Bajofondo Comes to Boston

My good friends and I had seen Bajofondo perform live on Av. 9 de Julio, smack in the center of Buenos Aires, with the Obelisco as a magnificent backdrop, on occasion of 25 de Mayo, one of the most important Argentine holidays. So when we learned that Bajofondo would be coming to Boston to play at the Paradise Rock Club, we were excited, to say the least. But we all thought that their performance would never top the spectacle we saw in Buenos Aires, where the setting, the emotion, the amazing energy and the fact that it happened to be May 25 all contributed to the uniqueness of that particular concert. We were wrong.

It might have been the fact that we were two steps away from the stage. Or that the band members at various points of the show left the stage to come dance with the sizeable Argentine and Uruguay contingent at Paradise. It might have been the fact that band member Veronica Loza kissed my hand. It was probably a combination of all those things. What I know for sure was that their show was one of the best concerts I have ever seen in my life. The bandoneónist Martin Ferrés was out of this world. I have seldom seen deft skill like that. I pretty much stared in awe at him and the violinist Javier Casalla all night. Casalla did things with the violin that I didn’t know violins did, especially for the track Grand Guignol included below. And Gustavo Santaolalla was his usual self, effervescent and thoroughly enjoying his creation, his music. One of the highlights of the night was seeing the basist perform a rap for the song Ya No Duele, also included below. But Bajofondo really brought the house down when they played their last song, the inevitable Los Tangueros, and invited a bunch of women from the audience to go onstage and dance with them, which, of course, lots of dudes did as well. I won’t forget this concert that early.

Ya No Duele (Con Santullo)
Grand Guignol

-Bad quality photos taken with my crummy iPhone camera