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Gothenburg club and concert tips: September 5 – 7

Where to go out in Gothenburg this weekend? Monthly Magazine has the answers (Click links for more information)

Published: 4 September 2008 15:01 CEST

The gig is sold out, but we’ve got to give it a shout out anyway. Since the band reunited at the Sweden Rock Festival earlier this summer, many have been waiting for this gig at Trägårn. The band is one of the front-runners in the melodic death metal genre that has been named “The Gothenburg sound.” If you manage to get tickets, you will be treated to a piece of live Gothenburg music history.

The last day of a week of Kustomart at Gallery 54 will be celebrated at Kontiki. We’re not sure if the theme of the party is going to lean towards the DIY tradition or be a massive “Pimp my ride” extravaganza. Either way, with The Charger on stage it will certainly be a party. Their myspace page profile states: “If The Chargers had avatars it would be in the form of three cave men riding a big gas-guzzling muscle car, like a ’72 Dodge Charger.” How about that?

A new club is breaking ground in Gothenburg. Three of the city’s most well known DJs will be camping out at Storan tonight. Christoffer Falk has turned into one of the most reputable DJs on the Swedish west coast club scene. Johan Soh has done more than 1,500 gigs in his professional career and Karl Von Spreti is the star behind clubs like Locatelli and Orgia. Expect an extraordinary set of electro dance music!

Moderat Likvidation

Scandinavian raw punk from the early 80s. One of Sweden’s most influential and legendary punk bands. It all started sometime back in 1980 in the suburbs of Malmö in the south of Sweden. After the gig at West Coast Riot earlier this summer, Fredrik Strage wrote in DN that, in contrast to most reunited punk bands, Moderat Likvidation has kept their anger intact! Punk Is Not Dead!

Scars on Broadway

Scars on Broadway is the long-awaited collaboration between guitarist/frontman Daron Malakian and drummer John Dolmayan. Both are best known for their work in the Grammy winning band System of a Down. Daron Malakian addresses the project as just rock, but also with some metal influences in the System of a Down style. We are stoked!

Meet the Spanish rapper bringing flamenco and bossa nova into hip-hop

Spanish rapper Anton Alvarez known as 'C. Tangana' poses in Madrid on April 29, 2021. Photo: Javier Soriano/AFP

The 30-year-old has emerged as one of the world’s biggest Spanish-language stars since his third album “El Madrileno” — the Madrilenian — came out in February. That ranks him alongside his superstar ex-girlfriend Rosalia, the Grammy-winning Catalan singer with whom he has co-written several hits.

C. Tangana, whose real name is Anton Alvarez Alfaro, has come a long way since a decade ago when he became known as a voice of disillusioned Spanish youth in the wake of the financial crisis.These days his rap is infused with everything from reggaeton and rumba to deeply traditional styles from Spain and Latin America, with a voice often digitised by autotune.

“It’s incredible that just when my music is at its most popular is exactly when I’m doing something a bit more complex, more experimental and less
trendy,” he told AFP in an interview.

And he is unashamed to be appealing to a wider audience than previously: his dream is now to make music “that a young person can enjoy in a club or someone older can enjoy at home while cooking”.

‘People are tired’

The rapper, who sports a severe semi-shaved haircut and a pencil moustache, has worked with Spanish flamenco greats including Nino De Elche, Antonio Carmona, Kiko Veneno, La Hungara and the Gipsy Kings.

In April he brought some of them together for a performance on NPR’s popular “Tiny Desk Concert” series, which has already drawn nearly six million
views on YouTube.

Shifting away from trap, one of rap’s most popular sub-genres, and venturing into a more traditional repertoire was a dangerous move — especially for someone with a young fanbase to whom rumba, bossa nova and bolero sound old-fashioned.

“I think people are tired. They’ve had enough of the predominant aesthetic values that have previously defined pop and urban music,” he said.

Parts of his latest album were recorded in Latin America with Cuban guitarist Eliades Ochoa of Buena Vista Social Club, Uruguayan
singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler, Mexican folk artist Ed Maverick and Brazil’s Toquinho, one of the bossa nova greats.

“What struck me most everywhere I went was the sense of tradition and the way people experienced the most popular music, and I don’t mean pop,” he said.

A new direction

C. Tangana started out in 2006 rapping under the name Crema. When the global economic crisis swept Spain a few years later, hard-hitting trap was
the perfect way to voice the angst of his generation. But after more than a decade of rapping, things changed.

“When I was heading for my 30s, I hit this crisis, I was a bit fed up with what I was doing… and decided to give voice to all these influences that I
never dared express as a rapper,” he said.

The shift began in 2018 with “Un veneno” (“A poison”) which came out a year after his big hit “Mala mujer” (“Bad woman”).

And there was a return to the sounds of his childhood when he used to listen to Spanish folk songs at home, raised by a mother who worked in
education and a journalist father who liked to play the guitar. The Latin American influences came later.

“It started when I was a teenager with reggaeton and with bachata which were played in the first clubs I went to, which were mostly Latin,” he said.

Studying philosophy at the time, he wrote his first raps between stints working in call centres or fast-food restaurants.

As to what comes next, he doesn’t know. But one thing he hopes to do is collaborate with Natalia Lafourcade, a Mexican singer who dabbles in folk, rock and pop — another jack of all musical trades.

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