We went to the second of four nights of London's Mexican 'Day of the Dead' festival that is brought to us by Wahaca restaurant alongside the Mexican Government, Nomad, Corona Beer and Olmeca Altos Tequila and our host venue for the evening: Waterloo's Old Vic Tunnels.
We arrived to find a huge queue outside and tried out best to skip it with the usual "my name's on the guest list", only to be told to join the queue. That meant by the time we did get inside we had missed the Keston Cobblers Club altogether, though we soon got sidetracked by the stunning art of Graciela Iturbide and Nancy Locke both of which focussed on the Day of the Dead in Mexico and showed skeletons in dresses and graveyards hung in the rather spooky old railway arches beneath Waterloo station.
We then arrived at the Bunker Bar stage where VadoInMessico were playing some pretty freaky and very percussion-driven, not quite Mexican but certainly Mexican-influenced music. In places, it was almost drum and bass but never quite heavy enough to actually be drum and bass tunes. They were fun and the songs were sung in both Spanish and English.
After we got a couple of cocktails and picked up some of the tortillas and guacamole that was being given out to help the music sink in, we wandered further into the tunnels, through the main stage area and had a look in on the showing of Santa Sangre with a live soundtrack. It looked very cool but I wanted to see the whole film rather than just dipping in and out of it. Thankfully it has just come out on DVD and Blu-ray fully re-mastered so that won't be too difficult to arrange, although I'm sure the live sound added plenty to the spookiness of the film as the bit we did see was well bizarre.
From there, we decided it was time to use the food vouchers that came with our guest list tickets. Yes we were being spoiled rotten and I wish to thank Beth at Republic Media for sorting this out for us. The Wahaca Tacos were really tasty and good but it was so dark in there that it was difficult to work out what the sauces they had were.
We then had a good look at the Theatre of Dolls exhibit. That was also pretty freaky and cool at the same time, but it was nothing as to what we found as we wandered on and into the Day of the Dead Altar by Harry De Quetteville and Vivienne Griffin. It had loads of candles burning in front of it and a large quote from that well known Mexican, Samuel Johnson, as well as on the walls the super freaky and scary art of Dr Lakra, plus Nancy Fout's impressive installation of a Horse that wasn't a horse.
All of which was enough to send us back to the bar for another cocktail as it was almost time for RODRIGO Y GABRIELA to play. well drinks in hand we got into the main tunnel just as they came on and opened with one of their best known tunes. Tamacun. Damn can they play! They were playing acoustic guitars throughout the set and just watching Gabriela's hands moving over the fretboard and hitting the body of her guitar to provide them with as much percussion as she could get was magical.
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Now I'm no expert on the kind of not-quite-mariachi meets rock guitar tunes they specialize in but they are bewitching and Gabriela's habit of pogoing while playing for most of the set helps to get the crowd going which was fine on the loud numbers but unfortunately on the quieter tunes a lot of people decided to talk rather than listen, which considering the tickets for this were not exactly cheap was a bit surprising.
So much so that when Rodrigo did a solo number his sound was almost entirely lost in the talking. A real shame as there was some very subtle flourishes going on as he built the tune up. It just got lost before Gabriela came bouncing back out to up the sound and get the crowd listening again as they bewitched us with some new tunes from the next album that they haven't recorded yet but sound very cool indeed.
Gabriela then had a solo tune that also suffered from too much talking but she had a bit more bite to her turn than Rodrigo and held a few more of the crowd with her. Itt was followed by a tune that had a big Hendrix influence on it which is no mean feat when you're playing merely two acoustic guitars.
Gabriela then gave us a little speech and introduced tonight's special guest who they had never met until today. Out came the legendary PHIL MANZANERA who was playing an electric guitar to join them on a very cool version of Juan Loco. Phil seemed to be doing all he could to keep up with them and added some cool flourishes and lead lines into the mix and his spot was over far too soon. They then played Buster Voodoo to close the set. It got the crowd going some and provided the ideal finale.
They soon came back for a well-deserved encore which they spent playing two new songs that they seemed very proud of. Both are due on the album they are about to go and record when the current world tour finishes. They still have dates left in Europe the UK, Australia and Japan between now and the end of January, so find out more at www.rodgab.com. They finished the show for good with a very well received version of Diablo Rojo which left most of us wanting more.
For anyone with some energy left after all this it was time for the Communion DJs to take over and keep the party going. This was a great and very full on evening out.
Rodrigo & Gabriela online
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