{"id":378,"date":"2019-09-20T13:20:15","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T12:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=378"},"modified":"2019-09-20T13:20:16","modified_gmt":"2019-09-20T12:20:16","slug":"the-greatest-gig-i-have-ever-seen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2019\/09\/20\/the-greatest-gig-i-have-ever-seen\/","title":{"rendered":"THE GREATEST GIG I HAVE EVER SEEN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

GREAT STUFF FROM\nAN IMPORTANT BAND<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\npreview in the September edition of the Cultural And Arts Agenda for the month\nhad suggested that Orquesta Catacumbia would rock but nothing could have\nprepared me for what I eventually saw and heard from this Tenerife band.\nNevertheless on arrival at the venue we saw only three or four tables and\numbrellas and comfy chairs scattered around on its outside apron giving us\nplenty of choice of where to sit as only one table was occupied, and it looked\nas if the occupants might be the band. We ordered drinks of water, no gas, for\nme as I never drink on duty dear reader, and a wine for Dee who, similarly\nnever goes on duty when she\u00b4s drinking, and had a quick chat with the friendly\nhippy-ish young waiter who served us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even\nas he spoke the place was filing rapidly but he took the time to tell us that\nthe venue invites deejays each week to perform and that the proprietor always\ntries to present new ideas. This free live performance of a new album by this\nband was just such an experiment. He took my card and promised to keep\nSidetracks And Detours informed of future events, so watch this space. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nwas an experiment that we could already see was a big success. Within a few\nminutes more than a hundred people had gathered, mostly of young adults in\ntheir late twenties and early thirties, but there was evidence, too, of others\nwho like us, had somehow survived the nineteen sixties music scene. To our\namazement, most of them crowded into the small bar which was already reduced in\nfloor space by microphones, amplifiers and instruments, and now six musicians,\ncrowded on to a small stage. Maybe about a dozen of us remained outside, to\nlisten from there. We could clearly see, too, through floor to ceiling plate\nglass windows and so I was fully immersed in what was to be more than ninety\nminutes of innovative, tuneful, rhythmic music that supplied such an\nirresistible beat that everyone in the room was hopping and bopping and jumping\nand jiving from the very first note. Before the end of the opening verse I was\nmaking frantic notes: \u00b4these guys know what they\u00b4re doing\u00b4 I wrote, to begin\nwith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nline up, seemingly of two electric guitarists, electric bass-man, two\npercussionists and a lead vocalist was of musicians who knew their own\nabilities as well as they knew the abilities of their colleagues. They were\ncomfortable, and somehow, enhanced in each other\u00b4s company. They each brought their\nown reference points to what they were playing, including traditional, national\nstyles, contemporary cadence and eclectic listening. As quickly as I thought I\nrecognised echoes of The Flying Burrito Brothers we had reached Gram Parsons\nand the Byrds giving the eye to the Sweethearts Of The Rodeo, and here there\nwas Poco and there were The Eagles and everywhere was sheer enjoyment in each\nothers\u00b4 skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nwas not only a rekindling of that moment in my youth when country begat rock\nand country-rock begat Americana but here was also the jazz fusion of Blood\nSweat And Tears, and just to blur even those edges there was funk, Eastern\nEuropean pieces of polka and the bright pop music of one-or-two hit wonders\nlike The Kursall Flyers  remembered for\ntheir own strange creation of Little Does She Know in 1976. I felt, too, as if\nI were listening to a modernisation of \nRock The Kasbah by The Clash, but it was as if they had ensured the\nmodernisation did not in any way sanitise or dilute its power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nI look at ny notes again, now on the cold light of the new morning, I see writ\nlarge is the name of Jonathan Richman And The Modern Lovers, similarly an\noutfit who were, and still are, rooted in rock and roll but receptive to styles\nof music from all around the world, as evidenced by the confusing title of\ntheir biggest UK hit, Egyptian Reggae,. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Orquesta Catacumbia
receptive to styles from all around the world<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Orquesta\nCatacumbia play with a similar sense of wide eyed child-like wonder. The album\nLa Tercera Vaca, from which nearly all these songs were taken, was released in\nMarch 2019 and might just become one of those collectors\u00b4 items of which a few\nlucky people might be able to say, \u00b4of course, I bought this before they became\nfamous. !\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fame\nmight not be their spur, though, if you\u00b4ll forgive my Howard Spring. In fact,\ndespite that child-like wonder they appear on stage to be as casual and laid\nback and wisened and sage-like as a band that Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits\nintroduced us to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nlyrics of The Sultans Of Swing tell us of an extraordinary, ordinary band\nplying their trade round the pubs and clubs of Sarf London seemingly so\ncomfortable in their own legend that they were immune to the temptation of\nriches that might await them in the form of recording contracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Orquesta\nCatacumbia are perhaps slightly more worldly wise, having already recorded\ntheir debut album, but for all that they seem content to play to happy, shiny\npeople like this crowd. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tonight\nthey brought back memories of the hot and sweaty clubs in Hamburg in the late\nfifties and of The Cavern in nineteen sixties\u00b4 Liverpool. Their music recounted\nBo Diddley beats and re-created Beatle-esque vocal backing but this band could\nbe so much more than a reminder of the past. They just might be a signpost to\nthe future of rock and pop. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GREAT STUFF FROM AN IMPORTANT BAND The preview in the September edition of the Cultural And Arts Agenda for the month had suggested that Orquesta Catacumbia would rock but nothing could have prepared me for what I eventually saw and heard from this Tenerife band. Nevertheless on arrival at the venue we saw only three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}