2024-09-09 14:32:09
As much as it may seem like a bold move or even hyperbole, from now on it is possible to start thinking about Mateo Sujatovich as one of the fundamental singers and composers of Argentine rock. Just like Fito Páez, Andrés Calamaro, Pity Álvarez or Manuel Moretti. Although last Friday and Saturday he paid tribute to Gustavo Cerati. In the middle of the encore, when he had already amply defended Jet Lovethe album that brought back Getting to know Russia (project he leads) at the Movistar Arena, told the audience what he does with his band behind the scenes of his concerts. And he confessed that among the songs they listen to in the dressing room there is one by the former Soda Stereo that was in tune with his own. Then he pulled out his “Bye bye”.
The gesture also served to pay tribute to the musician, 10 years after his death, which occurred last Wednesday. Since his passing, there are few artists from the generation of the “Russian” (as he wore on the back of the leather jacket he started the recital with), or after this one, who dared to revisit Cerati. And much less in real time. Perhaps out of shyness, respect or inability, because you have to have balls to even think about it. However, Sujatovich, without sentimentality and without an opportunistic attitude, was up to the task. He was right in warning that it was a song in the style of Conociendo Rusia. Which surely the tribute, who rests a few blocks from the stadium, in the Chacarita Cemetery, would have endorsed.
More than an appropriation, it was a cover faithful to the theme of the album. Here we go. Just as there is nothing better than home, to paraphrase Soda, there is also nothing better than a rock ballad. It may seem anachronistic to think of it, but slow songs in rock are still as effective as they were in their heyday: during the AOR boom (an acronym for “Adult Oriented Rock”, also called “Yacht Rock” or “Soft Rock”), between the 70s and 80s. Knowing Russia made that trait his identikit, and Jet Love’s compositions bear witness to that. One of them is the heartbreaking “Lo mejor”, in which Sujatovich peeled off his Gibson Flying V guitar (its body looks like the symbol of “Victory”, upside down), immortalized, before metalheads, by Journey, REO Speedwagon or Boston: groups that injected more rock into the ballad.
El Ruso is not an artist who should be playing on Aspen FM yet, but he is on his way to achieving it if he continues down this path. There is no doubt that his songs have already begun to take shape as classics. First, of a generation. His generation. And soon they will be classics of contemporary Argentine popular music. This can be attested to by the 28 thousand people sold out both shows (14 thousand per day). Besides, the 33-year-old musician is not only very comfortable with slow songs, but his sound palette contains other nuances and intensities. In fact, on Saturday the concert started off on a high note, with the power pop (coinciding with the imprint of the American indie band The War on Drugs) that gives title to the name of his latest album.
In the same way as this fourth studio album, released at the end of April 2024, the recital progressed with track 2, “Canciones,” in which the artist praises the craft of composing, as well as listening. If Cerati in “Adiós” sings: “You play sad songs to feel better,” here Sujatovich says: “There are songs that reveal a secret. Others served as a declaration to me.” As he anticipated in his previous work, The address (2021), the singer-songwriter found in traditional North American music a source of aesthetic resources that he put into dialogue with the songwriting tradition of Argentine rock. Similar to what Dulces 16 or León Gieco did. This was evident in this song and in the next one, “Te lo voy a decir”, also part of Jet Love’s repertoire.
Although Natalia Lafourcade lent her voice to the country song “5 horas menos”, she was not even needed on stage. The backing vocalist and guitarist Chechi De Marcos was able to replace the Mexican, while also managing to carve out a space of her own (always as a teammate) during the almost two hours that the recital lasted. But she was not the only member of the “beautiful thugs”, an adjective that Sujatovich gave to the musicians who accompany them in this stage of their career, who had their own brilliance. The rhythmic base formed by the drummer Guille Salort and the bassist Rodri Monte revealed their chemistry in the hit “A la vez”, while the keyboardist Andy Elijovich connected the spatiality of Jet Love with seminal songs among which “La puerta” stood out. And the guitarist Martín Allende allowed the Russian to let loose more interpretively.
Speaking of the latter, Sujatovich, two years after his debut at that venue, returned to the Movistar Arena in a state of grace. He was a frontman, yes. And he is one of the best of this era. Although he also showed that he is a great musician. He became overwhelming every time he put on the electric guitar, as in the bluesy “Otra oportunidad”, which took on an even more solid form in the acoustic and intimate moment. After leaving behind the four-handed song he recorded with Fito Páez, “Tu Encanto”, which was followed by the Beatlesque “Puede ser” and the Stone “El chacal” (a cousin of “30 años, also part of the ceremony), he was left alone on stage with the viola in “Montaña”, he sat at the piano in the R&B of “Se me hizo tarde” and continued there to score a more bluesy version of “Luna”.
If Friday’s guest was Joaquín Levintonwith whom he sang “Pasos al lado” from Turf; on Saturday Sujatovich had Julian Kartun sharing voices in “Loco en el desierto”. Minutes later, Conociendo Rusia mixed the country “Una vuelta más” with the closing of “Luces de nocturno”. They threatened to say goodbye once they unwrapped one of those songs that immortalize the corners of Buenos Aires, “Cabildo y Juramento”. This was followed by the pop straight to the heart “Quiero que me llames”, in which the stadium crouched. After the collective photo, the musician asked if they would do an encore. Faced with the resounding yes, they said goodbye with a ballad of Jet Lovein the best Wings style: “Part of me”. He could have done it with another one more on the level of euphoria, but that night the Russian showed that romance still rocks him.