Bicicletas, No Lo Soporto, and Hamacas al Río
at Parque Lezama
City of Buenos Aires public concert series
16 February, 2008
(This review will appear in the next issue of WickedBA Magazine in April.)
A group of old men hunched around a chess table. A dog with a deformed face scampered past. Vendors sat behind their handicraft-covered blankets, and in a bath of orange light from the park lamps, five hundred people stood, sprawled, or shuffled about the Parque Lezama amphitheater waiting for Bicicletas to come on.
This was the third free concert I had attended of the 12 the City of Buenos Aires put on in Parque Lezama this summer. Each time, I had the same impression: It felt much less like a concert in a park than a park that happened to have a concert in it. While the atmosphere lacked the crowd-band connective intensity of typical rock shows, a sense of art bringing together common people — at least to a common place — replaced it.
While Hamacas al Río’s gorgeous orchestral folk pop wooed the early arrivers and headliners Bicicletas’ upbeat emo-tinged indie pop had the teenie boppers rockin’, No Lo Soporto stole the show. The toned-down riot grrrls with a penchant for pop melodies commanded the space between cute and melancholic while never neglecting to provide a thumping low end. Their songs plodded and rushed, floated and drove out over the crowd — the moms and daughters, the curious park walkers, the long-time NLS fans — and brought them all along.
The wall segregating the backstage area stopped just short of a park bench on which slept a homeless man with his satchel. Despite the show, the park must go on.
No Lo Soporto
photo: Eduardo Guarini
photo: Eduardo Guarini
