Evenings like last night in Las Ventas, the first of two historic nights in Madrid with tickets sold out for months, confirm the good health of Extreme, especially in terms of convening power, and they confirm almost without a doubt as the most important Spanish band of the moment. With the excuse of presenting his latest album, 'For all audiences', some 17.000 people -according to figures from the promoter- have gathered to enjoy a tour that already passed through Madrid in June (to be more exact, by Rivas Vaciamadrid, after the cancellation in Leganés due to deficiencies in the venue ).
The title is more appropriate than ever, since the band, having transcended the category of classic or star -and that until "Agila" (1996) barely had a place in the mainstream media-, attracts an audience of the most motley, between hairy and branded poles, without suspicion of enlargement of the number due to vacuous posture. Here people know the songs and sing them. Robe Iniesta and his band, born in Plasencia almost 30 years ago, do not require promotion to bring each new album to number 1 in sales, as happened with the latter, one of the best sellers of 2013, despite having been filtered by a worker that in the end he was arrested.
There is almost always desire for Extremoduro, but this time maybe more, since his previous tour had been limited to 12 very popular concerts, but this one has about 40 shows planned on his current tour, which began in May in Zaragoza and has already received about 200.000 people. The first appointment in the Las Ventas bullring has arrived in the equator of that journey through Spain, with the energies overflowing and a comfortable average rhythm of two concerts a week that allows them to give it their all on stage.
New songs dominate the repertoire, but Iniesta and his group do not forget practically any of the great albums of their history. The instrumental «Extraterrestre», from «Forbidden Songs», starts a show that at first, without Iniesta's voice, could seem American in its plucking, in its power and in its scenography, more typical of the Stones, with a great metallic container that descends to the boards and lets out the load. There is Robe Iniesta, an overwhelming fusion of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards with their own denomination of origin, both in their "transgressive" forms and in their verses of cement and smoke, which he does not even need the titles of "sir", because even the Conservative governments grant him distinctions (the Extremadura Medal).
"Winter sun", "Looking for a moon", "The path of the door" ... The night goes more or less according to plan. "Thank you for going back to where you are loved without returning," the singer shouts in one of his first addresses to the respectable. With the roaring and procacious "Mama" (don't look for a tilde, because it doesn't have one) and "Golfa" the repertoire begins to take on its own personality. They are followed by "Calle Esperanza s / n" and "Transient madness". The unpublished "Canta la frog" sounds and he asks the audience not to record the performance with their mobile phones to keep the surprise in later shows. He almost succeeds, at least in proportional terms.
Later, he unleashes "Sweet introduction to chaos", "Second movement: the outside" and "Fourth movement: reality", from the album "Innate Law", the one that marked them the most after six years of creative drought, with an atypical and revolutionary structure for these payments, in line with the anarchic character of its author. From the worst of the night, the continuous breaks between song and song and the 15-minute break that divides the concert into two acts. At least the second course is served with more agility and they open it with the success "Jesucrito García" (that of "I am Evaristo, the king of the deck").
Afterwards, the drums of «Poema surcogido» overwhelmed us, liked «Tango suicida», moved with a recitation of the verses by Francisco M. Ortega Palomares at the beginning of «Standby» and unleashed madness with «So clown», a monumental surprise that They don't play every concert. The enthusiasm overflows with "Whore" and it is clear that the experiment of separating the calmest audience (on the left) from the more funky (on the right) works regularly, basically because everyone jumps here. With the desserts, including a version of "Rockin All Over The World" by John Fogerty, Iniesta and company have marked more than three hours of concert.
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Via | EFE