Jeff Tweedy in Valencia from Valencia Blog on Vimeo.

Last night, we went to see Wilco’s frontman Jeff Tweedy put on a solo show at Heineken Greenspace (location), one of Valencia’s top concert venues. It’s the first rock concert I’ve been to since moving here 6 months ago. Well, we did see Dover’s free show during Fallas for about 5 minutes, but I’m not counting that.

Wilco are one of America’s best bands and are incredible live. Solo, Tweedy was a lot more mellow than in one of his band’s raucous, high-energy shows. It was just him and an assortment of about 8 guitars on stage — no other accompaniment. The track list he chose was like a greatest hits tour through his career. He played songs from all of Wilco’s albums, and even one or two from Uncle Tupelo (arguably the founders of alternative country).

Greenspace as a venue was good, if not great. It’s quite large, and this was too intimate a show for such a spacious area. It wasn’t nearly full, which turned out to be a good thing, given the heat and utter lack of air circulation. Poor Tweedy was completely drenched in sweat during his entire performance.

This was the first stop of his tour through Spain; he’s also appearing in Mallorca, Altea and Murica. If you’re a fan of Wilco, you really should go. It’s a shame Valencia doesn’t attract more high-profile international acts… any ideas why?

Wilco’s Website
Location of Greenspace on our Valencia Map

We wrote about the T-Shirt Festival a couple weeks ago, and the line-up has just recently been announced. Looks pretty exciting… Primal Scream, <<rinôçérôse>> and Groove Armada are all appearing.

It looks like there will be three stages. Here’s the full lineup:
escenario XL
Primal Scream, <<rinôçérôse>>, Najwajean, Fangoria, Jet Lag, Poet in Progress, Polar, Erick Morillo, Groove Armada (dj set), Fedde Le Grand, Mark Knight, Todd Terry

escenario M (Defected in the House)
The Shapeshifters, Sandy Rivera, Copyright, TFC, Roog (Hardsoul), Simon Dunmore, Shovell (live on percussion)

escenario S (Playboy Cabaret)
Jay-J, Danny Marquez, David Gausa, Southmen, Simone, Geena

2-day tickets cost €94, and the festival takes place on the 19th and 20th of September.

More Info at the Official Website
Our Earlier Post about the Festival

Gypsy Prince in Valencia from Valencia Blog on Vimeo.

Meanwhile, we’ve been back to Radio City for the third time: taking our guests to see Flamenco is now on our must do list, and for some reason Tuesdays always works best. But we’re dying to check out Flamenco nights in other bars.

Anyway, the performance of this young flamenco dancer was amazing. At first I thought it was a girl but after hearing "guapo" I realized it was a boy. He couldn’t have been older than 14. It was the best flamenco show I have seen (out of three!)

Does anyone has more information about him? I would really like to take some portraits… he’d almost be a guarantee to produce some interesting images.

Olé!

More info: Flamenco at Readio City in Valencia

For two days in September, Valencia will play host to some of the world’s best electronic music at the T-Shirt Festival, being held on the 19th and 20th at the Centro de Eventos de Feria Valencia (location).

Well… the site selling tickets claims it will be some of the world’s best electronic and house music, which I suppose they would do. But so far, there’s no information about which acts are appearing. The festival’s website is well-designed, but devoid of content.

Still, I think the T-Shirt Festival is going to be a big deal, if only because of the full-page ad they’ve taken out in this morning’s dailies. And, I was able to to uncover this wonderful promotional video — worth watching!

Anyone able to put together a video this cool is going to put on a great show.

We’ll update this post once we know more about the DJs and bands playing the festival. And if you have more information, please feel free to share it in the comments or forums!

T-Shirt Festival: Official Website
Location on our Valencia Map

The beautiful Gardens of the Viveros is playing host to 15 concerts during the month of July, as part of the city’s Feria de Julio. All begin at 22:15.

The series kicks off tonight with crooner Salvatore Adamo. Other highlights include Gloria Gaynor (whether she’ll sing “I Will Survive”? Even odds!), Boney M, the slightly disturbing Loreena McKennitt and Pereza. A full list of concerts is here.

We’re most excited about Elbicho, who play fusion flamenco (better than it sounds!) Check it:

Tickets prices vary according to the concert, and are available at El Corte Inglés, Bancaja, Carrefour, Fnac, Ticktackticket, or the ticket offices of the Viveros 2 hours before the concerts begin.

We’ve mentioned the festivities for the Virgen de los Desemparados on Hola Valencia Blog before. Of course, we made sure to be there, and took some pictures documenting it.

There will be two posts about this festival - this one will be about the music and the dance on Saturday night in the Plaza de la Virgen (location).

We showed up at 22:30 - people were just starting to arrive and the plaza slowly filled up. At 23:00 we were treated with classical music and 10 minutes before midnight, we walked over to the Torres de Serranos (location) to be really close to the fireworks. These fireworks were nothing compared to the Nit de Foc during Fallas but it was still pretty fun. I think for next year, though, we’ll just stay at the plaza. From there you can see the fireworks as well, and then you’re able to claim a good first row spot to watch the dance which immediately follows.

The traditional dance was breathtaking! Hundred of dancers took at least 20 minutes to march into the plaza and the sight of them all dancing simultaneously is one you won’t soon forget.

Here are some snapshots you might enjoy:

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Last weekend, we went to the Feria de Abril festivities being held in the Turia riverbed by the Puente de Calatrava.

Feria de Abril is a hugely popular festival in Andalusia — particularly Sevilla. Being party people, the large population of Andalusians in Valencia have set up a mini-fiesta for themselves. We went during lunchtime, when not much was going on, and it was like stepping into a David Lynch movie…

Seriously, that sounds like a movie I want to watch!

The tent was full, and we were the only foreigners — so I think we got a good taste of real Andalusian culture. And it tasted weird!

Location on our Valencia Map

“O Valencia” is one of the best tracks off The Decemberists’ highly acclaimed 2006 album The Crane Wife. They’re one of America’s most important indie bands (no offense, Elk City), and I was naturally curious about this song.

After listening to the track a few times and watching the video, I’m pretty sure that the titular Valencia doesn’t refer to our favorite city. The lyrics tell the story of a doomed Romeo & Juliet-type love affair, and the video casts Valencia as the hotel where the final action goes down.

Still, art is always open to interpretation. And one line in the chorus piqued my interest: “Valencia, and I swear to the stars, I’ll burn this whole city down“. That can’t be an accident: Valencia + whole city burning down? Surely, a reference to la Cremà!

Judge for yourselves. The song is awesome, and the extended video is pretty good too:

More Information at Pitchfork
The Decemberists: Official Page

Fallas seems as though it were just yesterday, but there can apparently be no rest in this city.

On the second Sunday of May, the festivals celebrating Our Lady of the Forsaken (La Virgen de los Desamparados) begin. Actually, the festivities truly begin the day before.

Mostly for ourselves, we’ve compiled a list of events ordered by day. Planning begins now! Use this as your cheat sheet to the party. And don’t forget that we’re “Virgen de los Desamparados”-virgins, so let us know if we’ve got any information mixed up or have forgotten something important.

Saturday, May 10th

• Orchestral Concert in the Plaza de la Virgen
• Fireworks near the Torres de Serrano (location) at midnight, following the concert
• Danzà, in which more than 200 pairs dance in honor of the Virgen
• The beginning of pilgrimages from many outlying towns into Valencia

Their will be crowds accumulating from 8pm onward, but the true action won’t begin until around 11pm.

Sunday, May 11th

• Church services at 5am (!!!) and 8am
• The Traslado: the move of the Virgin from the basilica to the nearby cathedral at 10:30am. Hordes of believers will be doing their best to touch Her Holiness during the move.
• At 18:30 is the Official Procession, during which thousands of Valencians in traditional garb will be parading down the streets, while onlookers shower them with rose petals thrown from balconies.

Monday, May 12th

• Traditional Market in the Plaza de la Reina (location), lasting all day.
• At 20:30, two hours of choral music & regional dancing in the Plaza de la Virgen

Thursday, May 15th

• Festival of the Florists, during which the temple will be completely adorned with flowers.

Wednesday, May 21st

• Besamanos Público which marks the end of the festival. Unbelievable queues of people wishing to kiss the hand of the Virgin will form, beginning at 7am.

Of course, there are daily events during the course of festival, but most are entirely religious and boring not for us. Those listed above seem to be the highlights.

Most of this information comes from ValenciaValencia.com, Wikipedia (in Spanish), and the basilica’s webpage which contains an exhaustive list of events.

Every Tuesday night, there is a Flamenco session at Radio City (location). We went this week, and had an excellent time.

I’m not an expert in Flamenco (and in fact, before I bought a Camarón de la Isla album 4 weeks ago, I had never really listened to it at all), but I think the performance in Radio City was pretty great. The performers all seemed to be a part of the same, extended Gypsy family. There were two singers, an older matriarchal figure & a younger one who looked as though she was giving birth, so pained was her expression while singing. Two guitarists provided the accompaniment — a grizzled, older dude who didn’t look up even once, and a much more lively & handsome younger man. ¡Gitano que guapo!

The musicians were fun enough to listen to (”fun” might be the wrong word — whatever it was they were wailing about cannot have been happy), but the highlight came when the dancers took the stage. First, a tall and very skinny guy stomped about, whipping his jacket from side to side and whipping himself into a frenzy. It was intense. At the apex of the dance he suddenly stopped and stared into the crowd, and at the same time the matriarch let loose with a wild gypsy howl — awesome.

And the second dancer, a woman, was even better. Every muscle was taut while she danced, and the tall guy was clapping the whole time for her, keeping the beat, yelling “Olé” and “Guapa” every once in a while. It really seemed as though the whole clan didn’t care whether an audience was there or not.

It must be said, though, that this was a stage performance, during which the audience was asked to remain quiet — not one of the wild, participatory sessions that can be found in Seville or elsewhere in Andalusia. Still, it was an incredible time.

The price is €7 and includes a drink. The show starts at 23:00, but show up a half-hour beforehand to ensure you get seats. There’s no need to buy tickets beforehand. As always, make sure to check the website of Radio City, to verify that this information hasn’t changed.

Link: Radio City
More information on Flamenco in Valencia, at ValenciaValencia.com
Location on our Google Map