2024-05-11 17:01:51
In Argentina, Willie Nelson is better known as an actor than as a country singer-songwriter. He knew how to patent a look that even today, at 91 years old, remains a trademark in both roles. He starts with the cowboy hat, which covers gray hair that extends to his back through two braids. And this is seasoned by an old beard with traces of nicotine. For some reason, he always thought he was short. And this man was. There is no news that the Texan was in Buenos Aires. But someone identical to him, as soon as the bass of “Last Train to London” played, he made a place in the middle of the Luna Park field to dance to the Electric Light Orchestra hit devilishly. He wasn’t the only one in a catatonic state. People with afro wigs, in their sixties evoking wild steps of the Hi-NRG of their adolescence and ladies imitating Travolta in Fever Saturday night They completed the portrait.
A few minutes before, Kool & the Gang had left the atmosphere boiling. The groove steamroller crowned his return to the city with “Celebration,” world funk anthem which, 34 years after its launch, continues to season weddings and birthdays. So nothing and no one could compete against that. However, rather than trying to lash out in vain at what happened, Alejandro Pont Lezica He added more fuel to the fire. After opening his set with the classic from the band led by Jeff Lynn, the legendary DJ fanned the flame with the lustful falsetto of “You Should Be Dancing” by the Bee Gees. And when he turned the vinyl of “Disco Inferno”, a track madness by The Trammps, those who remained in the stadium understood that there was no escape. The event proposal ended up taking the form of a party.
“Disco Party” was the title of this tribute to funk, R&B and disco music that brought together Kool & the Gang and Village Peope, with Pont Lezica and the band Palta and the Mood as hosts. The celebratory intention of the show contrasted with the cold and ghostly Thursday (as a result of the strike called by the CGT) in which it happened. To the latter we must add the dystopian façade in which the Luna Park, where those neon lights that proudly contained the name of the Buenos Aires temple of musical and sports shows are about to go out (the “L” has already died), and posters of recitals that took place last year still hang in the building. All of this fuels the specter (one that adds to all those that must be inside the place) that the stadium will not undergo a renovation, as was recently announced, but is closer to demolition.
In what can be considered a “last dance”, prior to the outcome of the property, Village People came onto the scene. Supporting the musicians who accompanied them, and introduced by an MC with an air of rapper Kendrick Lamar, first the Amerindian appeared (currently embodied by Isaac Lopez) shooting arrows with his invisible bow. Behind him came the cowboy (Nicholas Manelick), the leather man (JJ Lipold) and the bricklayer (James Kwong). And finally the most senior members paraded: the soldier (James Lee) y Victor Willis, the only founder in action. While sometimes he dresses like an admiral, this time he sported his motor police uniform. But what was initially a “custom-designed group” by two French producers, in its lengthy local debut, made it clear that they are not only a consequence of creative ingenuity. It is also a musical laboratory.
In fact, Willis took back control and the microphone as lead singer in 2017 because Village People were performing only to tracks, which gave the feeling of watching karaoke. That’s why “Y.M.C.A.”, instead of featuring his dazzling epic trumpets, this time was introduced by a similar sound played from the keyboard. That happened at the end of the show. At the beginning of everything, after the frontman asked the crowd if they were ready for the party they had prepared, the repertoire was premiered “Fire Island”. That rapid crashing sound of the drum hi-hat cymbals, coined by the disco music, was an invitation to imagine the dance floor in 1977, with libido bubbling especially in the darkest corners. So they had no better idea than to maintain that purpose with “All Night Thing”cover de Invisible Man’s Band.
Next, the New York group unsheathed the hit “Macho Man”facing his queer identikit, which he supported with the hybrid between “In Hollywood” y “San Francisco”. Then came their anthem “Go West”, which had only been performed live here by Pet Shop Boys (they recorded the cover in 1993). The story was complete. Willis, who will turn 73 in July, was left alone on stage to make a song alluding to his character in the group: the very Brazilian “Hot Cop”. Despite the generational combination, the Village People thing was worthy. At least, much more than the Loco Mía meetings. They left him exposed not only vocally but in the choreographies, which reached their climax in another classic, “In the Navy”, with palms included. This gave rise to the cowboy explaining to the public how he had to reproduce the letters of “YMCA” with his hands and body. The cherry on top.
Although 45 years passed before the Argentine public could enjoy this anthem of both pop culture and the LGTBIQ+ collective, we only had to wait two years to wait for the return of Kool & the Gang. While Alejandro Pont Lezica entered the stage applauded for the first time to do a brief set, in the middle of setting up the instrumentation of the band created 60 years ago in Jersey City, it is worth highlighting the context of this return. If at that time there were two founding members of the band in the lineup, after the death of drummer George “Funky” Brown last November, now only bassist Robert “Kool” Bell remains. His own colleagues gave him deserved prominence in several passages of the performance since, in addition to being a notable musician, he is a living myth. Hence it is logical that at the end of the year it enters Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
However, in contrast to their landing on Luna in 2022, this time Kool & the Gang’s show was shorter, to benefit the concept of the show that brought them together with Village People (it is part of a mini tour that includes Chile and Colombia). In that hour and a half they went to the bone. They began by invoking their beginnings as an instrumental band, with the two saxes, the trumpet and the trombone at the front, performing an introduction that included passages of “Open Sesame” y “Pneumonia”. Then, el cantante Shawn “Shawny Mac” McQuiller introduced Robert Bell, and they showed their more eighties and pop side with “She’s Fresh”. That complexion remained “Joanna”. In the middle of one and the other, they rocked it on “Misled” and they went back to 1979 with R&B “Too Hot”which featured the guitarrista Kevin Bellinvoking that sexy George Benson-esque viola line.
“Two years ago it was a party and we want it to happen again,” McQuiller said. He did not exaggerate: upstairs it was noticeable that the ten musicians were having a great time, with choreography or changing instruments. Downstairs the sensation was no different. There were also high moments, like in the almost 7 minutes of “Let The Music Take Yout Mind”. Like funk of all colors: from the most James Brown, from “Jungle Boogie”even the discotheque “Hollywood Swinging”, in which the pipes once again shined. They resumed their honeyed facet in “Cherish”in which he grabbed the microphone keyboardist Walt Anderson. From that point on, she alternated vocal work with McQuiller. After the luck of reggae “Let’s Go Dancing”faced the end of the show with three bombshells that became hits: “Ladies Night”, “Get Down On It” and of course, “Celebration”. And before they were satisfied, the crowd was overwhelmed.