2nd concert (June 28th): The venue is sold out and the people str getting really mad. The show starts with our pair of 12/8 crazy beat rhythms and keeps growing and growing from there. Nearly all the acoustic problems disappear, and with the Sultana rumba we start to feel and transmit the power of groovy-dance beats running through the veins. From that point, the concert will keep going up and up untill we finish it. We were really really emotioned and feeling so so good.

       The NY audience gave us a fantastic 2 days of great energy and we found the way to give it back with our groove-crazy flamenquish music. We really love it here in NY and we love to see that everyone here really feels the music so strongly.

       Kresten

       Click here to read the NY Times review.

       1st concert (27th June); Today we know it’s going to be a bit of a weak day with the audience, other really big concerts are happening in town and it’s also a bad day, it’s wednesday.

      We start late, the Highline boss tells us it’s anounced an hour later by mistake at some places, so we have to start at 9. Our surprise is when we step on stage and we see it’s nearly full, much more than we thought. The best is that the people who came are really there as their first choice, so we get a really incredible and strong feedback. Some problems with the room acoustics that make it sound too strong on the high pitch, but the concert starts really nice and smooth, and even though we go down a little on the 5th o 6th song because of the stage sound, the audience makes us get the feeling and we end up the show with our usual tremendous power.

George Marino and behind from left to right,
Sergio, Ramón, Jim, Xavi i Panko at Sterling
with the Techarí Live mastering.

       First day in NY. We’ve been attending a mastering session with George Marino at Sterling Sound. The Live Techarí audio cd is in the oven and it comes out so tasty, spicy and beatiful. It will be in the shops by first week of October in Europe.

       At the concert hall, the Komando Tronko with Jordi Pantomaket is making sound by themselves, no musicians are neccessary at the sound test. Promotion with Cindy is also working well and on its way, and Carlos is making sure everybody and everything’s ok.

We woke up and drove down to a hotel in Jenner. We were driving from Boonville to Point Arena through an amazing road full of redwoods with giant trees. I love trees, the bigger the better, they have a special energy and make me feel so much respect for nature’s perfection. We stop and feel the wonder of these woods.

       We humans are trying to control nature and make it go the way we want it to… we are a plague that will eventually finish possibilities of life in this world… it’s a pity, but we are completely lost in this stupid ego-power-control actions and fear thoughts, and there is little chance we are going to be able to change this disaster. It’s the same story as what happened with native Indians in America, it will be too late when we get conscious about it, to many blind people that don’t mind at all.

       In Point Arena we get to the see and drive the Highway 1 down the coast through the high ridges beside the pacific ocean. Lots of curves make some of us nearly carsick. We stop a couple of times to feel the beauty and the power of these millions of tons of salt water beating against the rocks and the beach and remember the Indian tribes who really lived here in harmony with nature.

       We thought we could enjoy a nice swim, it’s summer, but the air and water are really cold and it’s impossible. That’s the problem of the ocean, same as in the Spanish Atlantic beaches, it’s not easy because air and water are usually too cold.

We drove north from San Francisco and the mountains started to appear, everything really dry, fields burned up by the strong sun and had a golden look with a few green trees every once a while that gave a lot of contrast, it reminded me the wild west films we’ve allways seen and of course how white men, our great grand fathers came and destroyed the indian culture and took away their land, too late to fix this problem, same as with so many others…

We arrive to Ukiah to stay in a hotel like those we also see in the American films, everything really spread out in two floor buildings made of wood and in a huge area. You really feel there is no problem with space here, no problem with land as soon as you come out from the big cities. This same afternoon we drove up to Boonville through a road full of curves and I realize that it’s forbidden to overtake during all the time. It’s because you are supposed to turn over to the right when you find space and let the car you have chasing your ass overtake you. I like it, it’s a different way probably much less dangerous, a system I’ve never seen anywhere.

We get to the festival and as soon as we arrive we see everybody walking slowly and flying a few meters above the floor, ja, ja… It’s basically a reggae festival in the middle of these magic mountains full of amazing redwoods where you feel a powerful energy. The sound of the strong subwoofers bring the reggae bass all over the place and all the people are dancing and flying in front of the stage. Our dressing room is a tent and has all these “pañuelos” full of colors hanging on the walls and the catering is nice naturally grown food, vegetables and herbs.

We really feel good, people with social-concern and mystic feelings, crazy people like us, who try to look through the eyes of the wizards. When it’s our turn to perform, it takes a bit too long to make the change because we have so many diferent acoustic instruments, it’s one of our handicaps that make it longer than usual. We are the last group and so we close the festival. We get some complaints, because people are starting to leave, tomorrow it’s Monday and a working day. So when we get to play, part of the audience is gone, but it doesn’t matter, we get the best out of us and we start to blow all minds out with 12 beat flamenco rythms half reggea and funk. The audience gets into the trip easy with us and so we go into Catalan flamenco rumba beats and also into heavy metal, banghra and drum’n'bass songs that keep pushing and pushing the energy up to be one of our really good concerts.

Wow, we really had a nice time and had a beatiful feedback from the audience. I hope we come back soon to this amazing area.

Kresten

Último tema, Bailaores, el escenario invadido de rumberos
del público bailando con nosotros…

       Alquilamos 5 coches y conducimos desde L.A. por la autovía 5, pasando por inmensos viñedos y naranjales y hasta la granja de vacas más grande jamás vista. No nos gustó nada toda esta inmensidad continua de monocultivos probablemente transgénicos y resulfatados de veneno ya que es imposible mantener un equilibrio natural en algo así.

       Ni el Impresionante y horrible olor ácido de toneladas de orina y mierda fermentando al sol en la vaquería gigante… y es que también los carros son inmensos con motores tremendos y con todo lo antes comentado delatan un sentimiento de grandeza excesivo que alimenta el ego y es lo que lleva a este país a la perdición… todo es a lo grande, apenas hay sitio para los pequeños independientes, todo el mundo sometido a las grandes corporaciones que no te permiten competir, que lo tienen todo dominado con sus bajos precios y sus canales mediáticos que sólo ellos dominan… y por enemdio de esta gigante locura estamos nosotros, el grupo con el sello discográfico independiente más pequeño del mundo, ja, ja.. en medio de este país de gigantes… somos como una hormiga que se hace camino como puede y que espera no ser aplastada en cualquier momento… Pero tenemos el arma más potente, nuestra música, nuestros conciertos…

       Y en la preciosa San Francisco hicimos un conciertón corto pero muy intenso, no teníamos mas que 60 minutos y tuvimos que escoger entre tanto repertorio… pero fue brutal, aunque de nuevo las condiciones técnicas de sonido bastante por debajo de nuestras exigencias, pero conseguimos ir calentando al personal y poco a poco hacer que el piso de arriba (donde estaban los que pagaron menos, los más pobres y por lo tanto lo más alegres) pues que contagiaran a los de platea (que eran los más ricos y en general los más bloqueados y por lo tanto menos espontáneos) y que dejaran de lado sus estiradas apariencias y se entusiasmaran y levantaran a saltar y bailar.

       Dejamos al público con ganas, nos quedamos también nosotros con muchas ganas de seguir, pero los organizadores fueron muy estrictos y tuvimos que limitarnos por respeto al siguiente grupo. También sentimos mucho que estuviera anunciado con el orden equivocado, ya que parece que estábamos puestos en segundo lugar y mucha peña llego tarde pensando que ese era el orden… no fue nuestra culpa.

       Fue un conciertazo muy concentrado y poderoso en el que nos fundimos con la sala invitando a todos a bailar en el escenario con nosotros en el último tema, y como siempre en San Francisco nos sentimos muy pero que muy muy a gusto. La próxima tiene que ser el super conciertón de 2 horas y media que hacemos normalmente para que se nos vaya la olla todos….

       Kresten