Mad Cool Life beyond the big names
Mad Cool The War on Drugs or the art of the best classicism
Fourth night of
Mad Cool
.
After several days of headliners leaning towards heavy rock, welcome is the sporadic palette of some
Pixies
without much to add in the studio, okay, but owners of an overwhelming live show.
Before them we had marked in red the presence of
Leon Bridges
, soulero singer-songwriter
,
introspective
soulman
, who emerged like a meteor in 2015. Then it would be the turn of
Kings of Leon,
a southern band that began by stapling
Allman Brothers Band
environments on dubious Polaroids of
indie
air
, and they ended up embracing without stadium rock.
Born in
Atlanta, Georgia,
in 1989,
Todd Michael Bridges
is the author of three albums as three supernovae of
vintage
soul
,
red-hot valve soul,
Cominhome
,
Good things
and
Gold-diggers sound
.
For those who consider him too prone to nostalgia, I recommend approaching his two collaborations with the instrumental trio
Khruangbin,
Texas sun
and
Texas moon
.
Two capsules of psychedelia and
soul
with spacious
country
nuances where the vocalist and composer shows how easy it is for him to take over old genres.
In
Madrid,
leading a versatile and silky band, unleashed gems and was as charismatic as we expected.
But neither his subtle melismas nor the arrangements of some exquisite songs were perhaps the most suitable for a crowded venue.
The sound didn't help either.
Understand, it was elegant, evocative, sumptuous at times, but one has the feeling that the great Bridges can be more satisfying in a less dense environment.
With everything there were moments to cut, like a majestic
River
.
For someone educated, among other classrooms, in the pages of that
sensitive, Anglophile and slightly elitist
Rockdelux of the early 90s, the reunion with the Pixies should be an event of the first magnitude.
Of course, the group is far from its imperial years, when between 1987 and 1993 it published artefacts such as
Surfer rosa
,
Doolitle
,
Bossanova
or
Trompe le monde
.
Those were the golden days, before the ego of
Black Francis
- later known as
Frank Black
, originally and now
Charles Thompson IV
- proved incompatible with the presence of the talented
Kim Deal
, who marched off to ride
The Breeders.
And it would be unfair not to recognize the magnitude of his contributions to contemporary pop.
Everything that initially sounded radical, avant-garde or simply bizarre is already incorporated into the musical DNA of thousands of more or less alternative groups.
That noise with a cause, the stupefying mixture of excitement and paranoia,
surf
, British blues and
hard rock
, inhabited dark lyrics and ground-glass melodies.
An intoxicating proposal, not without wrinkles, but still proud, and that landed last night on the main stage.
And how.
With the pulse of born killers, with the trade that confers a kind of
Dylanite
Never Ending Tour , from which they haven't gotten off since they returned almost twenty years ago, they have achieved much more than consolidating an unbeatable repertoire.
They have managed, and I bet it's not easy, to sound vital, urgent, even passionate, yes, with songs that have been listened to a thousand times.
More still.
Think these guys came in when, as they were saying in the
Guardian,
the
mainstream
was stuff like
Phil Collins .
.
That his is now an essential part of rock, incorporated into the common language, shows that the most intelligent and adventurous proposals are not always condemned to the niche of the minority or obscure.
The Pixies was a concert to blow your brains out.
Possibly the best so far at the festival.
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