noche del vino: la musica

Hands down, the night of music is my favorite part of Noche del Vino. The only problem is that its start time and my need for sleep coincide. This year, however, I was determined I would stay awake. Not that I've done too badly in the past---I can usually make it until 3:00am or so, but then I begin to flag, missing the last couple hours of performances. We made reservations at Bar Loro for dinner. Bar Loro is situated just below the square, so although we could not see the stage from our table, we could hear the music very well. Loro was incredibly busy, which was to be expected, and we were happy we had our table. We felt badly for some of the tourists, who had clearly read in their guidebooks that the evening meal in Spain is typically eaten late in the evening because at 10 on the dot hordes of them appeared and disappointedly found all the tables taken. Big Jim and I had small plates of bacalao and calamares, respectively, and we shared a salad. And because we had missed our weekly ice cream fix at the beach, we each had a chocolate mousse ice cream for dessert. Yum. As we were finishing up, one of the musical groups did an impromptu performance in front of the church. Big Jim and I went up to watch. This group, Panda de Verdiales de Periana, was fantastic. There were about ten guitar players of all ages, standing closely together in a circle, strumming like mad. I loved seeing the young guys, probably in their early 20s, blond spiky streaks dyed in their hair, playing alongside the ancient oldtimers---it was a village jam band, and their guitar work was inspired. Simply awesome. We settled our bill at Bar Loro, and made our way to the square to collect our first free glass of the local wine. The first glass is always a struggle for me. The wine is just too sweet for my taste, but somewhere near the end of the little cup, an internal switch goes on that says, "drink more, drink more." This is the danger of the local wine; it plays with your head. J. and M. had saved seats for us, so we joined them for the remaining performances. They had opened their art gallery and museum (which contains the old mill, antique ceramics, agricultural artifacts, etc.) earlier in the day, and many of the Spanish tourists in particular were thrilled to see the work they had done. I could go on about all the performances, but I there were two that I thought were especially fabulous. The first was the singer Arcangel, who is from Huelva. When he and his guitar player took the stage, Big Jim and I looked at one another in realization that the two men had had dinner a couple tables away from ours at Bar Loro. They took a song to warm up, but from then on, they were amazing. I read up on Arcangel the next day, and I found that he has sung with Vincente Amigo, who Big Jim and I saw play a couple years ago. V.A. is so, so good that I highly recommend you buy his CDs and if you ever have the opportunity to see him play, go, go, go! The second particularly excellent performance was by the dance group Jabega. M. and I are of the same mind on the subject of male flamenco dancers: there is nothing more hot than a man who dances flamenco well. I realized this when I was a student in Seville and first saw my grammar professor dance during the feria. This reserved but sort of cute geeky comic suddenly was oozing sex. I was stunned by the transformation. The posture, the grace....it's difficult to explain, but it gets me every time. The entire troupe was fabulous, and they could have danced all night long because my eyelids were no longer heavy. Jabega was the final group to perform, and the Noche del Vino ended earlier than in past years, at 3:40am. Perhaps because those who work outside of the village still had work Monday morning. Big Jim and I said our good-byes and walked on air back to Calle Salares. An excellent night. mylifeinspain