Sunday, March 25, 2007
rock and roll and border runs
Thursday night The Evens played in Barrio Brasil in Santiago; I only found out about the show from seeing a poster at a random cafe on the other side of town, but luckily that I did see that, because The Evens are fucking good. Anyway, the opening band was also a guitar and drum duo, they played some dirty bluesy stuff with lots of slide guitar. Blues in spanish is kind of funny.
After a bit, the main event came on. They played most of the songs from their 2 albums, had some interesting banter (in english though) about the effect of bars/commerce in music venues, noise, and music not being a joke. Ian said a couple things about Victor Jara (the club was named after him), and how important music really can be in social change and community. Only one asshole yelled for fugazi songs, which i think is less than wouldve happened in DC, but who knows. Anyway, good set, really glad i got to see them, sort of wierd seeing a hometown band so far from home though.
Friday afternoon I caught a bus over the Andes into Argentina where I spent the weekend in Mendoza with some friends from amnesty. Its a wine growing region and apparently has a lot to do around it, unfortunatley, we only had one full day so couldnt get out too far, and it was a national holiday, so all the wineries were closed. boo! it did mean that the city was full of music commemorating the coup in 1976 with folk singers singing about disapearances and the dirty war. The city was all 1970s style buildings but had a couple of nice enough parks...overall, not that big of a deal though...hopefully Buenos Aires will leave me with a better taste of Argentina when I go over there...
the road up to the border crossing
this bus was on its way to buenos aires, from LIMA, peru. they'd been riding for 3 days, and had 1 left! crazy
the road went up past Portillo, one of chile's main ski resorts, i cant really see how they turn this pile of rock into a ski slope though, snow i guess
main avenue through the park in mendoza
After a bit, the main event came on. They played most of the songs from their 2 albums, had some interesting banter (in english though) about the effect of bars/commerce in music venues, noise, and music not being a joke. Ian said a couple things about Victor Jara (the club was named after him), and how important music really can be in social change and community. Only one asshole yelled for fugazi songs, which i think is less than wouldve happened in DC, but who knows. Anyway, good set, really glad i got to see them, sort of wierd seeing a hometown band so far from home though.
Friday afternoon I caught a bus over the Andes into Argentina where I spent the weekend in Mendoza with some friends from amnesty. Its a wine growing region and apparently has a lot to do around it, unfortunatley, we only had one full day so couldnt get out too far, and it was a national holiday, so all the wineries were closed. boo! it did mean that the city was full of music commemorating the coup in 1976 with folk singers singing about disapearances and the dirty war. The city was all 1970s style buildings but had a couple of nice enough parks...overall, not that big of a deal though...hopefully Buenos Aires will leave me with a better taste of Argentina when I go over there...
the road up to the border crossing
this bus was on its way to buenos aires, from LIMA, peru. they'd been riding for 3 days, and had 1 left! crazy
the road went up past Portillo, one of chile's main ski resorts, i cant really see how they turn this pile of rock into a ski slope though, snow i guess
main avenue through the park in mendoza
# posted by jacob @ 7:37 PM 
