hola from basque country
Spain:San Sebastian:Divernet
have just finished a week of travel from madrid to san sebastian, beginning with a surprisingly awesome punk rock show by NOMEANSNO in madrid and culminating last night with the radiohead show in bilbao. arrived in bilbao without a place to stay and by the good graces of helpful souls and other helpful soles, ended up at a spanish lady´s house with an array of strange characters, a likely setting for a twin peaks meets three´s company. spent the first night visiting the casco viejo (old town), in particular, the dirge of heavy metal alley, a street with only punk and metal bars, and cheep beers to boot. there was a bar that had a giant battle ax on the wall. it was great to hear metal and be in a city where its appreciated, unlike fagly athens. radiohead and the guggenheim were a perfect intertwining pair, in many ways their meandering art rock belongs on exhibit there…the show was at the plaza de toros, a thoroughly relaxed affair, general admission, cheapish beers and popcorn, dusty dirt stadium floor, fortunately, no bulls. got in and got right up front where i remained for the duration of the 2 hour show, now and again being swayed by the giant mosh-like pit that behaved like a drunken amoeba. “pyramid song” rules for those that havent heard it, but im sure all you napster freaks already have the album, they played new and old, some from the bends. it rocked at spare moments but was mostly the new experimental hypno-pop they continue to define, but was a fantastic show.