On October 15, 2009, the Chevy Rockets performed at ND/Ateneo Theatre of Buenos Aires. I knew beforehand that I would enjoy every single minute of the show, and actually that was the case.
I see Vasco Bariain at his summit as a singer, and he is alone right there. From the top of my mind I cannot find, among Spanish speaking rock and blues singers, another male voice that compares to his… and he benchmarks well with the best English speaking ones. His technical toolkit is always subordinated to emotional communication: the audience enjoys but does not notice his techniques, as far as they keep transported by the stream of feelings.
As an unexpected bonus among the encores, the Chevys offered Joe Cocker’s super soul version of "A Little Help from my Friends". At the counter-singing, the voices of the guest performers Rusito Diego Beiserman, with a beautiful high register, and Mariana Sosa, a mezzo-soprano with impeccable R&B resources, sounded exceptionally well.
The Chevys are at very high, world-class level. Juan Pillado demolishes the drums with no apparent effort. Together with the seamless perfection of Gabriel Gómez’s bass guitar, they build a rythm base that sounds at the same time powerful and dancing. Gómez, Vasco and Pillado are the three historical members of the band.
The Chevys have always been fantastic musicians, and those who joined along time brought in a similar, superlative level: Jorge Blanco’s virtuous guitar, Walter Galeazzi’s multi-expressive keyboards, and the somewhat jazz-contemporary biased harmonica of Leandro Rao, another skilled player at his debut with the Chevys.
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Support musicians also shined bright. Sol Pillado’s percussion and the metals of Lucía De Luca (saxo), Jesús Silva (trombone) and Miguel Sinagra (trumpet) gave density to the mosaic of sounds and orchestral breadth to the band. Actually at ND/Ateneo the Chevys brought onto stage a real show, with capital letters, similar to what we see on international bands’ DVDs.
It is true that, at some moments, I missed the road atmosphere of the old times, the beer poured on the floor, the visits to lovely underground enclaves. But, no doubt, the Chevys have kept growing, and the changes that came as a consequence of growth are okay to the extent that the essence of the ritual remains untouched. To certify this, the old and the new songs were there (among the new ones, Jorge Blanco’s sensitive piece dedicated to the people who died at Cromañon), and earlier band members were also invited onto stage: Mario "el Tano” Pugliese and his wise guitar, Blanco’s predecessor Javier Amoretti, the keyboardist Federico Sellés. The wineskin circulated around, no matter if the fancy seats of the theatre were in danger of receiving the splash. Fun and emotion as always. My heart does belong to the Chevys.
A word appart for Pulpo Negro’s high quality production. The robot-arm cammera that moved stage-wide (same as in Scorsese’s “Shine a light”) anticipated that the coming DVD will look fantastic. Really good bands preceded the Chevys: Stuka-racuda, Secuaz and Consumo. Their styles seemed a bit too diverse; maybe the selection should have pursued greater unity.
In January, 2010, the Chevys will move into studio to record their fifth CD.
Related links: Chevy Rockets' official site; Chevy Rockets' Facebook; “Buena Estrella”; “With A Little Help From My Friends”; “No pibe”; “El Ritual” (Warning: all videos posted in YouTube were shot by amateur cammera men).
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