A song to anti-fascism
On Friday, September 5, we started the season with the brand new concert by the Asturian Nacho Vegas at the Kafe Antzokia in Bilbao. The live of his tour “Semiprecious Lives” It was initially scheduled for May 15 but in solidarity with the strike in the technical sector, it was postponed to after the summer.
Accompanied by guitarist Joseba Irazoki, Miren Narbaiza from Alava on rhythm guitar and backing vocals, Hans Laguna on bass, Manu Molina on drums and Ferrán Resines on keyboards, Vegas started with “Alivio”, a title that also opens the current album. The concert went from less to more, little by little gaining in intensity and emotion. “New Plans, Identical Strategies” followed. The audience, eager to participate, joined him in singing the “laralalala” at the end of the song that is now 21 years old. The Asturian has been gaining followers over the years doing what he knows how to do, honest songs regardless of trends, with an enviable result such as the sold-out on Friday.
You can see his years of experience, capable of giving a concert without a programmed setlist, recovering old gems and with the current band and instrumentation, moving away from the sound of the original recording. A clear example of this was the beautiful “Crujidos”. The ode to his mother “Fiu” is also a good image of the artist’s unique style: with a pop-rock band, he moves away from Anglo-Saxon sounds, embracing other rhythms and colors, in this case, Asturian folklore. Both in the lyrics of the song and in his blunt statements, Nacho breaks the cliché that Spanish indie never gets involved in politics.
The gig continued its course with the fun “Deslenguarte”, in which Irazoki assumed the duties of Albert Pla and did his thing by charging the final bridge of the song with electricity. There was also room for ballads like the beautiful “Los Asombros” at the end of which a shower of applause fell. The energy changed suddenly with the paranoid “How to Make Crac”, after which, the great Anari took to the stage to sing with the Gijon native singing in “Vinu, Cantares y Amor”.
In “Vampire City”, Irazoki dared to play the banjo and then Vegas played the tambourine during “Les Ales”, his review of Mike Laboa’s “Txoria Txori”. It is not surprising that in a live show that was unrelated to rock stereotypes and looked squarely at the reality in which we live, including the voice of everyone, the large female attendance stood out. Viva!
The hour and 40 minute live show stood out for its dynamism. There was a “Big Final Joke”, a great song, he approached David Gedge (The Wedding Present) in his retro Cinerama project and went back more than two decades with the classic “The Man Who Almost Met Michi Panero”. Vegas gave us three songs in the encore, he ranted against the racism that underlies the Ceuta conflict, there were feminist cries and he made us think that perhaps the future does not have to smell stale. What more could you ask for back to school?
