Part Two | by Enrique Coyotzi
After spending the whole day all by myself during the second day of Vive Latino, I decided to attend the third and last chapter of this year’s edition with some of my buddies. I spent the last pesos I had left for the ticket and hurried to the entrance because Jessy Bulbo was about to start rocking out. Unlike second day which had been frenetic, on Sunday the environment was pretty relaxed; of course it was early but you could tell already it wouldn’t be as crazy due to the visibly decrease of assistants. Not even booking an international acclaimed act like the British electronic duo The Chemical Brothers as headliners could achieve the same success Caifanes had obtained with their sold-out historic night. But really, none of this mattered cause ahead of the journey awaited wonderful performances.
My friends decided to check out someone else’s show, so I hurried to Escenario Indio and got just in time when Jessy Bulbo was taking off a red-blood colored scarf that revealed her figure wearing a skin-color bodysuit. Visuals were lysergic; I swear there even was a drawing of Top Cat on acid. With probably the most elaborated show of the whole day (masked back-up dancers with inflatable guitars and trapping ribbons), under an assassin sun, Bulbo put the audience into rocking mood with set opener “Mala Respuesta”, some of Telememe’s best songs like “Jaslo Casvie 1” or lead single “La Cruda Moral” and brought the slam (mosh-pit) with cult darlings “Maldito” and “Sexo Sin Amor”.
I would’ve switched the order of presentations; Chikita Violenta is always amazing live and this performance was no exception, but as lead singer Luis Arce suggested, it is indeed very hard to surpass Jessy Bulbo’s explosive show. They also experienced some technical problems; the audio disappeared for a couple seconds but the crowd demonstrated support with unstoppable handclapping. I was super excited with “Laydown” and TRE3S’ standouts “Tired” and “Roni”, this last one accompanied by Rey Pila who would take the stage after their partners. I met my comrades while the crowd was having a fantastic time with Rey Pila; you would’ve imagined first single “No Longer Fun” resonating the most, but Solorzano’s cover of his previous band, Los Dynamite’s “Frenzy” caused a bigger emotion than any of the songs from Rey Pila.
The first rocking third of the day ended; my buddies didn’t care moving to the main stage to catch up Fidel Nadal but I wasn’t going to miss this opportunity. You just had to walk a little into the audience to find tons of joints and long-time supporters of Nadal high as kites. I’m afraid this will sound totally cliché, but honestly, Fidel Nadal’s presentation was a moment of union between all of us assistants who were letting ourselves go with the Peace & Love vibe. Jumping from genre to genre, abruptly interrupting his band after a song started and getting the crowd chaotic constantly when asking them “¡¿seguimos?!”, Fidel Nadal redefined the swag term of reggae in his Vive Latino appearance.
Sacrificing the chance of watching Andrea Balency Trío performance, I moved to Carpa Roja to meet my friends. Bad move because I had to stand Telefunka’s final songs off of their live set. Since their beginnings I’ve always found this group terribly average and this time around was no exception. Thankfully La Mala Rodríguez was next so she would make up for these forgettable ten minutes. We got to Escenario Indio (again!); La Mala’s outfit seemed to be of some dominatrix hipster taken out of a daydream anime. Another one of Vive Latino’s surprise collaborations, Rodríguez was rapping with Kinky’s Gil Cerezo and delivering some verses of Kinky’s “Más” when we arrived. By the time she interpreted “Por La Noche” it was a striking ferocious moment. She closed with one of my favorite ghetto-living pieces “La Niña”.
We then moved up to the stadium stands just when The National was starting. It still seems random to me why they were selected to play in this festival as a headliner and still consider them one of the most boring overrated bands in the current indie landscape. It was enervating watching them and I couldn’t stand their whole performance. It was time to split up roads again and I didn’t have the minimum intention in watching Adanowsky so I opted to move again to Carpa Roja on my own for Disco Ruido’s electropoppy full-of-dance event. All acts had begun on time so far, and although ten minutes late, it probably was the revelation of this third day to me; the only part of the festival that featured heavy resonating beats and a celebration in the vein of a Justice concert.
Considering Disco Ruido had commenced kind of late, I was worried I wouldn’t be in time for Carla Morrison’s triumphant Vive Latino premiere and I was right for being preoccupied This was the first time I’d visited Carpa Intolerante and I had no idea it would be so tiny, even though I already had the feeling it wouldn’t do justice to Carla Morrison persona. I had to push a couple of girls to get a decent place; this was 20 minutes before Morrison began, if I had gotten there later it would’ve been almost impossible obtaining a decent place. The whole tent was full and audience was salivating for her to show up. She was received with the warmest ovation of the whole journey and it was just a matter of minutes before she put tears in the eyes of the assistants, including me. She opened with “Esta Soledad”, then her band that consisted of Juan Manuel Torreblanca, Mariel Mariel, Marian Ruzzi and Andrés Landón (Sonido Landon) joined her to continue breaking hearts with “Compartir”. The singer played the most heart-trenching songs off Mientras Tú Dormías, a breathtaking take of “Lágrimas” and invited Natalia Lafourcade to sing with her “Pajarito del Amor”. The performance was enchanting and it was over very fast, but it left me a tremendous satisfaction on my chest.
Babasónicos were closing their set at main stage where The Chemical Brothers were about to perform, but I didn’t have the chance of catching up the last songs they played. I met with my buddies and we moved to the main stage. After the melancholic mood Carla Morrison had put me into, it was awkward getting into the party with The Chemical Brothers but really, it just took a minute before they kicked off with “Galvanize” to get me dancing. The third day of Vive Latino 2011 was the best of all; I could enjoy a greater number of performances, had the chance of sharing some of them with my friends and finished a long day with an enormous big beat party and hypnotic visuals.