The Rock Star room, underground, with a capacity for 500 people and located at one end of the Gran Vía, next to the Sacred Heart, once again organizes concerts. Your new programmers want to stage bowling especially on Thursdays and Fridays. They are the same directors of the Shake! room, located in Abando and with capacity for 110 people. The intention is for Rock Star to welcome transversal groups that fill the venue, although this Monday the journey began with an American duo received as an exception to the norm: it began with a double bill and a foreigner in its first national mini-tour that attracted to fifty fans, a success according to the fact that their managers calculated to gather 20.
The Smashing Times testing sound before opening doors.
Iñaki Hanky Panky
24 minutes later than the announced time (8:15 p.m.) the five members of The Smashing Times opened the square, three boys and two girls who looked like Canadians although they came from Baltimore, Maryland. For 14 songs and 48 minutes they exhibited a kind of low-fidelity domestic pop with careful post-folk vocals and a clear indie affiliation. Somewhat languid and psychedelic, they resonated with the Smiths, The Cure and Television Personalities, Belle & Sebastian and Prefab Sprout, the Velvet Underground and the Byrds (the latter were even shot), the Kinks, Big Star and the Wall. of Phil Spector sound as if recreated in a garage.
We also think of the Donosti sound, although it probably did not influence this Yankee quintet that the countrymen photographed approaching the stage as if it were a zoo. “No wonder Bob Dylan forbids taking photos of him at concerts,” said Pato. Ah, the tambourine player in love with the combo said that they had been in Spain for five days and that they had been ‘amazing’, that is, something like fantastic. They are on their way to France and will stay in Bilbao this Tuesday.
The Motorists from the side.
duck castaneda
Then The Motorists came out, three guys who looked like Californians even though they came from Toronto, Canada. Their handsome guitarist said that they were sad because they were leaving Spain after six days here. We do not know if they will stay one more day, and it is that on Wednesday they have a gig in the United Kingdom. More intense and electric than the languid and domestic opening act, The Motorists generated an atmosphere typical of the basement of Gorliz’s Xurrut and in 43 minutes they had time to play 12 songs, now sung by the bassist now sung by the guitarist, which by the way were the most lively, successful and sticky.
Their gig with roots in the 90s, indie and hardcore, and with echoes of Shellac crossed with the Talking Heads (‘Sorrounded’, the title of the album with which they came on tour and which improved on the stage), passed quickly. sparkling power pop like Nick Lowe did or American like Cheap Trick and Redd Kross, abrasive and melodic storms that blew from Hüsker Dü to Weezer (and vice versa), Californian melodic hardcore by All and its derivatives, some tracing of REM and a version of the ‘Part time punks’ by Television Personalities who learned in the van thanks to their opening act, fans of television shows. Half an hour after finishing we saw them enter the hotel and they seemed happy, that is, it was worth the stopover in Bilbao.