wise deceleration

The whims of the calendar, or whatever, have meant that in just over twenty days three historical bands have landed at Kafe Antzokia, very different from each other, but with some points in common. Because Hoodoo Gurus, Mercury Rev and Teenage Fanclub Right now they share the design of maintaining themselves with absolute dignity and magnetism, standing out greatly for their vocal virtues and slightly slowing down their wills and electrical impulses. But this Sunday night, the eve of the party, we are in the mood to enjoy the Scottish quintet again, just five years after their previous visit to Miribilla at the end of the pandemic, in what was the last session of a circumstantial BBK Live Udazkena.

It could be said that Teenage Fanclub They celebrate that relative braking with class and wisdom. At first glance, its two main current supporters, Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley, give the image more of anodyne university professors just days away from retirement. But when they plug in their guitars and tune their voices everything starts to fall into place. It is possible that they sound like their albums actually sound, bright and dark in unison, surrounding and opaque because of the conviction that the fun lies in that, in seducing with a certain mantle of shadowed joy, of blissful melancholy. And the passage of time has helped them refine those virtues, only available to the experienced. In that sense, their last three albums, without the help of Gerard Love, but with the signing of Euro Childs in the keys and choruses, they walk around, and contrary to some reviews that I have been able to see, “Do Not Dare To Dream”published two days before the concert, masterfully culminates that tone of firmness, depth and judgment.

The set begins with Scottish punctuality, as Euros did before with Welsh punctuality. That precision always accompanies the hour and a half on stage, spread over twenty-one songs. I confess that my interest is focused above all on the newest ones, knowing that they are going to distribute the concert between different stages. They start radiant with “Tired of Being Alone” by “Nothing Last Forever” (2023), and the hypnotic “It’s all in my mind” by “Man-made” (2005), to later attack one of his historical incunabula, “About you”, which opened “Grand Prix” (1995) with its penetrating opening riff. By then we have already verified that the harmonies stand out with up to four voices (all except the bassist). They quickly return to their penultimate album with “Foreign land” to continue with two pearls from the new one, a monumental “Tomorrow people”, a work by Raymond, and featuring Childs’ keyboard in the central and final part, as a small suite. Then “Day in the sun” brings out, never better said, its most transparent, but also most predictable side.

The entire concert will continue along these lines. Interspersing many of their albums, and thus up to four of the original ones follow one another. “Bandwagonesque” (1991): “Alcohoholiday”, “What you do to me”, “Metal baby” and “The concept” which serves as a farewell before the encore, with that Beatle ending passed through the roller of alternative rock. They are its highlights, the most chanted by an audience that almost filled the venue (about 550 attendees). Great songs that have easily weathered the cruel passage of the years, and that confirm that nineties decade that brought back melodic guitars and vocal harmonies with a slight noise in the background, focused shortly before by Jesus & Mary Chain or Dream Syndicate, and later as a main trend, with better or worse fortune, in countless bands. Meanwhile, among the newly discovered compositions, the heavenly “Over and over” (also by Raymond) stands out, a cross between Crosby, Stills & Nash (or Simon & Garfunkel) with a background of guitars and keys of an almost ceremonial nature. The encore, rather discreet with “The cabbage” and “Endless Arcade”, finally explodes with a wonderful and electric “Everything flows” from its initial “A Catholic education” (1990).

Before all this Euro Childs He gave us eight songs in half an hour. It was an excellent appetizer in which the former leader of the Welsh band Gorky’ Zygotic Mynci, and now keyboardist for TFC, addressed his unique and eclectic proposal where pop merges sweetly, theatrically and ironically with cabaret, blues, psychedelia, glam or progressive, which at some point makes me remember Alex Harvey. Childs, who regularly publishes his solo albums on his own website outside of conventional platforms, was accompanied by the same electric piano that he later used with the Scots, playing with different vocal registers and eccentric melodic patterns and turns. A true luxury.