Photo Credit: Geek7

Nou Mestalla? Meh. Agora-Shmagora. The most highly anticipated upcoming construction (at least in our household) has suddenly become Valencia’s new casino, to be situated on Cortes Valencianas, close to the Palacio de Congreso.

According to Las Provincias, the new casino — run by the same group who owns the nearby Casino Monte Picayo — will have a modern design, and two floors. The top level will be the games room, and below will be a cafeteria and bar. This will be the first and only casino in the city. I’m sure we will certainly be there frequently.

Gambling in Spain is legal and liberalized. As anyone who has experienced the madness of the Gordo lottery knows, Spaniards love to gamble — whether on the lottery, sporting events, card games or in casinos. I’m sure the casino will be greeted warmly by Valencia’s citizens… and it’s proximity to the new football stadium give people plenty of reason to visit this (not especially beautiful) corner of the city.

- Casino Blog

So far we’ve covered a couple venues where you can see Flamenco in Valencia. But if you’re a fan of Tango, it’s a bit tougher to find. If you know of a place, please leave a comment.

We went for the Tango night at the Magarota (location), which they do every Thursday night starting a 11pm. Magarota is a neat little bar on Calle Murillo worth visiting if you get sick of the same old places on Calle Caballeros.

In the video above you can enjoy Carlos de la Peña from Argentina.

- ABC Bed & Breakfast Valencia

Sala El Loco (location) is one of the top concert venues in the city. In addition to music, they feature theater and comedy acts.

This Friday night, you can check out the Friki day of pride party, for just a €5 entrance. “Friki” is the cute Spanish translation of Freak. Bands like Rajoy Division and Ligres will be performing for what’s sure to be an interesting crowd.

If freaks aren’t your thing, still make sure and check out the other events on their funky website. Their concerts and events are pretty eclectic; the emphasis seems to be on “cool”.

Location on our Valencia Map

Scottish rockers Franz Ferdinand are going to headline the 2009 MTV Winter festival, which will be held at the Ciudad de las Artes & Ciencias on February 24th!

Sweet!! They’ll be touring Spain in support of their upcoming album, “Tonight: Franz Ferdinand”. They’re one of the best bands of recent years, and are supposed to be excellent live.

More than 35,000 people showed up for last year’s edition of the free festival, which featured The Cure (pfah), HIM (meh) and From First to Last (huh?). MTV Winter 2009 is already better, and the other acts for the are still unannounced. We’ll be sure to fill you in once we know more. Exciting.

To get you in the mood, here’s Franz Ferdinand’s video for Michael, a song which I like to imagine they wrote just for me…

MTV Press Release (in Spanish)

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