I Went To See A Band...

[Ries]

I am back in Argentina, and making up for lost time.
Last Saturday I went out to the Festival Mamboreta, at Palermo Club on Borges.
The club is kind of like Vorterix before it was remodeled- a rundown 50's space that was remade into a 70's disco- an enormous mirror ball, lots of black lights, and neon backlight mirrored bars.
Mamboreta was supposed to be psychedelic, but it was an odd mix.
First act was NDE Ramirez, who werent very psyche or folk- kind of mildly cumbia influenced rock nacional.
Not as entertaining live as this video, either- just guys in t shirts playing guitars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB79iAkGAqY

Second act was Benito Malacalza- who is a folky singer songwriter, I have had a CD of his for a couple of years. His band, the beniband, was pretty tight and forceful, live, so they were punchy, but not mindblowing, and not psychedelic in the least.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfjcdljgOBA

Then, King Coya- who was more of a DJ, although he wasnt playing other peoples records, he was constructing music live, using keyboards, electronics, samples, and a laptop.
I am a huge Gaby Kerpel fan, and will go see him anytime, anywhere- and he did not disappoint in this short set, playing stuff reminiscent of his Villa Donde album. He actually got more people dancing than the rock band did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPM9q0tgNnU

Headliners were Guauchos- a type of Argentine band I just dont get. They are competent enough, have listened to all the right US and UK bands, and to rock nacional- but there is just nothing distinctive about them in my eyes. But they have a big following, have put out a half dozen or more albums, and you see people wearing their t shirts pretty often. The violin player rocks, in a very 70's way, I enjoyed him the most, but they let him solo a lot, and its a narrow divide between 70's rock violin with Scarlett Rivera influences (Hey, I loved the Rolling Thunder tour as much as the next guy, but that was a long time ago) and outright schmaltz.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yw7_0hKTAY

The supposed link between all these bands was a Northeastern sensibility, although I think thats kind of a stretch.

 

[Ries]

The first 4 bands that night, though, were only the appetizers- they were all done by midnight, and we took the collectivo down to Niceto.
ZZK records was celebrating their 8th anniversary, with a show scheduled to start at 12:30- but hey, this is Argentina.
Tickets finally went on sale at 1:30, doors opened, and you could go in and wait...
In the interim, we stumbled upon a great fiesta on the corner of Cordoba- Literally on the corner, outside, on the sidewalk, with tables and chairs and a couch, a parilla, and forty or so people partying down. We were offered wine, and asado, and found out it was a going away party for a french hippie journalist, hosted by the cooperativa cartoneros. Yes, those cartoneros, the ones who go thru your garbage. The Jefe of Cartoneros was demanding we eat and drink, feeding us slices of his bife- and it was pretty good, too.
Only in Buenos Aires. Fun crowd, international, some cartoneros, some people with graduate degrees, some expats.

Finally Niceto opened up, and it started out with a DJ set from the great Villa Diamante- another BsAs musician I never miss if I can help it. He mixes and mashes, and often plays live with other musicians. He is house DJ a lot at Konex, Niceto, and other clubs.
Here he is remixing Miss Bolivia,with Poeta Inka.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoTV3E09I-4

Opening band, finally coming on close to 2am, was Tremor.
And they were amazing- great lighting, fog machine, and a wall of sound- part metal, part cumbia, part 70's Lou Reed and Suicide. You gotta see these guys live- their recording is sporadic and doesnt capture them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSivNf2yc7Q

Then, a surprise appearance by La Yegros, with music by El G. El G is one of the founders of Zizek records, and a DJ in his own right. La Yegros is kind of his breakout act, she recently was signed by EMI in France, and she has been touring Europe and North America every year lately.
She is really energetic, and always fun, I love her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtsjrvwqIr0

A couple more house DJ's all far from just people who play records, ensued, until, finally, around 3, Fauna came on.
Cumbia/Reggae/Funk, with a lot of rap thrown in. Very popular, the house was completely full by that time, and pretty much everybody knew all the words to every song.
I find it fun at first, I liked their first couple of albums, but it tends to be very adolescent male, and unfortunately heavily influence by Rage against the Machine and Sublime- not my favorite examples of hip hop.
Imagine if you take white suburban american teenage ideas about rap, and then have suburban Porteno kids reinterpret them- it is saved, to a degree, by the Cumbia. But the dancing girls were pretty sexist, and got more and more sexist, and scantily clad, as the night went on. Hugh Hefner would have loved it.
Normally, women are pretty well represented in Buenos Aires music, but ZZK is more of a boys club.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6B0gY3cXSo

All in all, that ended up being 8 or so acts, maybe 10 if you count the sets by the lesser DJ's.
We finally broke and ran at 4:15 or so- (I am old, I have an excuse) and there were still big lines outside of several clubs on Niceto Vega, hundreds of people just getting going at 4am. Of course, it WAS saturday night.

 

[gusgutier]

We finally broke and ran at 4:15 or so- (I am old, I have an excuse)

Old ? perhaps classsic . Thanks for all your posts.

 

[Ries]

no, really, I am old. Often I am twice as old as anybody else in the club.

Tuesday, we saw the most amazing show- Santiago Vazquez, and his La Grande, at Santos 4040.

Vazquez is a legend in Buenos Aires.
He has been playing drums since he was 10, plays all kinds of other instruments too, has a degree from CalArts, and has played with pretty much everybody in Argentina.
Its hard to find a musician here who is more than one degree of separation from him.
He is a session player, having played with dozens of bands and performers.
He started a half dozen or more bands, including the well known La Bomba De Tiempo, at Konex.
Every week La Bomba invites a guest artist to play, which, over the years, means another couple hundred bands and performers who he has played with.
His solo albums are great.

Every tuesday in December, he is directing a handpicked supergroup, with guest artists, at Santos 4040, an artspace near Corrientes y Dorrego. He conducts, in a fashion somewhere between a classical conductor, a music teacher, James Brown, and Miles Davis. Its controlled improvisation, with a jazz base, but with elements of all kinds of music woven in.
Last Tuesday, guests included Gaby Kerpel on prepared electronics, and three amazing female vocalists.
Each has her own career and style, each very different, and each rose to the occasion and integrated her singing into the mix- First, Sofia Viola, indie folklorica singer. She was scat singing with the best of them.
Then, Miss Bolivia, Cumbia Rap superstar- she routinely sells out Groove, which holds a couple thousand bridge and tunnel kids.
Then, La Yegros, busting loose once again.

It was one of the most exciting and amazing live shows I have ever seen, and I have seen a LOT of live music.
Cheap, Chill, and non-pretentious, great middle eastern female DJ spinning arabic electronic beats in between sets, incredible gourmet Tragos- it was a unique BA experience, you cannot see music like this anywhere else in the world.
By the end of the night, there were five drummers, two guitars, bass, sax, cello, and vocals.
Band members and visiting guests will vary from show to show- you never know who will show up.
https://www.facebook...de/105515615549

https://www.youtube....h?v=ddo13LDP968

 

[Ries]

Friday Night at Niceto was the triumphant debut of the new Morbo y Mambo album, Boa.
I have seen this band a few times over the years, and they keep getting better, and more popular.
They claim they are "afrodub", and their inspirations are Fela Kuti and post Bitches Brew Miles Davis, which is true, but but they also have a big psychedelic component, with hints of Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, and newer wall of sound bands like the Warlocks.

At Niceto, they were the "early" show, so, when we got there at 10:30, the place was already more than half full, and, by the time they went on around 11, it was standing room only.
Really amazing lighting designer, one of the best I have seen, with lights everywhere on stage, on risers, above and below the band- none of the house lights above the audience were even used. And a gigantic smoke machine- right now, all the clubs in Buenos Aires seem to think smoke is essential at all times. My theory is it helps hide the growing amount of people who are ignoring the law and smoking real and wacky tabaccky in clubs these days.
So the curtain opens on a dark stage, full of smoke, and blue lights pointed in the audiences eyes- making it impossible to tell if there even IS a band up there, except the growing wall of sound makes that obvious. 3 percussionists and Nacho on dub bass anchor things, along with a synth player who is mostly atmosphere and rhythm. American bands would lead with two or three guitars, but here, the guitar player is mostly rhythm, too, and the lead instruments are horns- trombone and trumpet, both miked direct and run thru effects. Each horn player has a table of electronics, and the horns are echoed, delayed, distorted, and magnified into pysch choruses.

Originally from Mar de Plata, these guys have spent a lot of time in Brazil, touring with and jamming with lots of great Brazilian bands, and the afro brazilian influence on the beat is everpresent.

Live, though, its an all enveloping physical event- LOUD, but incredibly intricate and precise. The crowd bounces as one. It was amazing, I totally leaned into it, trancelike, and gained elevation.
Gotta say I missed the old guitarist, Carla Flores, who was Fierce.

The new album is great.
See em if you can.

https://www.youtube....h?v=tHWYLfkm3Xc

 

[K4RR4R]

Radio Moscow playing tonight (Thurs night) at Uniclub. Have an extra ticket for 100 pesos (half the cost), let me know if anyone's interested.

 

[Ries]

Last monday, my kids were in town, so we went to Bomba Del Tiempo at Konex, because its so fun, and what else do you do on Mondays?
It was, as usual, a great scene, lots of people, cheap drinks, great drumming.
Guest band was Mahatma Dandys- and they were amusing, but didnt have a lot of time to stretch out in 3 songs, and it takes a lot to keep up with Bomba.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBck8B88860
I always take visitors to Konex, as it captures the spirit of the music scene here- all ages, all kinds of people, no nasty drunks, my friends always enjoy it. Outside, on a summer night, what could be better?

 

[Ries]

Tuesday, La Grande again.
Incredible. I think these jam sessions at Santos 4040 will become legendary. Every week, more people are showing up, and lots and lots of musicians in the crowd.
Guest singer Barbara Togander, scat singing like Meredith Monk if she was channelling Gibby Haynes on a Lambert Hendricks and Ross song. She mesmerized the crowd, and then, she jumped off stage and started singing IN the crowd, like a crazy woman, a priestess, a channel to another world.
Woman is fearless.
The base band of La Grande is very tight, professional, and has an intuitive feel for what Santiago wants- but these guest performers are kind of thrown in the deep end, and the fact is, only the best can keep up with these bands. Its a tribute to the quality of musicianship in Buenos Aires that everyone I have seen sitting in can do it.
here she is, basically solo- now, imagine her in front of a band that is flitting between rock, jazz, afrofunk, and cumbia on a minute by minute basis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbFOkWnyQFY

 

[joemama]

Last night, I went to the triumphant home town return of Juana Molina.
She hasnt played in BsAs for a while, [background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]probably a year or more[/background]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but this is definitely not true. I've seen her twice in the past year (once at Konex, other at Noche de Museos). So she's played in BA at least 2x in the past year, I think a few times more. To call it a 'triumphant home town return' is a bit of hyperbole.

 

[Ries]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but this is definitely not true. I've seen her twice in the past year (once at Konex, other at Noche de Museos). So she's played in BA at least 2x in the past year, I think a few times more. To call it a 'triumphant home town return' is a bit of hyperbole.

I guess you didnt read the date of that post- it was last year. 2013 dude. Both the dates you mention are in 2014. In 2013, she played here very little- possibly at the beginning of the year, but none of the online sites list any dates for most of 2013, until the concert I was at. She was recording the last album that year. Then, she toured europe and japan. The Vorterix concert was her first concert for many months, although I dont know exactly how many.

I should also add- I go to see what I like, and I write about my admittedly subjective opinions about music.
I am not the Encylopedia Brittanica. I make shit up, I get excited, I enjoy myself.
Take everything I say as opinion, not some kind of gospel- I am definitely not in the religion business.