid skirts upon exiting school, they transform into a gayer look as they enter the club, shedding layers, rearranging hair, and putting on their game faces.
The club was totally and completely packed, and its a pretty big club. Body Heat from a fifteen hundred people raising the temperature even higher.
Sara Hebe opened, and she was great- feminist, political rap from outside of Gral. Paz. She was not like american women rappers, who basically dress like strippers and talk about love. She was fierce and tough, wearing cool designer clothes that were not about being a boy toy, and she had a great live backing band, and backup singer.
And the crowd was loving it- a fair amount of crowd surfing in the mosh pit, a lot of people who took the two hour train/collectivo ride in from places like Haedo, and knew all the lyrics.
She is a bit KRS ONE, and a bit Tanya.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uaXtiRoHpg


Then, after a too long intermission in an atmosphere of ionized sweaty air, Kumbia Queers finally came on.
They are lesbian surf rock garage cumbia- a great band to dance to, funny and camp and rocking, and very butch. The lead guitar player, who really rips it up, always wears a straw cowboy hat while snapping out Billy Zoom riffs.
Personally, I thought they were better when they had two lead vocalists, but Ali Gua Gua, the second one, quit and moved back to Mexico.
They are always pretty much the same, but, like the Ramones, exactly what the audience wants to see, so they pack clubs when they play.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucC3FTTDJbU

 

[Ries]

There is always a dead zone for live music over the holidays.
Plus, I end up going to parties at friends houses that involve 6 hours of eating, starting at ten at night.
Which means, combined with almost 40 degree weather, I dont go out much till the first week of January.
Too busy sleeping off all the food I ate.

But finally, the live music is beginning again, and we are starting to see bands worth seeing.
I am going to a party tonight, but I wasnt, I would be hitting BeatFlow, which will have great music every saturday night in January. Cordoba y Bonpland, mas o menos.
Also, in January, Tomi Lebrero will be at Cafe Vinilo every Weds night, which is a calm, adult place to see music. He is pretty fun to see live.
But thursday, I did manage to get to Boris, and see Diego Frenkel, who just released a new album.
He will be at Boris every Thursday in January.

I am a student of Argentinian culture in a lot of ways- architecture, art, and, most especially, music.
Part of my leccion is to study the past of Rock Nacional, especially the less mainstream parts of it.
So, I have been diving into Diego Frenkel, who founded a really important new wave band in the early 80s- Clap- which was one of those bands that only a few people saw, but they all started bands. Then, he had a band called La Portuaria, which got a lot more airplay, and was pretty influential.
Most of the members went on to play in many other well known bands, and he recorded this song, which is one of my favorites from that era-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6SiNzMeDJg

He has never stopped- years with La Portuaria, finally breaking up in the early 2000's, and then solo albums.

His current band is a really great rock and roll band, very tight and all excellent musicians.
Boris is another adult nightclub type venue. Small, nice, great soundsystem, and no seat is more than about 30 feet from the stage. Its a bit expensive, to keep the riffraff out, but we snagged 160 peso seats on a banquette, comfortable and a maybe 20 feet from the band. They have snacks and a full bar, its very nice.
Usually they have jazz, and some folk type music- Frenkel was joking about how he was going to rock the place out more than it was used to.
and he did.

I have seen his guitar player, Lucy Patane, in a variety of settings- seen her strumming an acoustic guitar backing up vocalists, playing new age cumbia on a charango, and have seen her drumming in a punk band- and she is very good at all of them, pretty strong drummer.
But I have never seen her in full on rock goddess lead guitar glory- and she pulls it off.
I have seen hundreds of guitar players in my life, including many of the greats, and dozens of argentine guitar players- and I think she is one of the very best rock lead guitar players in Argentina right now. That girl rips it up.

She is very old school- almost no pedals, unfashionable guitars- a stock telecaster, and a Fender jazzmaster.
Tom Verlaine guitars. Verlaine started buying, and playing Jazzmasters in the early 70s, when they were really cheap- all the big famous guitar players played Stratocasters, and nobody wanted jazzmasters. Thurston Moore saw Verlaine, and decided if Tom played them, they must be cool, so he bought about 25 of em, and plays them a lot on 20 or so Sonic Youth albums over the course of 20 years. But even today, they are a rare guitar to see.
She does her magic by playing the guitar, really well. with her fingers, not digital smoke and mirrors.
on the album, she is tasteful and perfect, dropping in 8 second solos where needed.
Live, though, she goes wild- and they stretched a lot of the songs out to 6 and 10 minute jams that were really great.
If you like rock and roll, this is a great way to spend thursday night. It starts at a reasonable hour- nominally 930, which is a good time to get there if you want a good seat. ends by midnight- so you can still make it to the club.

here is the official video of one of the new songs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL1d1q1mD5Y

here is what they sound like live-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XNiCECejkM

 

[RichardP]

Very cool thread you have going here. I guess you spend much of the time back in Edison catching up on sleep lost during these porteña nights?