Without a doubt, Los Angeles is the best city to live in if you’re a fan of live music. On any given night there is some gig dying to catch the attention of your eyes and ears. But there is a flip side to this privilege. With so much variety in music, there is always a chance that you may miss a concert or be forced to choose one over the other when event dates conflict.
This may have been the case of you missed one of the most notable moments of the year: the Zaragoza musical conquest of the U.S. Did you miss it? Well, it began with Bigott playing the Eastside Luv Wine and Queso Bar in East L.A. At the gig, the band presented their latest album, The Original Soundtrack, and their hit “Cannibal Dinner”. Although the small stage of the Eastside Luv was probably not the most appropriate for a rock & roll band, lead singer Francisco De Borja and band made the most of it and put on an electrifying performance, offering a glimpse as to why Bigott is one of the most fascinating bands to come out of Spain in a quite a while.
At the beginning of the summer, ex-lead singer of one the most influential bands in rock en español, Santiago Auserón a.k.a. Juan Perro of Radio Futura, played a sublime acoustic set at the Roxy Theater on Sunset Boulevard. Accompanied by Joan Vinyals, guitar extraordinaire, Auserón played songs from his new album, Rio Negro, as well as acoustic versions from solo work such as “Perro Flaco” and Radio Futura hits like “A Cara o Cruz” and “La Negra Flor”.
Auserón has been influential on many notable musicians like Beto Cuevas, Sergio Arau from Botellita de Jerez and “El Vampiro”, the ex-Maná and Jaguares guitar player, all of which were in attendance for the musicians Roxy performance.
Continuing the Spanish invasion just two weeks later and also at the same Roxy Theater, entered another band from Zaragoza, Spain. This time, it was Amaral who roared into the Roxy with an all out guitar attack to present their newest album Hacia Lo Salvaje. Amaral’s performance was definitely one of the most exciting concerts of the year. Eva Amaral’s stage presence definitely channels the spirits of other great female performers like the late Janis Joplin or Stevie Nicks from Fleetwood Mac.
To bring the Zaragoza invasion full circle was none other than the Spanish rock king of all kings, Enrique Bunbury. At his appearances at The Grove in Anaheim and the Hollywood Palladium last month, Bunbury put on by far the best performance of the year. With time, his music has managed to maintain the same force it had with former band Heroes Del Silencio. With his talented band, Los Santos Inocentes, Bunbury’s music has explored and adopted musical growth in a way that perhaps would not have been done within the confines of Heroes Del Silencio.
