You can check on their website that Los Secretos do not stop giving concerts throughout the year. Yesterday Thursday they were at the Sozial Antzokia de Basauri (full of more than 700 souls: only 20 tickets remained to be sold five minutes before time), today Friday they stop in Burgos (with all the paper already awarded) and on Monday they give in Madrid a charity bowl So far this year, and imagining that they were on vacation in January, since February 10 they have performed in Oviedo, Segovia, Elche, Murcia, Alcudia (Mallorca), Cuntis (Pontevedra), Madrid, Puertollano (Ciudad Real), Alhaurin El Grande (Malaga) and Cuenca.
And it is that, paraphrasing Woody Allen, things work for Los Secretos. In Basauri they gave a concert of 24 songs in 111 minutes, very similar to the one they offered at the Euskalduna in March 2022, of 27 songs in 122 minutes (on a Sunday and with the capacity sold out in advance: 2,200). And at Social they did what they have been doing since Álvaro Urquijo took over the reins of the group 21 years ago: explicitly evoking his late brother Enrique Urquijo in a presentation, flattering the respectable on a couple of occasions (especially with the thesis of that if the group continues it is thanks to the people who listen to them: “if we have been here for 43 years it is thanks to you”, he released), scattering milestones in the form of distant dates to highlight the longevity of his career, highlighting some lost title in his discography of those who rarely play live, greet the Basque relatives present in the room, and repeat some story like the one about his most famous song being ‘Pero a tu lado’ and that he has climbed there 25 years late voluntarily popular, because her followers hear her the most on social networks, «not because she was chosen as a single and sold a million copies, nor because she had appeared in a Coca Cola advertising campaign, nor of course because she had appeared ecided in a movie or on Netflix”, Álvaro Urquijo explained when presenting it.
Álvaro Urquijo, constipated but agile at 60.
Basauri’s was a concert that grew slightly from good to very good and contained two handicaps that did not weigh it down: a fair volume and the reserved tone when singing by Álvaro Urquijo, of whom we know that his voice is not his greatest virtue. , but he had a cold on top of that, although he only limped on the first song, we suppose that due to the coldness in his throat when he opened with ‘Ojos de gata’, and on the 14th song, when in this chronological order we first noted ‘improvable modulation ‘ by Álvaro, then TOS, and at the end the confession of the leader: «this tear is not from emotion, it is from holding my cough. It is not to apologize, but I have had a cold for twenty days ». The lights could also have been better, but we won’t consider them the third handicap.
Alvaro and Txetxu Altube crouched.
We could tell something about each of the 24 songs that played in Basauri this Thursday, but we will try to summarize. Los Secretos, without polarizing anything at all and three guitars (Álvaro sometimes with the twelve-string electric, the latest addition to the sextet is Txetxu Altube -this time the boss did not inform that he is from Athlétic-, and the fringed Ramón Arroyo a the soloists: “it’s almost perfect, it’s just that it’s giputxi”, revealed Álvaro), they stepped on country (a la Dwight Yoakam in the honky tonk ‘La calle del olvido’, like Steve Earle the rare ‘Buscando’ and the very fluid ‘ I can’t imagine’), they felt like Pedro at home in borderline and quasi-ranchero tempos and rhythms (‘I want to drink until I lose control’ and many more), they became nocturnal and sophisticated (the aforementioned ‘If it doesn’t dawn’ , ‘It’s only been a dream’ and ‘I’ve missed you’), perhaps the top of the date was rock and roll as if shot at Rockpile ‘El último cruce’, they looked like Quique González in ‘Hung’, ‘ Good girl’ and ‘Lost Trains’, and the triple encore was impressive: ‘Hold on to me, María’ with the choruses of the people, as well as his first two hits, the very powerful and guitar-playing cascades ‘Sobre un glasso mojado’ and ‘Déjame’, this one with the audience on their feet.
And let’s glean a presentation, that of ‘If I could stop time’, when Álvaro Urquijo exposed: «I am nostalgic. Since we were little we had our idols and we imitated them. Tom Petty, the Eagles, also Aute for the beautiful lyrics… And now if you take the music pages of a newspaper it looks like the obituary section. We dedicate this song to all those who have influenced us and are no longer here: Elvis Presley, Muddy Waters, BB King, Tom Petty, Enrique Urquijo, Antonio Vega…».