CHRONICLE OF AN END OF TOUR
- DEW ARIZA
- Jul 2, 2024
- 4 min read
One of my favorite things in this world is hosting my friends. Being visited is one of the greatest lucks I have. Better said, having people who love me and visit me is the greatest luck I have.
A couple of weekends ago, I was lucky enough to experience two of my favorite things: having people visit me and going to take photos of musicians – although my favorites are studio days. On top of that, she is also my friend, co-worker and former roommate: LOLA, or as I went to see her, LA PAINS.
After taking a car trip from Barcelona to Madrid, it didn't take long to find my house (lucky to have parking). She called me on the phone and I went down. Loaded with t-shirts, records, instruments, many more gadgets, a gray Golf and a smile on her face. That's how she is, although absolutely destroyed, with hundreds of kilometers behind her and barely having slept, she never has a bad gesture, a bad word and she never lacks a smile wherever she goes. "Like at home".
I knew she was going to have a busy weekend so I tried to make her life as easy as possible. I gave her my welcome pack that my guests have, and left her with her things.
The next day was an intense day, full of emotions and nothing more than the last concert of the tour. I offered to take things to her at sound check. So I did it. Or I tried.
Being at 8M (women’s day) in the capital, the demonstrations called in the morning and afternoon, and the magnitude of these, together with the fact that the concert could not be deeper in the city centre, complicated the maneuver more than it should have but, after my taxi driver got lost 6 times, left me as close as he could, and an interesting walk loaded with things, I MANAGED TO GET THERE.
And here the real adventure begins. Living from within an environment full of energy, emotions on the surface and with the true privilege of being in charge of immortalizing everything in a few negatives so as to never forget what was experienced and felt there. And without coverage. CADAVRA, a room where I have been on other occasions also taking photos, is a bunker that stops time, that forces you to live in the moment and not be distracted. I was absolutely incommunicado from 7 in the afternoon until 1 in the morning (and what a feeling).
As a good end to the tour and last minute moments, the sound check did not lack seemingly impossible problems that in the end are not that big of a deal. A test worthy of a concert, it was the prelude to what we would find later.
I started seeing familiar faces. Reunions in these places are something very special. There are people that I only see there. No matter how much time passes, it is always something you look forward to, and it seems to me to be a contained moment full of magic. Even if it's a simple hello. All these little details and moments, layers and layers of emotions that pile up, is what makes it so unique and special and makes everything make sense.
That began to fill until there was no room for even a pin. We couldn't believe it. I barely changed the negatives on my camera (and with the help of some of my concert encounters).
The album of this concert is very particular. The concert was an emotional journey of styles and genres through which LA PAINS took and guided us, in a boat in which we were all.
A journey that begins with the letter R (from Raíces (roots), the name of her album), telling us about her native Loja, her differences, disagreements and discomfort with it. Continue with A: Malaga. Place where he studied and lived for many years, fills us with sun, beach, vacations... To continue with the I (Ice), representing ice, cold and one of the most enriching life experiences he has had: her year in Sweden . C takes us to the time of her most intense life and when she fell in love with the city where she lived (and lives again now) Barcelona. A pause in their journey is the inspiring Galician lands in E, a song that has several songs, moments and moods, to finally end at the origins: S. S brings us to the initial box, Loja, but already reconciled with the motherland, home and the place where she grew up.
All this, along with some new exclusive song (which we will be able to hear soon), took the audience on an emotional journey, full of ups and downs, perfectly balanced, in which we were all captivated, without forgetting her flute, which everyone loved (myself included).
After many photos, a lot of music and many emotions, the end. End of tour. After all the kilometers that had been traveled, the technical problems, different audiences, places, capacity,... The cycle closes. A project that I have seen grow since its beginnings and that I hope to talk to you much more about.
It leaves us with a bittersweet, nostalgic and emotional feeling. An addictive sensation that has me hooked since I was 18 to this world that I admire and love so much and in which I hope to be for many years (and about which I have no idea): music, musicians and the magic around them.
Last, but not least, thanks for putting on an A+ concert to both LA PAINS and all the artists who were in charge of making an unforgettable night: Patricia Lint, Elena Mesa, Juan, Manu, the girls from El Piti de la Suerte...and to everyone who made everything work perfectly and we went home with a smile.
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