They released the (subject to changes) list of concerts for the yearly Film, Interactive and Music Festival South By Soutwhest (SXSW).
The list seems huge to me, and there are more international (especially Mexican) bands than I can recall ever being.
Here are the bands from Latin American countries. Some I’ve seen, some I’d like to see, some I’ve never heard of:
Some observations on last Tuesday’s concert:
“Tarda en llegar. Y al final, al final hay recompensa”
Last Friday, I went to what was the best concert I’ve ever been to.
Thirty two thousand music lovers met at the Estadio Universitario to see legendary (and by far personal favorite) Argentine Rock en Español band Soda Stereo after a 10 year absence as part of their reunion tour Me Verás Volver. And I was only there, right in the center and only a few meters away from the stage.
Jaramillo, Cetrulo, and Correa made the trip from Austin to Monterrey to see the band as well. Locals Julia, Moishele, Lucía, Nathán, Bernardo, and many other friends went too. It was a big event after all.
To see some photos we took go to The MKX® Photo Central or you can check out the official website’s photos (1, 2).
The concert’s set, as best as my friends and I could recall (feel free to point out the mistakes) was very similar but not quite the same as in Argentina. (Spoiler warning: Do not read on if you still have to go to one of the concerts):
Everything is ready to go.
Last Thursday I was finally able to catch Venezulean band Los Amigos Invisibles in concert. They have been eluding me for years: a couple of years ago in Carlos & Charlie’s here by the lake, they played in ACL last year, they played in Havana in Monterrey while I was there. And for one reason or another I couldn’t go.
Right before the concert I headed to a nearby bar for a few beers. Over there, I met with a few friends and some people from Mexico and from Venezuela that I’d never met before. I pointed out that the concert could start any minute now but those guys seemed very confident about the schedule and very calmly stated that there was still time. A few minutes later they got up and left, saying they had to go to work. Very nice guys. Happened to be in the band. One of those strange connections: sister of a friend of a sister of a friend is married to the band’s bassist (see at 00:45 for explanation).
The concert was at Antone’s. Los Amigos played for about two hours straight. The coolest part is that they play non-stop: no gaps between songs at all, they just finish one and smoothly move on to the next song. Great concert. Highly recommended.
On Friday I was supposed to go to see Smashing Pumpkins, but it got postponed. So no more preparation before The Big One.
Siempre vuelve a dar
Nuevas chances
Una vuelta mas
Entera
Nena tal vez fui
Un sueño de otro
Un rumbo incierto
La verdad es que nadie vive sin amor
Y ahora estoy aqui
Temblando frágil en la multitud
Y la espero
Primavera 0
Primavera 0
El avión se va
Recuerdos del futuro juntos
Goles suenan a la distancia…
Te espero
Primavera 0
Nathan B. was kind enough to purchase my ticket for the long’awaited Soda Stereo concert this November. It’s going to be awesome.
These are the guys in charge of the stage. They must be decent.
I went to Houston last Friday with Jaramillo (and Mr. Johnny Kings who joined us there) to see legendary rock band The Police. Tickets were outrageously expensive, and so were the super-retro souvenir T-Shirts – but I still bit.
We sat in the corner above and to the left of the stage, which turned out to be not so bad, in spite of my initial cursing. Sting is awesome, and so is the drummer Stewart Copeland. Guitarist and one time Cerati collaborateur (an honor, no doubt) Andy Summers looks like he’s their dad.
Public acknowledgement goes out to Juan and Sandra for hosting us, in spite of my usual offensive body odor.
Last minute thing last night: went to see The Polyphonic Spree. If you think that listening to a 20-member band that looks like a cult play happy music from the inside of a marijuana cloud (whew, what a mouthful) would cheer me up after that day’s earlier horrible dissappointment, you’re wrong.
Still, it was fun.
[Update 6/7/2007]In the news: