Fermin Muguruza sings, dances and fights at Cruïlla

Ara ➝

The Basque musician fills the Forum Park with Palestinian flags during a concert on Kortatu’s 40th anniversary tour.

A day of various tributes, this Thursday at Cruïlla, and with performances that, unfortunately, were overtaken at the Parc del Fòrum, which brought together 16,000 spectators according to data provided by the organizers. On the second day of the festival, the concert that conveyed the most enthusiasm and at the same time the most political power was that of Fermin Muguruza, who returned to Barcelona six months after the memorable show that he offered at the Palau Sant Jordi, also within a tour that commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Kortatu trio but above all it celebrates an exemplary artistic career, for the musical commitment and for the constancy of the critical spirit.

Muguruza’s appearance just after the band played Mapuche was greeted with the standing ovation of the day. “The anti-fascist coven has also arrived at Cruïlla. Long live the land!” the Basque musician greeted. “Free,” replied a good portion of the audience. Without pausing, he sang Urrun and immediately had words for those affected by the Baix Ebre fire. “Our hearts ache when the earth burns. And climate change deniers, go shit on the tracks,” she added in Catalan, as she did in all the speeches she gave during the concert. Solidarity and rage, two of Muguruza’s driving forces.

As in Sant Jordi, the large band that accompanies her resizes a generous repertoire, and with details such as the trikitixa which marked the beginning of The front line, one of Kortatu’s unbeatable songs, and one of the most intensely experienced by the audience that gathered at the Estrella Damm stage. Many spectators also displayed small paper Palestinian flags that Muguruza’s team had distributed around the venue (and which bore the Lebanese flag on the back). When they played towards the end Yalah, yalah, Ramallah!There was a sea of Palestinian flags at the Forum. Before this song, he supported the Irish group Kneecap and the English duo Bob Vylan, who were investigated in the United Kingdom for making pro-Palestine and anti-Israeli statements. at the Glastonbury FestivalA little while earlier there was also a call against urban speculation in Barcelona with a banner bearing the slogan “Vallcarca for living, not for speculation” filling the stage while they performed On the street, another incunabulum by Kortatu.

Adapted to the festival duration (and therefore sacrificing such notable themes as Ychoiten), the performance condensed into an hour and a half the highlights of the tour and the legacy of the musician from Irún, which is his own, that of Kortatu and that of Negu Gorriak, rock, rap, reggae and roots. Muguruza, maintaining her expressive and clear voice, and the band, versatile and precise, deployed the rhythm machine ofBasque Country Jamaica Clash;the unique punk-soul ofPost-Bolshevik (with playful brass) and Casting; the hardcore-rap side of Negu Gorriak (that of Hiri gerrilaron dance and Legal bullet), but also the most danceable (that of Color bizia) and, of course, the download of To catch your art, which she sang with the collaboration of Juanra Rodríguez of the group KOP, and to the absolute devotion of the audience. In a non-stop concert, the final section was designed to be epic. Radio Rahim and Dub Manifesto They sounded like never before and the enthusiasm was unleashed with Gora herria (nice piece of pogo) and the final Sarri, Sarri. “Here we are, singing, dancing and fighting!” said Muguruza, summarizing what happened in that hour and a half.

Just as the anti-fascist coven ended, the powerful concert by American Annie Clark, better known as St. Vincent, began on the West Stage. It kicked off with an electric fury that stunned the audience. It’s the ferocity that the Tulsa singer and guitarist imbues into the album’s songs. All born screaming (2024) as Reckless and Broken man.Visceral by nature, with performances as striking as that of New York and finding surprising stagecraft (even upsetting the cameras filming her), she maintained the tension during a performance that coincided with Goran Bregović’s on the Vueling stage. St. Vincent put on a memorable concert, and with a single gesture was able to convey the danger and punk abyss that the Sex Pistols were unable to deliver in an hour and a quarter on the main stage, the Estrella Damm.

It’s true that three of the four members of the Sex Pistols are from the 1976 formation: guitarist Steve Jones, bassist Glen Matlock, and drummer Paul Cook. However, this reincarnation of the British punk legend doesn’t include John Lydon, the inimitable original singer. Jones, Matlock, and Cook reactivated the group a year ago with singer Frank Carter, born in 1984; that is, six years after the band’s dissolution. It’s understandable that Carter doesn’t want to imitate Lydon, but it’s absurd and pitiful. They manage to do something as difficult as making songs like “The Last Days” sound boring. Pretty vacant (what a lazy riff), Roll, Issues, EMI, Bodias and even God save the Queen. Carter, who is comfortable wearing a transfeminist band GLOSS t-shirt, is unable to convincingly defend the repertoire. She tries to connect with the audience, goes down to do Bodias in the center of the pogo, but he has no charisma nor does he sing with intention. The most horrifying thing was the version of No fun, a double fiasco in the memory of the Stooges original and the version that the Sex Pistols included on the B-side of the single Pretty vacant in 1977. The lack of attitude of one and the self-indulgence of the others made the concert go down the rocky slope of insignificance, and even more so after a grotesque My wayBy the way, historical footage of the Sex Pistols was projected during the performance… and none of it featured John Lydon. What a job editing it was to cut him out of this story.

The pleasant reunion with Dr. Calypso

A few hours earlier, the Vueling stage hosted the reunion of Dr. Calypso, the Barcelona-based band that, in the early 1990s, treated ska with the respect that the Jamaican rhythm deserves, with knowledge of their craft and a festive and combative spirit for the crowd on the ship. Occidente, the insurance company formerly known as Catalana Occidente. “We thought it would be half that!” exclaimed Luismi López, one of the group’s singers, along with the charismatic Sheriff Monlleó. Homeless and 2.3 billion To set the tone, the boogaloo of The power of Latin soul with metals and the wah-wah working, the chantable call against the ecocidal greed of the mambo Little birds, the dub ofTonight, the version of Born to be alive by Patrick Hernandez, the calypso of Slow boat to Trinidad (in which a Palestinian flag appeared on stage) and a whole string of songs that have made countless popular parties more enjoyable over the last 35 years, with greater or lesser intermittence.

The magnetism of Dr. Calypso retained many audiences, but some peeked at the West Stage, where the Brazilian Seu Jorge was performing, others took advantage of the fact that there were few queues to get close to the bars (40cl beer at 4.50 euros) and water at 2.

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