We were so looking forward to going back to Es Gremi and kicking off a new edition of Mallorca Live Nights. Our winter concert series hadn’t set foot in the legendary Palma venue since March 2020 with Novedades Carminha. Almost two years later, we began 2022 with a true Christmas present. Los Zigarros were the main act of the evening, a night where rock and roll was king and the Mallorcan Roulotte played as the opening band. Amongst the audience we saw members of different Mallorca bands like La Granja, Anegats or Urtain, just to name a few examples.
Miquel García’s and Bernat Company’s band took the stage, brilliantly backed by Marc Grasas, Tito Dávila and Pep Estrada. They were showcasing songs from their latest album, Lemans released in late 2020. Songs with a timeless sound and lyrics that, in some cases, reflect these strange years we have become accustomed to, like ‘Codo con Codo’, which serves as a reflection of an era from which we have not yet emerged, although we are beginning to see the end. The setlist delighted the audience, both those who knew them and those who didn’t, with songs like ‘Oxígeno’ or ‘Rock and roll souvenir’ all of which have the perfect ingredients to please good Rock and Roll lovers.
There was an especially emotional moment that pulls at your heartstrings just by remembering it. With great strength of character, Miquel García dedicated the song ‘Mal de pair’ to his recently deceased father and the initial picking was similar to Lou Reed’s ‘Walk on the walk side’, producing a lump in the throat to all those present. The energy in the room transitioned into some Beatles rock as the intro to ‘Get Back’ opened ‘Casi imperfectos’, a preview of what was to come, a beautiful close to an evening with a strong Rolling Stones’ feel. Great sound from a band of excellent musicians with a mutual understanding, both on and off stage.
And finally the great performance everyone was waiting for, the perfect Christmas gift for many of those present. Los Zigarros came out on stage like a real hurricane. Ovidi and Álvaro Tormo, Adrián Ribes and Nacho Tamarit make up the classic formation of guitar, bass and drums and they don’t need more to sound convincing. It must have been hard for the band not to be able to showcase their album ¿Qué demonios hago yo aquí? for months, as they began 2020 with a two night sold out show at the Circo Price in Madrid. In late 2020, they released the concert as a live album, an impressive document which features collaborations with Ariel Rot, Fito, Leiva, Calamaro or Carlos Tarque amongst others, true history of Spanish rock and roll.
It was pretty obvious that there was a craving for this concert and the audience’s response was incredible, practically packing Es Gremi. It had been almost 10 years since the Valencian band had performed on the island and that’s how its singer remembered it, thanking Mallorca Live. We assume that this is an especially emotional gig for the Tormo brothers, who mentioned that they lived in Mallorca for years and surely many memories must have come to mind. ‘¿Qué demonios hago yo aquí?’, ‘Apaga la radio’ or ‘A todo que sí’ were some of the powerful shots to which the public reacted euphorically.
Ovidi is a great frontman who won over the public from the beginning and who, surrounded by great sound and great songs, knew how to win over all the attendees. ‘Hablar, hablar, hablar’ and “bailar, bailar, bailar” (dance, dance, dance), as they say in one of the hits the audience sang all together, is all we want to do and, at last, carefully and with caution, little by little we will get there with evenings like the Mallorca Live Nights opening show.
An enthusiastic spectator approached Roulotte’s Miquel García at the end of the gig to tell him that she had seen Los Zigarros at a Fito concert and she became a follower from then on. At Es Gremi she had discovered Roulotte thanks to the fact that they opened for Los Zigarros and she loved their concert… And we celebrate this. Let’s keep the virtuous circle of rock and roll going.
Author: Pau Forner / Photos: Ángel Romo