BARREIRO ROCKS 2007 LUCKs AND REDUXE -- DAY 2 - NOVEMBER 10 2007

DAY 2 of the Festival saw us somewhat battered from Day 1 but ready to fight again... I didn't make it into Lisbon as I had planned (duh.. went to bed at 8am!) but we socked away some serious chocos fritos (fried cuttlefish) and got ready to dance.

Night 2 opened with a replacement band-- Madrid's Tres Delicias cancelled due to a broken arm... which sucked. Very disappointed to have once again missed this great band who are apparently greater live. What we got was Madrileno/Iberian garagepunk scene veteran Capitan Entresijos with some help from Nacho (sax player from Los Chicos). It was OK, but 40 minutes of this was a bit long... Also it's better in a club (as I witnessed in Madrid back in '05).

Next came Green Machine, a Portuguese band who played the afterparty last year (and were fantastic). The good news is they broke it open with the lead singer jumping down into the audience (FINALLY! it took getting to the second day for someone to bring it to us). The bad news is the Lisbonsensian audience was a bit lame/stuffy for this rock assault. Also, again, I harp, but really, 40-45 minutes was too long.Then we had the Mojomatics from Italy. I had been getting into their records anyway, but wow. Here was a band that pretty much managed to master the 40-45 minute set, who have the song chops in spades, who rival even the Reigning Sound's gift for 60's pop made modern. Neat drumming and great vocals and Scotty Moore-inflected guitar playing. Absolutely fantastic. Have to get them to NYC!
Despite some of the usual craziness (missed flight/lost passport) the Black Lips rolled in around 1AM to play their second, and amazingly, their BEST show at the festival yet. With no time for a soundcheck, they jammed on some pebbles/blues nugget at the opening and quickly got a feel for the sound on the stage. When they started their next song, it was a ton of bricks in our faces... everything firing on all thrusters, sound was PERFECT. Grown, hell, even old Portuguese men pogoing.//The singalong to Katrina seemed to shock even the band, who had debuted the song on the tour that included Barreiro Rocks back in 2005. Set favorite for me was Lean, leadoff track on the new album, a song I didn't care about until this performance... which made it my favorite song ever. Also they slotted in a cover of "Too Much Monkey Business" -- a reference to the only Portuguese group ever featured on Pebbles (The Satins) ?! Maybe method to the madness.

The mood of the festival at this point was pretty explosive (in the good way)... which was perfect for a) my DJing, which bizarrely drew some people I hadn't seen since the good/bad old days of mucking around Iberia as the Hey!Pachuco tour DJ in '04 and '05... and b) the double onslaught of afterparty bands to come including the best band of the festival, LOS CHICOS, unleashing songs from their new album "Launching Rockets" (on London's Dirty Water records)... as well as established favorites... this band has always been a no-fail perfect party but this year the stakes were raised to theatrical and emotional highs I for one haven't experienced at more than 2 or 3 shows all year long...
I'm not sure what singer Rafa (above) does in the daylight hours, but if it's anything like what he does onstage he must be a union organizer, pentecostal priest, rodeo announcer or outerspace explorer. Such were the poses and energy thrown into the mix by this always fascinating frontman. He's never really over the top, screaming or freaking out, although he has the odd habit of climbing to the tops of the speaker towers... you just can't take your eyes off of this character. That said, perfectly loose/tight rhythm section including the machine called Pina, plus the Mackay-like Saxophone squawks of Nacho... what more can I say? This is one of the two or three greatest bands out there in the world today...

After Los Chicos, The Professor (aka Patrick Keegan) took over on the DJing and delivered the nuggets we needed to recuperate before the emotional and needed Act-Ups show. This Barreiro band includes the two guys most responsible for the organization of the festival... they are also one of my favorite bands and delivered a heavy and hardrockin' set of their Dirtbombs-goes-heavy sound... even Ian St. Pe sang out of deference on set opener Land of a Thousand Dances... other highlights included stuff from 2006's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, old favorite Chicken Soup and a pretty interesting (and MUST TO RECORD, hint! hint!) version of Curtis Mayfield's Move On Up (the LONG version with the drum breakdown, thanks to drummer Pistol Pete's rata-tat-tat...!

Finally Los Chicos rejoined the fray and it was impossible to tell who WASN'T in the band... "brothers from different mothers."
Then, the Hipshakes, present all weekend long, attempted to mount a second set to top Friday's show and began shaking it out... it was headed for inevitable success when... THE PLUG WAS PULLED by some city officials... what can you say? I guess the security guards wanted to go home.... it was 7 AM, what can you do?

Check out all of my youtube clips here...

And links to my pics on flickr... also more pics below.

See ya next year BRR ROX!


MOJOMATICS
THE BLACK LIPS
LOS CHICOS!