Gotan Project

If this gig was the night before it was, then I wouldn't be writing this post. The Friday night prior to the gig saw this girl hit the deck with chronic flu which left me bed ridden for all of Saturday and most of Sunday. With the aid of lamb shank soup and much paracetamol, I managed to glue myself together and get to the gig. I was picked up at 6.45pm so we could get in early to watch David and Dianne do tango demonstrations to Gotan's music out the front before the show, also giving us the opportunity to hand out flyers to advertise Sidewalk Tango (cheeky monkeys aren't we?). Armed with a bottle of water and a wad of Kleenex, I took my seat with my compañeros and waited for the show to begin. And begin it did. The walked onto the stage all dressed in either white suits or white gowns. The 3 female violin players positioned at the back behind pianist, Gustavo Beytelmann, the bandoneon player Nini Flores front and centre, to his left, the Barcelona based Cristina Vilallonga and Gotan founder, Eduardo Makaroff. The other 2 Gotan Projecters, Phillippe Cohen Solal and Christoph Mueller were behind them on the decks. A mirror image of a beautiful girl fanning herself with a red fan appeared behind them and also on the front screen of the decks as the band opened with the track Diferente. This is an amazingly song as the tango is powerful in this track. The girl with the red fan was mesmerizing. The film then cuts to Buenos Aire's famous Confitería Ideal where a couple are dancing a tango (not much else happens there-duh MM) but just off to the right in the background, you see the girl with the red fan. Ever have goosebumps rush over you in seconds? Whoever thought of that image with that music is a genius. Well, it worked for me and cynics be damned. They followed that up with the opening track from Lunático 'Amor Porteño' in which they collaborated with the Arizona group, Calexico. They had images of the band behind them which also gave good effect. The title track of the album, Lunático, was Carlos Gardel's race horse in the 1930's, before he met his untimely and premature death in a plane accident in 1935. For those unfamiliar with Carlos Gardel, he is often described as 'the Elvis of tango'. During the performance of this song, they showed images of a horse race in the 30's. The track Celos (Jealousy) has the sounds of a busy cafe in the background of the song, and the visuals show punters drinking coffee in Buenos Aires famous Cafe Tortoni. Surprisingly, it is half way through the show, not at the end, in which they choose to perform their most famous hit Santa Maria. I applaud them for not doing the clichèd finish! They followed this up with Mi Confesión- which begins with the strains of a tango playing on an old 78 record and then breaks into modern beats. They collaborate with 2 rappers- one from Buenos Aires and one from Spain who rap in Spanish. I'll get my hands on the program and fill you in on their names when I can as their names escape me. Again, they use the technology to bring the 2 rappers to the stage- again, a good touch. They follow with a nice moment for those of us that love pure tango- the bandeneon,guitarist,cellist,pianist and one of the violinist remain on stage to perform a tango that made me forget I was feeling so crook for a moment. Perfection. The band then do their first encore and perform their version of Astor Piazzola's Vuelvo El Sur ( I return south) from their debut, La Revancha Del Tango (The Revenge of the Tango) and another track from the same album, Una Música Brutal. Their second encore had them performing a lengthy version of their tune Triptico and it was indeed, a journey. Everyone was on their feet and in the aisles. Each musician took turns stepping forward and performed a solo that had me soaring. When it ended, the whole house had gone berserk. Dianne and I looked at each other and exclaimed 'what a way to go out!' The only disappointment was they then brought out 2 local hip hop performers doing all that 'Melbourne represent!' bullshit and performed 'Mi Confesion' in English which I felt was unnecessary. This was a tango, not a hip hop crowd. I wish I had a pair of scissors to cut that bit off the night! Despite this, Gotan Project put on a hell of a show and one that I'm glad I left my sick bed for. Music-on this night-soothed this ravaged beast...

Stay Tuned

Hey pop pickers.. the Milongita has been wiped out with the worst flu that she can ever remember getting so blogging not a option due to light headedness and coughing one's brain's out. It's also tricky typing with tissues shoved up your nose. Will be back as soon as I have energy to write about Gotan Project gig. Okay, back to the couch. And for god's sake, put something decent on telly- I'm dying!

She's Got A New Spell

Hey there punters.. I've had a severe case of writers block. Actually, I still do but I'm going to try and write something everyday to inspire me and get back into the rhythm of it again. In fact, this is my new attitude about things. Instead of waiting for one thing to happen so that I can do something else, I'm just going to do that thing and then get to the next. Like my idea of getting fit and achieving a fabulous pilates body and THEN getting sensational haircut. I realised that this way of thinking it fucked. I mean, why put up with bad hair whilst going through the pains in my stomach and thighs? So I took the plunge last Tuesday after work and cut all my hair off. I started pilates on Thursday so the wheels are in motion. Unfortunatly the job front has been really disappointing but I'm not beaten yet. I just need to work on that one a lot more than I have. A friend went for a job last week and I saw how much preparation she did for the interview. In the end it was a job that was all wrong for her and she didn't want but it made me think that I haven't gone about my approach for new work in the right way. Another something that MM needs to get on to. The other thing is my desire to write a book. I'm putting it off because I haven't really got anything to write it on at the moment. I'm currently using my house mate's computer as I'm not in a financial position to buy one at the moment. However, he's off to Perth for 2 weeks so I should use that time to at least start collating the recipes I want to use. After that, I just have to think about the text I wish to use such as the introduction to the book and to each chapter. It will be a lot of work but I have to at least start. All of you have to get on my back and make sure I'm doing this. I'm listening to the latest Gotan Project album called Lunatico and it is sensational. We have tickets to see their show next Sunday so that's where I'll be this time next week. Can't wait. I'll tap out a review of the show so you can read it and comment. I've hated this sabbatical from writing as I love doing it but as you can tell by my last post, I've had fuck all to write about. I guess I just need to read and listen to the world around me - it seems that's what we bloggers do, observe and comment. And that's not such a bad thing, is it?