a few concerts in Chile

Tuesday we went to see Riders on the Storm, aka The Doors minus Jim Morrison. It was an excellent show, in a nice-sized theatre, downtown Santiago. Before the Doors came on, this sucky band called Delta played. I don’t know what the organizers were thinking to schedule them before the Doors. I’ve been to high school band concerts that were better than Delta. And the musical style was totally different. But the Doors rocked. Excellent show, they played all the classics with lots of guitar and piano solos-including a flamenco intro to Spanish Caravan, and random commentary about alcohol, drugs and George Bush. All the musicians were solid, I especially enjoyed Manzarek and Krieger, the keyboardest and guitarest.

We had tickets in the gallery, the highest part of the theatre - but the theatre's not that big so I liked our seats. As Delta was finishing, the people from our section began jumping over the handrail that separated the high gallery from the low gallery. And then at some point the security guard disappeared at one of the stairwells down to the low gallery and tons of people rushed down into the lower section. It was entertaining to watch all this and all the movement left us with lots more room. Then just before the Doors came on, people started jumping from the lower gallery down to the floor to be right by the stage. This was quite the affair as the drop was about 10-12 feet, and it turned into a human waterfall. The original jumpers began to jump and scream from next to the stage "el que no salta es pavo", loosely translated as "he who doesn't jump is a wuss" and so they egged the audience on. I bet 200-300 people jumped. We saw a couple people eat cement, heavy. But mostly, the people already down grabbed the feet of people on their way down and then precariously jumped down or tried to find footholds-and rather quickly because there were security guards. This was definitely entertaining and worked as build-up to the band's entrance to the stage. A good show, well worth it.

Vuko went to the Ozzy Osborne concert at the estadio nacional a couple weeks ago. He absolutely loved the concert and came back raving about it. He got up right next to the stage. I was happy he had gone and even happier that I hadn't. I like Ozzy Osborne, but big concerts here are not my scene.

Two years ago Vuko invited me to see the Beastie Boys here in Santiago in Ciudad Empresarial in this huge pabellón. First Chancho en Piedra came on, and we began slowly making our way through the crowd towards the stage. I very much enjoyed that show, the lead singer came on in a typical Chilean school uniform, for girls. The short plaid skirt really hizo juego con sus piernas re-peludos. He was hilarious and the band was good. The place was packed. Chancho en Piedra left and were as close to the stage as we could get. I felt like a sardine all packed in and I couldn't see anything except the shoulders of the kid in front of me and it was difficult to move. Vuko saw fine because he's like 6'3 while most Chileans are 5'4. We began to wait. I wanted to go to the very back of the pabellón where there was space but Vuko wanted to be as close to the stage as possible. It was hot and stuffy. After waiting for the Beastie Boys to come out forever, I finally convinced Vuko we should go outside for a bit. My back hurt from standing awkwardly, smashed against a bunch of other fans for like an hour. We barely got outside and the Beastie Boys finally made it on stage. One of the Beastie Boys, seemed confused, and was trying to figure out where was the VIP section because to him it just appeared like one big audience. He was surprised to realize the VIP section consisted of the first 20% of the crowd and the VIPs were all packed in sardine-style, just like the non-VIPs, they just were closer to the stage. The group put on a good show, but the sound was a bit messed up. We ended up watching from the back of the pabellón, like 100 meters away. I was too traumatized by the quantity of people that squished together to get close to the group and didn’t want to get any closer. But it was a fun show and the only time I’ve seen the Beastie Boys. But now I shy away from the big concerts in Chile.

A few years back some friends, my cousin and I went to see Kraftwerk in Santiago. It was in the Estadio Victor Jara, a much smaller venue than Espacio Riesco and Kraftwerk is less well known than the Beastie Boys. Good show.

And last year Vuko and I went to see Paul Gilbert, who is an electric guitar virtuoso. I only went because I thought Vuko should see him since he loves the electric guitar. This concert was in the Teletón theatre. Waiting outside, I noticed it was a total sausage fest, the only girls were with their boyfriends (as in my case). I began bracing myself for a testosterone-infused couple of hours, which described my experience of the groups that played before Gilbert. Not at all my style of music. Then Gilbert came out and did a really enjoyable show. He's an incredible guitar player and quite charismatic on stage, and funny. He even improvised a song about the technical problems they were having as the sound people worked to correct them. I was pleasantly surprised by Gilbert (and the band)’s talent and the performance in general. I definitely recommend his shows!