I Went To See A Band...

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Normally, I dont go see North American or European bands when I am in Argentina.
Partly thats because a lot of the bands that play here are big mainstream acts I am not that interested in, and partly because I figure I should spend my concert time and money seeing bands that are impossible to see in the USA.
But when I heard Bikini Kill was going to play, I had to buy tickets-


First, because I love the band, and the entire Riot Grrl movement, and, Second, because I wanted to see exactly what kind of Porteno would go see a band as specific and obscure as they are.


They played Complejo C, which is a giant airplane hanger of a space on Corrientes near Dorrego.
We arrived early, to check out the crowd, and it was a gigantic line, with a lot of street vendors selling beer, organic vegan empanadas, and punk t shirts and patches.
The last time we saw Bikini Kill was in 1995, at the height of their powers, and it was a pretty powerful show.
I would estimate the audience here, which basically filled the space, was a couple of thousand people, probably 80% women, and 50% twenty five years old or younger.


Meaning half the audience hadnt even been born when Bikini Kill stopped touring and went dormant.
This was not a Taylor Swift audience. Lots of gays, queers, and genderneutral people, and a lot of outfits that were not what they wore on the train in from the conurbano. Tons of animal print, leather,studs, and short skirts, colored hair, shaved heads, and a few wigs.

The opening act was Barbi Recanati, a fiercely political feminist (hint- not a lot of Milei supporters at a show like this) who I appreciated for her fervor and politics and lyrics, but I found the music sort of standard 90s arena rock. It was partially saved by the fact that her bass player is the amazing Marilna Bertoldi, who in my mind should have been the opening act- her 2018 album killed it, and I still play her feminist rocker Oh No?Constantly.

The audience was enthusiastic, but when Bikini Kill went on, they went wild.
All these kids had somehow memorized all the words to these early 90s feminist punk anthems, andI was surrounded by a sea of bouncing chicas.


I dont know Kathleen Hanna, but, as the song goes, “I went to school in Olympia” although a decade or so before she was there. I know a lot of the musicians from that scene, including various people who played with her in various bands, and know she is formidable.
She went on to tame and marry Adrock, Adam Horowitz, from the Beastie Boys, and put out a series of records for the last 30 years as Le Tigre and Julie Ruin. She never felt a need to return to the 90s ferocity of Bikini kill until the combination of Trump and Covid, and so, she got the old band together- 2 from the original early 90s lineup, and a new guitar player, who are all serious pros, session musicians and members of many bands. Tobi Vail and Kathi Wilcox played on all these songs when they were new, and have only gotten better with age and experience.
You think of punk as being lacking in musicianship, but this was music that disproved that theory.
Riot Grrl in general was basicaly Grunge, except the boys from Seattle couldnt stand how good the girls were, so they excluded them. Hanna was the one who wrote “Kurt smells like teen spirit”on his bedroom wall, and they were playing the same clubs as the big grunge bands in the beginning.

At 54, she is still a dynamo, playing guitar, singing and dancing. Of course, the first thing she did was call the Girls Up Front, as she always had.

When the band kicked into songs like Suck My Left One, the entire audience knew every word. The pogoing was reaching the sky.

She mentioned Calamity Jane-which is a very obscure bit of Argentina/Grunge history- and all the girls around me were excited, and obviously knew the story- how, when Nirvana played Argentina, Kurt had insisted the Riot Grrl band Calamity Jane open for them, and how the Barones in the Argentine crowd had heckled and thrown bottles at the women when they played.
This is a legend among punk feminists, but hardly common rock nacional lore.

Regardless of time or place, it was an amazing rock concert.


More so, because the degree of reverence these 20 something argentine women held Hanna in as a pioneer and visionary, which is something that caught me unawares.

Barbi Recanati, with the same lineup I saw in BA-

 

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Marilina Bertoldi, Recanati's bass player-

 

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Bikini Kill from 1992. They loved this one in Villa Crespo.

 

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At the opposite end of the spectrum, we went to see Sofia Viola at Club Atletico Fernandez Fierro.

Its one of those neighborhood community centers that are all over Buenos Aires, but this one has been a taken over as a venue for casual modern tango, and all kinds of related music, for a decade or more.

Its funky, cheap, simple and fun. You can buy an empanada or two, and a plastic pinta of beer, and the seat farthest from the stage is no more than ten meters or so.
Whenever I send anyone there, no matter who, how old, or their musical tastes, they have a good time.
Its home to the amazing modern tango Orquestra Fernandez Fierro, and has a great booker who always picks good music.

Sofia Viola is the kind of artist that really could only exist in Argentina- Conurbano born and raised, she still does a few shows every year in funky neighborhood joints in Remedios De Escalada or Hurlingham.

We first saw her over a dozen years ago, when she was in her very early 20s, and, even then, she was self confident, creative, and unique.
Since then she has toured all over south and central america, playing little coffehouses and big festivals, she has spent a fair amount of time in Mexico, and collaborated with a wide variety of musicians.
Onstage she is funny, sexy, has a vocal range thats huge, plays guitars and charengo, tells stories and jokes and whistles like a pro.
She is some wild combination of Italian abuelo, Bette Midler, and Carmen Miranda.
She referred to herself at one point as Judeo-Gurani, which could be metaphorical, or could be genetic, who knows.
She is the future and she is the past, and nobody I know who has seen her didnt like her.
We sat right in front, and she breaks the 3rd wall naturally, talking to children in the audience, engaging everyone in a conversation.
She went from folk to andean to an amazing sequenceof torch songs with an invitado on piano who was really fun to watch as he played the grand piano like he was playing for Frank Sinatra or Judy Garland.

One of the things I love about Argentina is theability to see musical acts repeatedly over the years, in small intimate venues at very reasonable prices, and really see them grow, and, grow myself in terms of my understanding of influences, history, and music.


Again, I cannot recommend a night at CAFF enough. A few thousand pesos, right in Almagro between Cordoba and Corrientes, casual and fun.
Here is Sofia with a band.

 

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Solo at Cabo Polonia. Yup, she is also a natural born hippie...

 

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Orquestra Tipica Fernandez Fierro, most miercoles at CAFF. They will knock your socks off.

https://caff.ar/

 

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I have been back in BA for a couple of weeks now, but havent had time to see much music- lots of household chores, organisation, and long distance work to do.
I was going to see the free outdoor Mutek Festival show at the Planeterium, but it got cancelled at the last minute due to technical issues.
I was, however, lucky enough to see three related but very different performances by one of my favorites, Axel Kryieger.

First, we went to see a play, something I dont usually do a lot of.
But- it was at Teatro San Martin, which I love as architecture, but which also is a wonderful place to see anything.
In this case, a very porteño version of Christopher Marlowe's play Edward II, from the 1590s.
This version is very non-traditional, with a minimal timeless set, amazing costumes that are more like 30s scifi mixed with Cabaret and some S&M/ Goth ideas. A great cast, although only one speaking role for a woman, but thats very 1590s...
And it was pretty gay. In a glorious, PRIDE, Ru-Paul meets John Waters in Shakespeare kind of way.
Which, to be truthful, is all there in Marlowes original, although maybe not as foregrounded 400 odd years ago as it is now.
Axel wrote the score, which is subtle, although there is one big dance number which is kinda like if Spongebob Squarepants was a competitor at a Vogue House event in NYC...
I was thoroughly entertained, and the opening night audience, which literally ranged in age from 8 to 80, was very enthusiastic.
This, as they say, Is Entertainment.
It will be running for all of October, and, I think into December.

El trágico reinado de Eduardo II, la triste muerte de su amado Gaveston, las intrigas de la reina Isabel y el ascenso y caída del arrogante Mortimer

complejoteatral.gob.ar

 

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Then, a week later, I saw a much more experimental, but just as entertaining show at a very different venue.
Plant Inclan is a performance space in Parque Patricios that books poetry, dance, theater, music, and performance. Its funky and cheap and they serve drinks and papas fritas, and its a pretty young and arty crowd, funky and tattooed.
I have been there before, and love its "Lets put on a show" atmosphere, and seen some great acts there.

This night was a collaboration between 4 pianists, and 4 dancers.
All improv, no rehersals or planning in advance. The pianists did not in general know which dancer they would be paired with.
The did one 30 plus minute set of one pianist/one dancer for 8 minutes, switching thru all 8. Then, a half hour intermission, and another set with different matchups.

The pianists included Axel Krygier, Paula Shocran, Guillermina Etkin, and Diego Vainier
The dancers were Mak Francinella, Juan Onifri Barbato, Mechi Beno, and Joy Hojos.

The styles varied a lot. The amount of interaction the pianists decided to do with the dancers varied as well, although all of the dancers were funny, smart, and unconventional, and usually managed to sway the direction of the music at least a little. It was fast, and so unpredictable as to be rivetting to watch.
Beno, in particular, wowed the crowd, as she acts and emotes in striking and unexpected ways while alluding to all kinds of dance, and by the second set, all the other dancers were following her lead to loosen up and push the limits. There was some ballet, some chaplin, some twerking and some slapstick and some disco.

I love going to a show where you dont know whats going to happen, there are no words to sing along with, and you are totally surprised, yet amazed at the skill.
This was a night like that.
Evidently, in August, i missed the drum version, which I would guess was pretty different, but equally great.

 

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Finally, last night, I was in the catacombs under Teatro Colon, in a small performance space that seats about 100, to see Axel Krygier's "Opera" La Pendula. It will only be playing tonight thru Sunday, and I dont know if there are tickets, but its pretty amazing.
Its based on cassettes his Great Uncle, Frederic Ditis, recorded in 1980, about the family history of fleeing anti-semitism in Paris during the Franco Prussian war, and ending up watchmakers in Switzerland.
But the cassetes, which provide the voiceover/libretto, are used as musical elements as much as straight history, and there is only a bit of singing, so its a pretty unconventional opera.
Its also enchanting, and magical.
A small group of viola, cello, trumpet and flute accompanies Axel on piano, and he uses an electronic keyboard to "play" the spoken word, sometimes altering its pitch, or repeating or processing it.
The narrative is the bones over which are draped a composition that begins with classical music, but layers it with popular, experimental, and modern bits and pieces, into a piece that you can totally believe was written and performed between the two world wars, where most of the anecdotes of the "script" take place.
Axel is a showman, who acts, dances, and performs, largely without voice thru-out, simultaneously playing the key piano parts, conducting, and interacting with the three actresses who dance, perform, fade into the mist, and occasionally sing or play a bit of keyboard. Its mysterious, and intentionally non-narrative in a direct sense, but it communicates a lot.
Layers and layers of meaning, obscurity, and history interwine.
Its very modern in the sense of using the ideas of sampling and remixing, but the music itself could be 100 years old.
I highly recommend it.

Axel Krygier, el melodista que transformó la historia de su familia en un happening delirante y lo presenta en el Colón

El músico -Premio Nacional, Premio Gardel y Konex de Platino- estrena La Pendule en el CETC una “ópera para cassette y ensamble de cámara” basada en la historia de sus antepasados

www.lanacion.com.ar

 

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I recently saw two different artists over 65 express aging as a musician in two very different ways.


I go to see Daniel Melero whenever I can.
To me, he is the bright metallic thread that is woven thru the history of Argentine music for the last 40 years or so.
He first became known in the early 80s, as Argentine musicans tried to re-emerge after the Military Dictatorship.
He pops up again and again ever since, but always out of the main spotlight.
His first band,Los Encargados, was billed as Techno-Pop, several years before the genre Techno even existed.
And while he has made a few records that were seemingly pop, Techno has always been much more his agenda.
Both the genre of electronic music, and the idea of incorporating machines into the conversation.
He pulled Gustavo Cerati a bit to the edge of his pop stardom, with Colores Santos, probably the most accessible thing Melero ever did, and the least mainstream thing Cerati released.
Since the 80s, he has produced all kinds of young bands, many of whom went on to become at the least legendary, and sometimes even popular.
He has put out well over 20 solo albums, and even the ones which are first sound mellow, like his Piano series, have songs about CIA plots and human sacrifice and aliens and ghosts.
With his gentle crooning voice lulling you into believing they are pretty.

For a long time, though, he has been playing live showst hat are very techno and not very pop.
I saw him recently, with as always, excellent young musicians as sidemen, especially an amazing guitar player who played almost nothing that sounded like a guitar.
They played a pulsing wall of very loud assaultive sound, which,contrarian that I am, I found strangely soothing.
The individual elements were all skillfull and considered, and the sum total was kind of like the gigantic walls of sound from bands like Acid Mothers Temple or God Bless You Black Emperor, where more is more.
Melero obviously thinks that as he approaches 70, the time is right to kick out the jams, and make a joyful noise very very loud.
He is not interested in revisiting the past, no requests will be played, no oldf avorites to sway along to.
The future, as they say, is now.

His audience these days is a mix of young kids who grew up with loud genre bending noise jams,
and an amazingly large group of oldtimers, people in their 50s and 60s who have been following him forever, and they were dancing along, shaking their gray hair.

This is the samelineup, earlier this year. But at Artlab, it was louder and fiercer.
He is not going gently into the night.