2023-09-17 01:00:08
444 souls gathered this Saturday at the Muxikebarri in Algorta, in the fourth of the five subscription events of the 39th Getxo International Folk Festival, where Las Migas, based in Barcelona and awarded the Latin Grammy for best flamenco album, performed for their latest album, ‘Libres’, a recording that sounds much better than they do live. Let us remember that on a Sunday in January, on this same tour, Las Migas gathered 711 souls at the Arriaga Theater and gave the worst concert we have seen, suffered in 2023.
The leader, the boss of the company, the guitarist almost always in the background Marta Robles, a Sevillian, said in Getxo that with this album they had come to Bizkaia twice, and both times they were “blown away”: the first time, in September 2022, at the Urdufolk in Orduña, they came with a substitute singer because the main singer was sick, and the second, in January 2023, at the Arriaga, they performed with the leader Marta who had a hoarse voice and the guitarist Alicia with pharyngitis, and added that They received “atrocious criticism” but they didn’t lie (ahem, we didn’t lie). But, thank goodness, she assured that this Saturday they had come “safe and sound.” And free, libreak.
The repertoire was very similar to that of the Arriaga, as were the presentations, the scenery and the lineup: a sextet with two male mercenaries on bass and drums. 13 pieces (counting the end of the party) in 81 minutes were played at the Arriaga in January, and 14 pieces (counting the presentations with the rumba ‘Barcelona has power’) in 90 minutes were played in Getxo, where the four arrived with less glamorous outfits (this time leather and black prevailed) and with the right faculties, well, Las Migas with very simple music, more tenuous than subtle. Furthermore, two of them were evidently nervous on stage (the Madrid violinist Laura and the other guitarist, the Córdoba-born Alicia), and the one who showed the greatest self-confidence, although still without sufficient strength, was the singer with hints of a cantaora, the Carolina La Chispa from Extremadura.
La Chispa on the microphone and boss Marta on guitar. Pedro Urresti
From the first song, due to the sound and its presence, it was clear that the disaster, the Arriaga fiasco, was not going to be repeated. However, Las Migas did not finish flying, sometimes they sounded very unbalanced in the sound mix (it seems that they did not hear themselves well: the boss Laura at the end said that it had too much reverb but that they should leave it since they were finishing, and the another guitarist Alicia motioned to the table to be balanced), and among the fourteen pieces there were three blatantly weak and boring that, paradoxically, were the most applauded by the undemanding respectable!
Indulgence and self-indulgence stood out in that Saturday meeting with them sporadically putting on visual poses that they appreciated. Las Migas asked for applause from the first song (the flamenquita and even lolaila ‘The suitcase’), and the audience agreed. The audience also gave out-of-synchronized flamenco claps in the second, ‘Tu boca’, a rumba by Lola Flores, and the leader demanded equality between men and women before the third, ‘Milonga del corazón’. Laura’s hillbilly (country) violin opened ‘El qué de una morena’, which also resonated with Lola, La Chispa rapped Andalusian in ‘La cantaora’, and the four of them without mercenaries and with La Chispa’s unfolded fan interpreted the joy very slow, slowed down, ‘The Sea’, which was very poor and very slow, although the public rewarded it with an ovation as long as it was disconcerting.
‘La desgana’, the song they composed when they were informed of the nomination for the Latin Grammy (they were in India, at the Spanish embassy), was flamenco aserejé (that arrikitaun onomatopoeia…), and then a very poorly put together number with violin, then a cappella singing and clapping was the second worst moment, very applauded. And the third highly applauded disaster was an instrumental with two guitars plus percussion to cover up Albeniz’s ‘Asturias’ cacencias, a dark, timid and boring instrumental before which Alicia wished that more girls would opt for music, not just to sing and dance , but also to play and direct their groups.
With such a short repertoire and such a long tour, lasting a year and a half, Las Migas should show more confidence, but they do not go beyond tenuous and irregular. And so until goodbye they continued with the weak ‘Tangos de la Repompa’ (gypsy singer from Malaga, 1937-59), the flamenco pop ‘Me Moves the Air’, the rumba performances, the memory of their mothers present in the room (Perla and Ale) before the also rumbero medley with the audience standing at their request (we capture things from El Junco in the lively medley) and the encore with the flamenco pop a la Tomasito ‘Antonia’, with the audience still standing, because Marta did not allow us to seat them.
During their concert we thought that hopefully next year Getxo Folk will bring more serious flamenco. Israel Fernández would have been better than Las Migas and will probably be cheaper.
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