I Went To See A Band...

[Ries]

Thursday night, I went down to San Telmo, managing to avoid death or assault- some people seem to think its dangerous- me, I have never been threatened in any way there- we got down there about midnight, lots of people were on the streets, ranging from babies to jubiladas.
We went the Xirgu Theater at the Catalan center- which is really beautiful.
There are painted putti's on the ceiling, two sculptured horseshoe balconies, red velvet seats, elegant boxes around the dance floor where you can sit, elevated, and see the bands.
The cafe was selling drinks- or entire roasted piglets, if you had ordered in advance.

Six acts performed- it was a great lineup.
The stage was decorated with huge fluorescent painted hangings, sculptures, and cloths draped over the tables, in a psychedelic floral pattern, lit by black lights. A rorschach blob shaped sculpture hung in center stage, with kaleidescopic projections on it.
The whole thing was like it must have been going to the Fillmore or the Family Dog in San Francisco in about 1966.
Faded elegance, psychedelic glamour, and lots of cute kids dancing.

I saw the second half of Barda- sometimes she sings more traditionally, but tonight she was rocking the computer, synths, and samples, with just a bit of guitar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb0ShQYXMxU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQWCedqBZso

Then, Pol Nada.
They sounded quite a bit like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMS2uFjmtds
folky, a bit of electronics, the lead singer has a great voice.
Mellow, and most of the audience was sitting on the floor.

Then, Jin Yerie.
He made everybody stand up and dance. He had a live flute player, run thru electronics, and then he and his other band member were doing live percussion over lots of electronics.
New album just dropped- its kind of chill out, ambient cumbia electronica that has a good beat, and you can dance to it. He is a friend of mine, so I am biased, but I love it.
https://fertildiscos.bandcamp.com/album/foraneo-calido-pasmoso

Then, LulaCruza. they are part columbian, part porteno, and they were really on last night.
Here is show they did on KEXP recently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V__PHRjGwNg
I have seen them play before, where they accented the folkloric aspect, but last night, playing the same songs, they went full on psychedelic jam band, and everybody was dancing up a storm. Plus, the time they went on, at about 11, meant that many late arrivers had finally gotten there, so the theater was full.

More or less the headliner, Chancha via Circuito, was next. He doesnt play too many live shows, so a lot of people came specifically to see him.
When I first saw him play, probably five years ago, he was doing cumbia inspired EDM, but he has gone much more folkloric in the last few years. He still uses his laptop, mini keyboards, samples and loops, but he had a great drummer/percussionist with him, and a woman who played violin, sang, and also doubled on percussion.
He is producing and remixing a lot these days, and is getting pretty good international coverage as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNIe0WNjbI4
He got everybody dancing, and then some.

Finally, El Remolon, who is the organizer of this series of concerts, and is starting a new record label as well- fertil records.
Remo is great. He was all done up last night, with a frida kahlo thing going on with his hair, and started off strong, getting everybody dancing for the first fifteen minutes- then, disaster- the storm was hitting hard, and the power to the PA system went out. Some power remained, but evidently it was leaking somewhere, and they had to stop the show. El Remolon was very disapointed. I think they are scheduling another show next month, though, at Xirgu.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DvcxnlL9z8
http://fertildiscos.com/sobre/

Me, I think I will get in one more show, maybe two, before I head north again to the USA. Gonna hit Miss Boliva and Villa Diamante at Konex on friday for sure.

 

[Ries]

Another summer in Buenos Aires.
We were delayed in Dallas for several hours, so instead of getting to our house in Buenos Aires at 11 am as we usually do, it was more like 3 in the afternoon. Time to shower, nap, and get ready to go out and see our first live music.
We had tried to buy tickets online from the USA, but it wouldnt go thru, so Sheila emailed the artist, Loli Molina. Loli put us on the door.
Try that in the USA.
I had never been to ND Teatro before- its a beautiful classic theater, with art deco styling, velour and hardwood seats, comfortable and with great sound.

I have seen Loli Molina many times before.
She is hard to pin down- she is sometimes an acoustic guitar strumming singer songwriter, sometimes a fiery chanteuse, sometimes a rocking guitar player.
She sings backup with the mexican band Kinky, on occassion, tours the americas pretty constantly, and seems to have been adopted by some of the big stars in Argentina.
She was initially aided by Juana Molina and Alejandro Frenov, then had a record produced by Tweety Gonzalez, who was the keyboard player for Soda Stereo. She played guitar with Santiago Vasquez' big band at La Grande, and has played duos with all kinds of young indie women.

Last year, I was unable to attend the big tribute to Gustavo Cerati, of Soda Stereo, at the CCK, but she was a featured vocalist on several songs.
That concert was produced by Alejandro Teran, who among other things also played with Soda Stereo.
Here is a clip of Loli from that concert.

https://youtu.be/M1Sffnr6tIA

The show we saw on Saturday was in some ways, a scaled down version of this- but with Loli playing her Telecaster.
There was a string quartet, led and arranged by Teran, including the first violinist from Teatro Colon.
But also a great jazz pianist- Hernan Jacinto- who is worth checking out on his own.
https://youtu.be/0PQPdcvpsss
On drums, Pablo Bendov, one of the leaders of Bomba del Tiempo at Konex.

It was a wonderful first night in Buenos Aires.
Loli sang most of her last album, Rubi, and got funky on the guitar a few times as well.
https://youtu.be/jcjf_vbFOow

 

[Ries]

Sunday afternoon, we went to see Dias Nordicas, a Scandinavian funded musical exchange program at Cultural Center Recoleta.
A glorious warm summer night, babies and seniors and tatted up 20 somethings sitting on the plaza behind the 200 year old chapel, sipping cups of beer.

This is the third or fourth incarnation of this program, funded by Danish, Norwegian, Finnish and other nordic governments primarily, sending their musicians to Spain, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Argentina, to collaborate with local musicians.

This year, they did a series of a half dozen or so free concerts.

I think the Argentines were far more interesting than the pale skinned northern europeans, but maybe thats just my taste.
The nordics all mysteriously wrote and sang in cliched english. I think it would have been better in icelandic or something, myself.

The Charango strumming argentines were relaxed, funky, and vamping all over.
The nordics sang songs about love and apartments.
I thought Lucio Mantel was funnier and more in the moment than Teifur, for example.

http://www.diasnordi...cion-argentina/


Lucio-
https://youtu.be/mZo4BJVKrZg

Teitur-
https://youtu.be/QIbtXOOZRFY

we had hoped to see Axel Krygier, who is one of our favorites, but we had to leave to go to a birthday party before he came on...

 

[Ries]

After a couple of easy nights, we prepare for a more typical Buenos Aires experience.
Morbo y Mambo, at Matienzo, will undoubtedly not go on until at least 1:30 AM.
Pre concert naps are in order, set the alarm for 12:30.

we wake up, and walk the mile or so to Matienzo, and, true to form, the first set starts at 2 AM.
Needless to say, the place is packed. 200-300 people on the dance floor.

If Bill Laswell had played dub behind Miles Davis, it might sound a bit like this.
Echoplexed and looped trumpet and trombone, dub bass lines that vibrate the entire building, synths, samples and loops, 2 guitars and a driving drummer.
Its loud, and relaxing at the same time.

They play a quick half hour warm up set, retire backstage to "get in the mood", and return at 3am for the main set. We last about an hour, and then, due to our advanced age (being about 20 to 30 years older than anybody else in the house) we sneak out just before 4, missing the last couple of songs.

Morbo y Mambo create a psychedelic trance in me that I have only experienced seeing a few other bands live-
something like Miles in his electric years, or Acid Mothers Temple, with a bit of Dark Star thrown in.
I like this stuff, but I grew up with it- I was wearing out my first copy of Live/Dead before 1970.

https://youtu.be/dN52ShC7GEM

 

[Ries]

I am a big fan of the band Tremor. They are uniquely Argentine- folklorico, electronic, rock and roll. Sometimes a bit of Lou Reed, sometimes all andean flutes, sometimes heavy metal cumbia drum heavy levitation. Always 2 or three custom tuned electric charengos. And a Les Paul. And drums. Did I mention drums?

They have been together ten years now, and I am happy to say I have seen them at least 4 or 5 times now, over that time period, including once in the once Peter Buck owned Crocodile Cafe in Seattle.

So, for their tenth anniversary show, they played in the Caras y Caretas theater on Sarmiento in Once. Very nice hall, great seats, sightlines, and acoustics. I would guess 250 people were there. We were in J 16 and 18- not the best seats, but we arrived during the first song, and still got half off due to my new Villa Diamante Club de Baile membership card.

It was a multimedia experience- amazing lights, continuous projections behind the band, including, when they took a break, a mini-documentary about them, and lots of guest stars.
Lucio Mantel, who I saw earlier in the week, sang a couple of songs with them.
So did Miriam Garcia- a folk traditional singer, who fit right in.
Micheala Chaque, who ripped it up.
Chanca Via Circuito, who sang and played charenga.

and, finally, dressed like a Las Vegas show girl Murga, the Ballet Andino Amerindia- a group of folkloric dancers who high stepped down the aisle, and lit up with Leds on their hats and shoulders, sassily danced the last few songs out.
they were dressed a bit like this- little bowlers, but silver, and with LED lights all around the brim.
https://youtu.be/Fbmu4Edv6ZA


Tremor, putting on a show.
https://vimeo.com/52494700

 

[Ries]

Its the 120th anniversary this year of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes.
They are doing a series of events to celebrate this, with, as is typical in Buenos Aires, erratic and scarce publicity.
Last night, we went there at about 8pm, the time they would normally close, and saw two shows I enjoyed- a sculpture show by Norberto Gomez, spanning 40 years or so of minimalist white geometry, and a retrospective of the artist Gyula Kosice, born in Hungary, but an argentine since the age of 4. I have always liked Kosice, having seen occasional individual works of his over the years at Malba and Macba, both of which have pieces in their permanent collections. He often worked with light, sound, and motion, in an ahead of its time pop/techno kind of way. His neon pieces from the late 40s predate the sixties pop neon artworks in the US by 20 years.
Both shows are well worth seeing.
But the main event, upstairs on the terazza, was the band Sexteto Irreal. Which, contrary to its name, is 5 of the most amazing musicians in BsAs. All of whom have layered histories going back to the early 80s.
They are an occasional supergroup, playing together for the fun of it when they get a chance.
Their album is indescribable, but great- https://youtu.be/AxfeWgdfLsk

Live, they jam and play and try to amuse and confuse each other, more playful, less structured than the album.
Each is so good that sometimes the other musicians will just stop and watch- without missing their cues or solos, of course.
Manu Schaller, in particular, amazes on his theremin connected to a huge bank of electronics, and two foot pedals. There are times you would swear he was playing a stringed instrument, a group of strings, an organ, a guitar, or a keyboard- not only the sound, but the way he plays, the attack, the style, which varies so much. He is undoubtedly one of the best theremin players ever, in the history of the world, for whatever that is worth.
And I am a longtime fan of the bassist, Christian Basso, who started La Portuaria with Diego Frenkel in the early 80s.
The scene was fantastic- it was in the 80s, warm with a breeze, up on the roof of the musuem. Free drinks, waiters bearing platters of free appetizers, including migas (yum).
Behind the band, the magnificent neo-classical neo-fascist facade of the Facultad de Derecho building of the university is dramatically lit, and, above that, a full moon with wispy clouds. Jets from nearby Jorge Newberry airport take off every few minutes, far enough away so you dont really hear them over the murmuring crowd, but near enough to provide a light show. 30 miles or so away, over Uruguay, there are lightning storms, but the sky is clear above us.

Front and center, Teran switches off between clarinet, sax, and viol, sometimes fingerpicking, sometimes classical or gypsy or rock on the viol, free jazz on the sax, nostalgic on the clarinet.
Krygier plays roller rink organ, B3 chords, Fender Rhodes vamps, lilting piano, on his electronic keyboard- at one point, he keeps playing the melody with his right hand, while demoing a bass line with his left, which Basso quickly picks up and begins vamping on with his Fender bass.
Samblea and Basso have been a rhythm section to be reckoned with for 40 years, on and off- they sync without thinking.
Schaller is almost buried under wiring. He is so focused he seems in a trance, while most of the rest them dance around, grin and jump and wink at each other.

The crowd is wildly varied- a fair amount of well dressed museum patrons, children on shoulders, and lots of intellectual hipsters in converses and t shirts. Polite, quiet, and enjoying the show immensely. One of the very few concerts I have been to, out of over 100 in the last five years or so in Argentina, where we were not one of the three or four people over fifty in the crowd. There were even people older than me there.

A very special night.

Here they are, a few months ago, in a small bar, but you get the idea.
https://youtu.be/Me0Mb6UpDIA

 

[Ries]

Last night we went to the tenth birthday party of Zizek records.

Zizek is one of the hubs of music in Argentina, and lots of great musicians have put out music with them.



The lineup featured great DJs between full fledged bands.

King Coya came on first with the Queen Cholas-

https://vimeo.com/157025215

4 glowing eyed Llama dancers, the King in postelectrocumbia Andean DayGlo finery, parading thru the crowd and up onto the stage.

Everybody dance.



It was at Niceto, which has a new policy of the bouncers publicly shaming people who light up cigarettes, (which is against the law, and obnoxious in a crowded hot club, to boot) by lighting them up with green laser beams from a couple of locations.

This made the evening much more pleasant than the same club has been in years past, when the smoke cloud went down to your knees.



Various combinations of Smink, Villa Diamante, and Milo, ensued.

https://youtu.be/0UTVaQ3hY90?list=PLxv-2VIbYOy7PpFOaIOjA5fIBhO4g_DpE

sometimes Milo raps- last night, he was beatboxing, along with Smink on Handsonic, and Villa Dj'ing, mixing, sampling, and dropping in beats.



Then El Remolon, who, not to be outdone by King Coya, had a dozen dancers of his own, a painted face, and a keytar which he wandered thru the audience playing.

Featuring a guest vocal by Jin Yerei, cumbia funk style.

Here is a Smink remix of El Remolon.

https://youtu.be/77-fNbcUToE?list=PL97ISVilOoYA7G09-sP0weUXANPpzEKKN



All evening, both on stage and in the audience, members of many other bands were present.

Its like a big family.

 

[Ries]

Everything always shuts down in Buenos Aires on the first of January, usually for at least 2 weeks. This year, a lot of venues are not opening up again until sometime in February.
So it was slim pickings for live music for most of January. Plus, I went to Uruguay to the beach for 10 days.
So I resumed my musical adventures at Konex, on the 17th, with a late show.
Of course it didnt start on time- the doors opened at midnight, but relatively quickly, Axel Krygier took the stage.
Axel was solo, which means a computer and electronic keyboard, with hundreds of samples and effects and tricks and vocal distortions.
He is a musician who has played with everybody, from arena rock to jazz to experimental to spagetti western tango. He has a back catalog of albums going back to the 80s, and he was picking songs from that 30 year repetoire, and remaking them in all kinds of crazy ways.
It was early, and the crowd was thin, but we enjoyed it, and Sheila danced. She even got a shout-out from Axel, in english, as he knows her a bit, from seeing us at so many concerts.

Here is Axel, with Manu Schaller on theremin, reinterpreting tango with the great Vitillo Abalos.
This isnt what he did on Saturday, but it gives you an idea of his range and wackiness and skill.
https://youtu.be/ADdy2ZDw4Us

The next act was Big Mama Laboratorio.
This is a project led by Laura Zapata.
Its cumbia, and folklorico, and hip hop, and a bunch of other kinds of music, and, always, Dance. Usually at least 3 dancers on stage at any given time.
I have seen her before, performing with the house band at La Grande, but in that context, she was improvising to match a band.
This night, it was her band- keyboards, several percussionists, backup singers, a human beatbox, bass, and, of course, dancers.

This woman is fearless. A great singer. And, like anyone under 40, she grew up with hiphop as a given, a foundation of most contemporary music. So she switches effortlessly from scat, to rap, to folklore, to soaring diva.
The band was great, and the dancers everpresent. I particularly liked the vocal percussionist- the human beatbox, who was sometimes Brian Eno like ambient, sometimes Andean pan pipes, sometimes amazonian percussion, sometimes Doug E Fresh.

https://youtu.be/eSmr3NX10qE

we bagged out at that point, at around 2:30 AM, even though there were still 2 acts to go. My guess is it ended around 5.
The headliner, who we missed, was Gustavo Cerati's son, Bendito. He is kind of a Kurt Cobain unplugged type of post modern crooner, and, being second generation royalty, very popular.
A lot of the crowd was showing up at 2 in anticipation of seeing him.

He sounds like this.
https://youtu.be/Pe4v4v3gCpc

 

[Ries]

There is a new club in Palermo, La Tangente, on Honduras y Godoy Cruz, a nice sized room which just opened last night, so its clean and tidy and doesnt smell like an ashtray.
They have a 4 week cycle of music, and the premiere, last night, was Entre Rios.

Opening was Juan Stewart, who was pretty well known in the mid 2000's as a member of the band Jaime Sin Tierra.
They were pretty popular, a soft rock/electronic sound.

Since that band broke up, he has gone more purely electronic, and his set was sequencers and loops and drones, making a mesmerizing sonic ambience that the whole crowd sat and zoned out to. It was cosmic, in a good way. The great grandchild of something like Terry Riley's album, A Rainbow in Curved Air.
Its also pretty interesting to see a club full of Argentine hipsters, dressed to the nines, teetering on their 4" heels and sipping elegant cocktails, all sit on the floor and descend into a meditative trance. Only a dozen or so were still glued to Whats Ap.

https://youtu.be/An0VrRYRZsY

Thus, properly chilled out, we were ready for the latest incarnation of Entre Rios.
Entre Rios has one constant, Sebastian Carreras, over the last 16 years.
The lineup for any given show will almost always be different.
For the last few years, he has been working with the vocalist Lolo Gasparini, but she is probably at least the fifth lead vocalist.
The last time I saw him, it was one guy and 3 women.
Tonight, it was one woman, Lolo, and 3 guys.
The sound can vary, tonight it was 80's 4AD- a bottom end much like New Order, layers of mellow synths, and vocals a bit like Cocteau Twins, or StereoLab, but with words that made sense.
Also very trancelike, but with a beat.
The crowd swayed appreciatively, with even a bit of dancing.
He doesnt play often, so when he does, the people who like him make a point of showing up.

https://www.youtube....h?v=Q_cxMpt37mQ

I am going the next three thursdays as well- good bands at each of them.
Relatively early shows- doors open at nine, shows around ten. Good sound, lights, a full bar, and an adult atmosphere- an altogether nice place to see music.

 

[Ries]

CC Recoleta is sponsoring free outdoor concerts on Fridays.
The first was yesterday, 2 more are scheduled.

Last night, beginning a bit before the scheduled 8 pm, the terraza was filled with hundreds of people. Babies and Senior Citizens, and lots in between. There was a catering trailer selling pulled pork sandwiches and three varieties of artesenal cerveza, and a stage with lighting and a very good sound system.

But the musical director, Villa Diamante, ingnored the stage, instead setting up two massive wooden tables right in the audience, which were covered with musical instruments and electronics.
At the head of the table was the guest of honor, Sao Paulo Brazil musician R Vincenzo.

https://youtu.be/AApobeJH8uE

And standing around the table was an everychanging cast of close to 20 argentine musicians.
People came and went from the mix all night.
Some were playing acoustic instruments- sometimes 2 charengos, bass, pipes and wind instruments, xylophones, and percussion.
Main vocalist Dat Garcia was sometimes supplemented by others, including Miloo Moya and Jin Yerei.
Musicians drifted from instrument to instrument.
A core of electronic music producers/DJ's laid down the baseline, but it was constant improvising on top.
The crowd danced all around, part of the performance.

Participants included Leo Martinelli from Tremor, Sidirum, Gaby Kerpel (King Coya) Pato Smink, Villa Diamante, San Ignacio, El Remolon, Miloo Moya, Dat Garcia, Rumbo Tumba, and more.

Sobrevivir bailando, as Villa Diamante, the ringmaster, says.

Impossible to describe, only in Argentina.
There was a group of professional dancers, cutting moves. There was a trio of gray haired grandmothers, dancing. A flock of toddlers and under 10's, spinning and whirling.
A pair of bald viejo's, getting funky.
20 somethings by the dozens, dancing, talking, having fun.
It went on til 11 or so, a gracious, pleasant party of several hundred friends, most of whom didnt know each other.

The next two fridays will, of course, be completely different, in unpredictable ways.
The only sure thing is that the night will be pleasant, in the trees on the terrace, and the crowd will be happy and dancing.

In the USA, an event like this would be full of rentacops, rules, ID checks on restricted beer sales inside the fence only, and the rules would exclude all kinds of people, making it more homogenous of one age group, one mind set. And, most likely, it would cost twenty bucks a head. Here, its wideranging, open, and interactive between people in a way you never see in the USA.
Many of my friends I saw there last night told me- hey- its OK, you dont have to go back to Trump. You can stay here with us.
https://youtu.be/xTcYa0k6JLg