TXARANGO

Txarango gives Fuji all it can handle!

Every year at Fuji Rock there are bands that try to steal the festival from the headliners. These bands are usually booked to multiple stages spanning over the 3 days and have boundless energy trying to win over as many new fans as possible with their raw talent and intense emotional performances. Spain’s Txarango is one of these bands. This eight member group represents the state of Barcelona’s multicultural and urban music scene. Gigging over a hundred performances a year, all around Europe, you’d think this band would get a bit tired or scale back the intensity sometimes, but no, these boys are here to gain believers.

Their style fuses latin, gypsy, reggae, hip-hop, rock and ska performed in Catalan and Spanish. They are best suited to a smaller venue where you can see the passion in their eyes, the smiles on their faces and the sweat dripping from their bodies. Their Saturday afternoon set at the small Cafe de Paris stage was hot and sweaty even before things kicked off and once they did, it was blazing non-stop. The band exudes passion in their music and interaction with the audience. Throughout the set, they gave members chances to solo, had numerous call and response sessions with the crowd and urged us to skank and dance with them.

With the band in a wild frenzy the whole set through, the crowd was equally energetic. We followed their commands and were led to a shared musical ecstasy. Txarango is one of the common people. They want to be among the crowd. The smaller setting of the Cafe de Paris fit their act perfectly. We were guided to the ground, then commanded to spring up to the heavens, we all did a kind of running man dance from side to side over the dance floor and to finish things up, a few of the boys even jumped among us, crowd surfed and high-fived.

Frontman Miquel Alguer kept things live the entire time, singing, shouting and rapping, but it was far from a solo show; all eight on stage had a time front and center mixing it up with the crowd. They showed us how they party in the hoods of Barcelona. As the party reluctantly was forced to a close, the boys handed out loads of free CDs and stickers. I would have be fine with the fond memories of the mid afternoon sweatbox jam party, but I won’t turn done a parting gift from a band trying to win me over either.