Two amazing concerts in two days

I spent Sunday morning working on an essay and eating with my family. A lot. We had what I thought was lunch at 12:30, empanadas and bread with palta (avocado), a very typical Chilean meal. At 2:30, I was summoned out of my room for another meal, this time with lots of meat and of course, more avocado. But of course it was fun to have a big family meal with my host mother’s father and sister over and we had a great time.

On Sunday night I went to Vive Latino, a 12-hour concert at Santiago’s horse racing park, Club Hípico. I only went for the last six hours… but all the music I heard was amazing and it reminded me of Lollapalooza (so excited for this summer). I took the metro across the city to Parque O’Higgins, the biggest park in the city, and walked from there to the Club. Walking through Parque O’Higgins (named after the revolutionary leader) took a little longer than I thought, but I followed the gathering crowd of teenagers and found Hípico. I met up with a few other Stanford girls and we headed to one of three stages. We stayed at one stage all night, but the variety of bands was amazing. First was Chancho en Piedra, an energetic rock band with most of its members dressed up… the lead singer was some sort of insect superhero. Everyone was holding up plastic pigs to the stage (Chancho = pig). Next we saw Vincentio, which was much more chill and featured a great horn section. We walked around Club Hípico for a while, but there wasn’t too much to see… they had run out of food and there weren’t any extra activities like at Lolla. The coolest band I saw that I had never heard of was Los Jaivas, a mixture of older and younger musicians who played lots of indigenous instruments and long, mostly instrumental songs. Each member of Los Jaivas played at least three instruments, including didgeridoo-like horns, pan pipes, and different types of drums. It was really interesting to listen to and it seemed like the band had quite a following even after many years of being around. Next we saw Babasonicos, which had catchy music but I was too distracted by the lead singer’s outfit to pay attention. He was a vision of the seventies with long, shaggy hair, a long bright blue shirt with some type of sash at the waist, a glittery black vest, tight white pants, and blue patent leather knee-high boots. The look reminded me of ABBA but unfortunately no one else seemed to find this strange… Lastly we saw Keane, one of my favorite British bands and the headliner of the night. I was really excited to see such a big name live but they exceeded my expectations with their performance. The lead singer had so much energy and he encouraged everyone to sing along, a request which I happily complied. The pianist and the drummer were incredibly skilled and energetic as well. Their set incorporated their album art which I really enjoyed, as well as old movie clips and even a poem explaining the source of their song “Bad Dream.” I was amazed by every part of their performance and I am so happy that I got to see them, in Chile of all places.

The second concert I got to see was another Bing event at the Teatro Municipal Monday night. I missed a few pieces because the transit was horrible but it was fun to dress up and the theater was so beautiful. I’m so glad we had the opportunity to see a performance there… even though I wish I could have seen Swan Lake, which just left the theater last week. We did get to see an incredible performance of classical music, including Faure’s Requiem, a choral and orchestra piece that I sang and played viola for in high school. I was overwhelmed by the chance to see it performed live by such talented musicians (Santiago’s symphony orchestra and choir) and I remembered the parts so well even though it was sophomore year of high school when we performed it. The concert was over all too soon, but it was incredibly memorable for me and I realize I really need to get to more classical performances because I enjoy the music so much. Being in MYSO and high school orchestra was so much fun and even though I miss those days, I definitely relive them by listening to the music I once had the ability to play...