Here’s the Update You’ve Waited For
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Remember me, Kari the Coolgrrrls correspondent from Argentina? yeah, it’s me, I’m back! I know it´s been ages since my last update, so let´s skip the part where I explain how busy I´ve been and dive directly into the juicy news about the scene.
I was last seen playing with Hyperstatic at Cosquin rock -the summer fest, so I´ll try to pick up where I left off…
We´ve been playing at some way cool festivals during the 1st half of the year. Back on April 16th we were part of the 1st ever ELECTROROCK FESTIVAL, held at a summer resort by a small lake near Córdoba called Laguna Azul. Clearly the fest promoters hadn´t thought of the fact that summer is actually over by April and that it was gonna be cold as hell out there, but they went ahead anyway in spite of a cloudy and cold forecast. Another mistake was also to start the event at night, because no-one would “enjoy” the natural view of the mountains surrounding the stage while watching the bands… it was so dark you might as well be indoors and not out there freezing your ass for no good reason! But, aside from this the band line-up was promising and varied.
Representing Córdoba some of the most well-known bands played from 8pm onwards, like hip hop acts Doble H and Locotes, killer rockers La Cosa, our Brit-rock influenced mates Enhola and of course Hyperstatic.
Then it was the turn of Buenos Aires´ Los Natas to amaze everyone with their blend of real stoner prog rock with big low-end drums, trippy guitars and…barely any vocals. This is the Argentinean band with the biggest indie worldwide distro, who have toured with Nebula and Queens of the Stone Age.They have also been named Breakthrough band of 2003 by the Argentinean Rolling Stone, so if you ever get the chance of catching them on tour make sure not to miss them.
After a short set by L. Camorra (electronica-pop) it was time to catch the main atraction Babasonicos. I´ve talked about them before when they played at Cosquin rock, so they did pretty much the same show which draws from a long list of hits celebrated by new fans, but they always throw in a couple of obscure B-sides and oldies which are designed to make the early-era fans very happy.
In chronological order I should briefly mention that on May 9th we had the first ever Motorhead show in Cordoba. They kinda played BA with Los Natas supporting them the night before, I say kinda played coz it was a 50 minute set cut short because allegedly Lemmy couldn´t come back out and sing anymore, due to the smoke of the “bengalas” (flares) that fans had lit up in the club during the show. After which about 30 fans decided they wanted their money back and proceeded to invade the stage and trash and/or steal whatever gear they could get their hands on!
In consequence their show in Cordoba the next evening featured rented gear for all Motorhead members since it had been trashed in BA…how embarassing is to be Argentinean sometimes… But the show here in Cordoba was rocking, awesome, deafening, and long enough to keep everyone happy. And they played Ace of Spades. So nobody felt the urge to break stuff!
May 23rd saw the 2nd edition of local bands festival Parañoños II, organised by the punk rock kids of 250 Centavos, they´re the other Cordoba band that played Cosquin rock along with us back in February. Parañoños is mainly all about bringing local bands together in a fair-deal-for-everyone event where each band has 30 minutes of playing time, using the same gear, and nobody has to pay for being part like it happened last year at a series of sad events called Paralocos organised by a greedy bastard local producer not worht mentioning…The Parañoños festival turned out pretty good, with a big crowd response. We played almost at the end, just before 250 Centavos´ closing set. Other bands on were eNeDe- La Tracktora – Inauditos — Macroporno – Corsario Negro and Enhola.
Speaking of headlining a festival, that´s what Hyperstatic did a month after that in local club Al Azif, at an event called Sakate La Leche II organised by local rock website CbaRockUnder. First up was melodic punk rockers Smile, who surprised everyone with a tight set, cool tuneful vocals and catchy guitar lines, plus an obvious but welcome Lagwagon influence. Then 3-piece Fusion attacked our collective ears with a blend of nurock/metal/pop that didn´t work on every song, but overall it was a good show. RH+ relies a bit too much on their charismatic singer and lacks on strong songwriting, but they´re really young and still got time to improve.
Our pal band Enhola had the hard task of converting a mainly punk crowd with their poppy tunes, but were smart enough to choose their most straight up rockin numbers, which complete with their upbeat fun attitude onstage got them a good response in the end, proving experienced tight bands like this deserve respect beyond their style or sound.
Then it was our turn to close the festival, and I must say we were surprised to see how many new fans turned up to support us! It was cool coz most of them knew our songs so the gig was awesome, also we´ve been playing a new Foo Fighters cover called My Poor Brain which has become a real crowd favorite, and after having to come back to play 2 encore songs, (on request: our Smashing Pumpkins´Cherub Rock cover) we finished up with our own oldie Sleepwalking with Ariel from Enhola guesting on guitar. Rrrawwwwkin´!
On the releases front in town, we’ve got some cool interesting ones like the debut album of Locotes, the only hip hop band that’s rapped live with Gustavo Cerati (former Soda Stereo, biggest Argentinean band ever), opened for Mexicans Molotov, and got away with no instruments at all but DJ Fede Flores smart programming/production. You can download different mp3s every week at their site.
Also a 2nd compilation was issued by indie rock website Ynsanity from Córdoba. 30 local bands appear, blending all kinds of genres into one cool double CD release, bands like Manumissio, Locotes, Downward, 250 Centavos and (yours truly) Hyperstatic were part of it, the CDs also come complete with an interactive CD-Rom section with photos and info about the bands.
To finish up, last Saturday 3rd July we played again with our friends of Massacre from Buenos Aires, along with Enhola at a party organised by the 2 coolest most popular long-running radio shows in town: Cualquiera (where I spin some new rock every Wednesday night) and Al Abordaje. There was a cool press conference in the afternoon for the 3 bands where there was talk of repeating the same party in Buenos Aires by the end of 2004. At night in Casa Babylon, all 3 shows were rockin’ good, with a full capacity crowd, check out some photos…that’s me and some cute guys from Enhola and Hyperstatic, plus friends.
Looking ahead, we’re gonna have an international visit from my friend Monique from Melbourne’s Band Camp, so stay tuned for reviews on some gigs with her and some heavy partying guaranteed. Also CG writer Melody has told me her band Thee Coronados will be dropping by in November to play the BA Stomp fest.
I’ll catch up with all of you next time, till then, rock on!
xxxx
Kari
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