The Live Latino Festival He brought us together again in the same place. He made us see each other’s faces, restore our status as social animals and get together to listen to music with the best company, the one that was there by your side while you sang. He reminded us how much we love live concerts and that after two years of seeing them on our tiny screens with lousy resolution and mediocre audio we really missed them.
The generation that has grown up with the Live latino It has been fortunate because we have had a space to listen and discover new music. Unlike our predecessors, who lived through repression and the lack of massive cultural spaces, it has been a privilege to be able to have a forum of this type where you can listen to artists ranging from veterans like pixies, Mogwai, The Fabulous Cadillacs and Cecilia Toussaint until C Tanganaone of the most interesting Hispanic artists of the moment.
In the middle of this cocktail you will find a wide range of sounds, from blues (The lords), contemporary Mexican music (big south and Rye Island), hip hop (Resident), rock (The Cogelones, Damned Neighborhood), punk (He is Paprika), electronics (groove Navy) and even regional music. It is a festival that always has a surprise in store for you that you discover when you inadvertently arrive on one of its stages without knowing who will play at that moment. It’s a place to see your favorite artists and also for you to connect with your nostalgia self.
His musical opening also speaks to us of a change in how new audiences listen to music and are no longer just sheltered in a tribe of a genre. Although this is a change that has taken time and that should also make us remember the times when bands like Kittie were thrown objects from the public or those who rejected Natalia Lafourcade and her contemporaries for “not being rockers”, whatever that means. And of course we cannot forget the retrograde behaviors that for many years were accepted as a bad copy of Woodstock ’99.
In the more than two decades of existence, the organizers of the festival have learned how to make a more friendly, inclusive, and pleasant experience, where there are no long lines, terrible facilities, or a shortage of drinks. Although you always have to be aware at all times that they do not take your cell phone or wallet.
On Saturday night the presentations of Mogwai, Los Señores, Elis Paprika, Limp Bizkit and Maldita Vecindad shone. After its cancellation in 2020, Mogwai He came back to give us an impressive show full of textures, distortion and many decibels. The lords They gave a classic blues master class where they invoke the spirits of BB King, Muddy Waters, Elmore James with the mastery of Bon and Marcello Lara, maestro José Areán and the percussive power of Elohim Corona. Elis Paprika He gave a show full of guitars, distortion, girlpower and a lot of punk attitude. limp bizkit It took us back to Y2K when nu metal was all the rage. And the Damned Neighborhood He gave us a show full of emotions and with an emotional tribute to the Sax party.
Big South. Photo EE: Antonio Becerril
On Sunday big south He made the entire Carpa Intolerante sing at the top of his lungs with his songs of heartbreak and his melodies of new Mexican music. pixies once again demonstrated why they are one of the most important bands of the last four decades, although it was Madrid’s C Tangana who took the night The presentation of El Madrileño brought with it a lot of alcohol, high temperatures, flamenco, bossa nova, trap and an audience that gave in to the show in the same way as all its performers on stage.
Groove Armada had us dancing into the small hours and squeezing the last bits of energy out of us as we sang along to the chorus from At The River: “If you’re fond of sand dunes and salty air, quaint little villages here and there”.
At the end of the performance and after two days of much singing, dancing, a hoarse throat and a few sore limbs, we must celebrate the return of concerts and festivals.
Operations coordinator for El Economista online