Coque mesh in Madrid: the (best) show must continue

In his deployment of the El Crac Tour, Coque Malla conquers the Rialto Theater in Madrid on three consecutive nights exhibiting a powerful show with nine musicians and a luxury guest: Luz Casal. By Arancha Moreno.

Coque MallaRialto Theatre, MadridApril 25, 2021

Text: ARANCHA MORENO.Photo (from Friday the 23rd): MARTA SANZ.

Coque Malla warned me a few days ago, in a talk prior to the El Crac Tour: «I want to go back big and wild, and with a show concept as if we were in the Maracana stadium, rock and roll up, all the hits, all the dancing, Ronaldos, all the artillery. I need it, it's a matter of vitality. People are going to have a bad time." We were going to have such a bad time that I didn't take a tape recorder or paper to the Rialto, with the idea of ​​seeing the concert as a mere spectator. But what happened last night in the Madrid theater, in front of 500 people, disarmed me. To me, who already have a few concert tours of Coque Malla between my chest and back.

Because, in this time of restrictions and acoustic proposals, I no longer remembered what it means to attend a concert by a full band, with five musicians on stage and a wind quartet. I no longer remembered the magic of those concerts so explosive that you feel unable to take your eyes off what is happening on stage. A vibrant, rich and enveloping setlist. The selection of the repertoire that Coque Malla prepares for his live shows could be studied in schools, because it is not an easy task to combine so many environments and walk, from rock, to so many genres —and atmospheres— with that naturalness. And all with a perfectly millimeter narrative speech. He opened with "El crac universal", that dream he had about a hedonistic and post-pandemic return, as if inviting us to what was going to happen next: two and a half hours in which he gave us back the old pleasure of attending a concert by the greats. , without leaving a single bullet in the chamber. Letting off steam with his winks at Ronaldo's past with “Keep it”, “I want us to stick together”, “Salty flavor”, “I can't live without you” and —yes, you can play with the past now, hairs to the sea!— to the very youthful song "Goodbye dad." Having fun with rock and also playing at being yeyé (“Only music remains”), soulero (“Listen to me”), funky and disco (“A red ribbon, a hole”). Poignant with “The Last Man on Earth” and “He Let Me Go,” although this time the wrong verse slipped through. Oh, Coque: a week ago, a white glove thief covered that same song on the piano without missing a comma. Of course, the thief was your friend Iván Ferreiro, who has also just started an essential tour called Cuentos y canciones.

With almost four decades of recording, Malla could stick to the hits and the most popular and end the night without ruffling his hair, but he likes to ruffle his hair on stage and stir up the audience in the seats. He prefers to surprise with more hidden gems, like “Let yourself go”, because Termonuclear is still “almost” his favorite album, perhaps because his greatness was not discovered in time. Then he grabs the stool and jokes with the whims of the public, because no matter what he touches, someone will complain about the one that was missing, and more than one laughs as if agreeing with him. Luckily, he pays less attention to complaints than to his own instinct, and he dares to cover a song from 1932! called “Silence”, which he heard from Ibrahim Ferrer. And she does it in the company of an exceptional guest: a masterful Luz Casal who unrolls her voice like someone spreading a beautiful red carpet, with that elegance of hers, the daughter of restraint and good taste. Delicate and courteous, she hopes not to make a mistake at any entrance or exit, she says, before confessing that she knows practically all of Coque's repertoire. And it is that, although we are not used to seeing them share the stage, they did so more than thirty years ago: at the end of the eighties, Luz accompanied Los Ronaldos on a set singing “What are we going to do”.

But we are in 2021 and now it is time to look to the more immediate past, so Malla and Casal perform the ranchera “Hace tiempo” together. A song that has always looked great on stage, acoustically and sheltered by the choirs of Toni Brunet and Héctor Rojo. Tonight, with Luz singing it at the top of her lungs away from the microphone, she shines splendid. As splendid as the roaring and dark “Todo todo mundo arde”, that tribal song that Coque could allude to when he talks about the new meaning that some of his lyrics have acquired since we are in the midst of a virological war. What a social portrait of the present: «The city is dying, / the old people laugh / we are not scared because / the captain appears / tells us to row / where we don't know, neither does he…».

I said that I no longer remembered a stage display like those of yesteryear, with the four winds led by Miguel Malla embellishing each piece, going up and down that step to enter and exit the stage (Coque, you know, enjoys doing work the whole team). He had almost forgotten the solvency of Gabriel Marijuán's drums, David Lads' four keyboards and the two squires of the strings, Brunet (guitar) and Rojo (bass). But Coque has brought us all together, them and us, and has kept us terribly entertained, to make us forget that we are still wearing a mask and invite us to go through, as he said, the mirror of the wonderful Alicia. He has run, guitar in hand, like his admired Chuck Berry, and has danced, now without a guitar, like his idolized Michael Jackson. He has displayed his scenic, interpretive, rhythmic and lighting mastery!, and his magic tricks. That's why when I leave the theater I think about how lucky we are that, in that bifurcation that he faced in the last century, Coque chose music over cinema. Because we have a two for one on the tables. His thing goes beyond the talent of making great songs: Malla is pure show. And today he has given us a beautiful gift, he has given us a concert like the ones before. Intense and fierce, beautiful and calm. He has built a house in which we feel safe, like in his beloved “Berlin”, and he has reminded us that another world is possible, and that it is getting a little closer. It has enthralled us, it has bewitched us and it has restored our faith.