Symbolic bet, that of Cruilla, by telling us that Latin urban music, including a genre that raises so many blisters like reggaeton, can represent the opposite of what is imputed to it: social commitment, poetic background and conscientious sonic folds. All of this can be easily attributed to René Pérez Joglar, Residente, who was a member of the influential Puerto Rican group Calle 13anchor point of modern Latin, which was marked by an overwhelming concert, this Thursday, on the second day of the festival.
Wide and outstanding band, with electric instruments, drums and Latin percussions, and the first one to the front: Residente opened with that furious ‘BZRP music sessions #49’ that a few months ago ignited the controversy with its rhymes theoretically directed at J Balvin, described as “more false than a hot-dog without ketchup or bread & rdquor ;. Linking the theme with ‘I do this for fun’, the message of free and playful will was clear. The machine didn’t stop, and a ‘medley’ followed with hits on Calle 13 songs like ‘Chulin culin chunfly’ and ‘Atrévete-te-te’.
celebrate life
In reality, Calle 13’s repertoire set the tone, connecting the act with the public and placing the group as a benchmark that hasn’t lost its charm, quite the opposite. Was a exultant latin concert, with party and denunciation, appealing both to reggaeton and other popular genres: from the ‘Cumbia de los borados’ to that acid ‘Baile de los Pobres’ with Arabic friezes. Resident himself captured the moment when he spoke: “We are celebrating life, all together again & rdquor ;, he exclaimed, on the way to selected numbers to burst the Fòrum, such as ‘Around the World’ and ‘Latin America’.
The other heavyweight of the day, Molotov, represented the survival of rock as an agitating language, without concessions and ready for sociopolitical satire. She is a devastating mortar of guitars, bass and drums, going over you like a bus. The Mexicans attacked with ‘Rock me Amadeus’, by Falco, they overturned their vestiges of ‘nu metal’, with heavy ‘grooves’, on songs rich in rabid lyrics, with titles as illustrative as ‘Chinga a tu madre’ or ‘Parasito’ . Social chronicle ‘hardcore’, accusatory with cause, regarding the endemic corruption of his country in ‘Gimme tha power’, pointing bluntly at the police, who “are extorting you & rdquor; and “live from what you are paying”. But don’t get discouraged. “If they paint us as idiots, we are not, Long live Mexico! & rdquor ;.
away from confinement
Before these international claims burst stay home, perhaps the group that has the most reason to be eternally grateful to the pandemic. But these residents of Barcelona’s Balmes street have overcome the covid stigma, and conveniently plugged in, they took advantage of a repertoire that does not stop expanding with new numbers (the recent ‘here2play’, which opened the performance) and that goes with all self-confidence from the Brazilian plot to reggae, and from there to funk or doo-wop harmony.
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They were welcomed if they were from the family, and in this way they all received two guests: His Majesty Rubén Blades in ‘It’s for you’ (“ara ja em can die”, stated Guillem Boltó) and our Judit Neddermann in the languid song of confinement ‘Gotta be patient’. Meanwhile, the tent on the ‘Four Roses’ stage was overwhelmed by fans from Argentina Miss Bolivia, so the festival had to open an adjoining esplanade so that they could follow the concert. ‘Set’ with programmed tracks, dancers and cravings for cumbia on songs like ‘Cagón’, a dart aimed at a boy with a limited sense of commitment: “I know you like me and that all this terrifies you”.
And connecting with the ‘world music’ track that gave wings to the old Cruïlla de Cultures (prelude to the current festival), the Balkan Paradise Orchestra, a large group of women from Barcelona (10 members) based on metals, shook the park in the afternoon with its energetic proposal, blending echoes from the East (it was created under the influence of the Romanian Fanfare Ciocarlia) and citations to the Catalan tradition (‘La masovera’). Circus invocations and a hint of ‘Seven nation army’, by The White Stripes, shaking up a Cruïlla that faces the bulk of its program starting this Friday.