Soda Stereo Reunion
Hola everyone!
Well, if it feels like ages since I’ve been here, it’s because it’s been AGES, really!
Don’t despair, my friends. I’m still around. A year older, and …ooh I was going to say wiser, but scratch that! Anyway, a lot has happened, so I’ll go thru the highlights of 2007.
Let’s talk first about the Event of The Year!
As you may have noticed since it’s been like a fever spread across Planet Rock, 2007 has been the Band Reunion year. To think that show on Vh1 spent all those resources in bringing back together…err… ABC?
Well, in Argentina we had the same thing going, and following on the steps of 80´s giants like The Police and Genesis, our own biggest pop band ever SODA STEREO got back for a Reunion Tour this year.
I, for one, was very happy, since I am a huge fan!
In case you don’t have a clue of who they are, quick facts: They formed in 1982, released 7 studio albums from 84 – 95, also 4 live albums including an MTV Unplugged in 1996, and several compilations. In the late 80s, their popularity in Latin America spawned the phenomenon labelled “Sodamania” by the press, since tens of thousands attended their sold-out South American tours, complete with crazed fainting/screaming girls in major capitals in Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Panama, Venezuela and of course, Argentina among others.
They split up in 1997 with a series of concerts, and the trio (Gustavo Cerati on vocals and guitar, Zeta Bosio on bass, and Charly Alberti on drums) went their separate ways. Cerati has since then launched a very successful solo career, even winning a Latin Grammy this year for his “Ahi Vamos” album from 2006. Anyway, after 2 years of absolute secrecy and careful planning, the reunion tour called Me veras volver was announced in May 2007.The band was to come back for a series of 22 concerts across South America and the US, exactly 10 years after they broke up.
Tickets sold out in no time. SODA STEREO ended up playing 6 dates at Estadio River Plate in Buenos Aires, with an average crowd of 70.000 people, and many other sold-out concerts in huge venues like the Home Depot Centre in LA, the Foro Sol in Mexico DF, the Estadio Nacional in Chile and Estadio Córdoba in my home town for 48.000 people.
I didn’t get to see them in their final concerts 10 years ago because I was living in Hong Kong at the time, so this time around I was determined not to miss them! I went to Estadio River Plate on November 3rd and again here in Cordoba on December 15th, and was blown away, not only by the music, but also the show’s set up, the lighting, etc. Martin Philip designed the stage set, whom did the NIN 2006 tour, so there was a great display of LED screens and beautiful lighting.
Every show goes for about 3 hours. They played their hits, and what I call “true fan hits” (those hidden jewels in every album that fans treasure the most), with the crowd singing along and cheering every song, even if they didn’t remember it! Yeah, because the funniest fact about this comeback is that a lot of people attending these shows weren’t even born when SODA started out, but they went to the concert for the event itself. It was a must-see, even if you had never been to a rock show before. Strange, right? Anyway, in case you happen to know them, and didn’t get to see any of these concerts, they played songs like Juego de Seduccion, De Musica Ligera, Signos and Zoom.
Now, back to the rest of the year. The local rock scene has been quite productive in 2007. Several bands released debut albums. Sullivan, a power pop combo led by singer-bassist Carlos Sada (ex Hyperstatic) finally got around to releasing Fauna de Gala, after overcoming health problems, changes in band line-up et al, it’s out, and it’s good. You can hear them on their myspace profile, and check out the album cover, which I designed!
Another new album is the self-titled debut by The Tristes, where local music writer German Arrascaeta sings. It was released in October. They are indie rock with a healthy dose of Ryan Adams/The Strokes influences here and there.
Also from Córdoba, hip-hop act Locotes reunited this year. The guys split up in 2003 just after releasing their debut album, due to personal differences. By all accounts, things are back on track now, since they did their comeback show to a crowd of 500 back in November, and also launched on the same day a new digital/physical EP: Nunca nos fuimos pero ahora volvimos.
In Buenos Aires, our friends from Massacre released their 11th album just a few weeks ago, called El Mamut. The band also came to town in December and played a hell of a show as usual. The record was produced by famed guitarist/producer Juanchi Baleiron, which means the result is a lot more polished than previous recordings, with more focus on getting the vocals up front, and introducing more layers with pianos, and guitar harmonies.
As for Cabezones… remember their guitarist Pichu Serniotti produced our debut album last year? Also remember how their singer was in a car accident with Gaby from Catupecu Machu in Feb 2006? Well, Cabezones is now split into 2 different parts. Singer Cesar Andino, and drummer Ale Collados stayed in the band and kept going with 3 new members from indie bands. So far, they’ve just played a few shows since Cesar is still recovering. The other 3 original members are working on new projects of their own.
Catupecu Machu released a new album Laberintos entre aristas y dialectos, which in fact is a mix of old studio and live recordings plus 3 new songs, as they are still waiting for founding member Gaby Ruiz Diaz to recover from his near fatal accident of 2006. They are playing shows again with a new bass player for the time being.
What have I been up to? Hyperstatic has been quite busy this year! We played a few times in Buenos Aires, to a growing fan base in that city, which I’m happy to report. Back in June, we opened for our friends Volador G in legendary venue La Trastienda, in the traditional beautiful district of San Telmo. Lots of photos here. Also, a bit later in Claps, downtown BA in a mini band festival. Then we played for the 2nd year in a row in the Pepsi Music festival, in Club Ciudad de Buenos Aires in September; an event that lasts 10 days with over 100 bands playing in 4 stages. On our night, the headliner was none other than the Reverend himself, Marilyn Manson; who played just under an hour’s set, and was apparently very angry at the world and the sound mix because he broke about 4 wireless mics. We got to play one of the big stages at around 8pm, so it was awesome. Lots of people got to see us, and we received a great response from the crowd. Other bands that night were Massacre, Los Natas, Cabezones, El Otro Yo, Carajo. More Pepsi Music photos here.
We also just released our second video clip! The song is Bajocero, from the debut album Un Rato Sin Hablar. We did a big launch party on Dec 12th in a packed club called Moog, where the video was played back on a big screen, and then we did our last show of the year. The video was directed by Gaston Rizzi, and produced by local agency Axon. The concept was created by the band, and the script written by Max Gonzalez and the guys from Axon. We’re quite happy with the result! This video is so new, that we’re still about to send the master to our record label in BA so they can get it in rotation on music channels. Anyway, because I’m so nice, you can take a sneak peek here, where you’ll see the making of, and then the clip itself. In a few weeks time, we’ll upload it to our Youtube channel, so keep coming to visit our profile!
The video will be rotating on Much Music, Rock and Pop TV and (hopefully) Latin MTV. I’ll keep you posted.
OK, to wrap things up, I will also add that 2007 was the year of the most international gigs we’ve had in a long time. We had the Yeah Festival with The Killers, Starsailor, and Travis, The Arctic Monkeys played the Luna Park in BA, also Aerosmith, Velvet Revolver, and (yuck) Evanescence (not a fan) at the Quilmes Rock festival in April.
More recently, some idiot led us, the fans, to believe that the Smashing Pumpkins were coming to play the Personal Fest in December, but they mysteriously disappeared from the bill a few weeks before the event. Instead, ex-grunge hottie Chris Cornell played (apparently he did a lot of Soundgarden material, thank God, otherwise it would’ve been a snooze), while the Happy Mondays and Cypress Hill headlined the second day.
The Chemical Brothers rocked Creamfields in October. Also a lot of other acts of very different genres visited throughout the year: Napalm Death, Bryan Adams, Toto, Glenn Hughes, Lilly Allen, Living Colour, Cannibal Corpse, Marky Ramone and Madball to name a few. The final big one was The Police playing two sold out stadium dates on 1- 2 December, but tickets were ridiculously expensive, and for those of us who don’t live in BA, you had to add travelling there, food, hotel…too much. I’ll watch it on TV.
We also missed out on seeing The Donnas live. They had a confirmed date in June, but the show promoter messed things up, so they never came down from their Brazil tour. Another bummer was learning that Juliette and The Licks had played a small, very secret show at a tiny club in BA, a week later! I mean, who the hell got to see them? The press was so lost that most of the local papers didn’t even know that she was actually Juliette Lewis…
Upcoming International shows include Iron Maiden, Interpol, and Bob Dylan all around March 2008. In February we´ll have the 7th edition of the Cosquin Rock festival, up in the valley of San Roque in Cordoba, and yes, Hyperstatic is back playing in it, after a 3-year absence. I´ll have a full report on all the action in March.
That’s it for me, hope you guys and grrrls are doing great, and start a great 2008! As I usually do, here’s a list in no particular order of my favorites of the year: Motion City Soundtrack’s Even if it kills me, Soda Stereo’s reunion tour, shooting our second video clip, re-discovering old KISS albums from the 70s, my loving friends, my very supportive family, and being alive and well!
Rock on!
xoxo
Kari
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