La Gossa Sorda brought something of the Mediterranean with them as they kicked off Friday morning at the White Stage in bright sunshine.  Hailing from the warmer climes of Valencia, Spain, the band are actually on a final tour, this being their 19th year playing together, so it’s perhaps the first and last time we’ll see them at the festival.

Opening up with an atmospheric track featuring ominous gun clicks, the band started off with a kickass ska-punk track “Aire” laced with a dulzaina (a Spanish oboe) dancing over the top. With three members of the band on vocals, you might have thought things would get a bit much but the energy brought by having that many people on stage was infectious and set the crowd off dancing. The Mediterranean vibe continued with an accordion accompaniment for “De Cara a la Paret”, which smothered on a folk vibe adopted in other genres like klezmer.  With the ska thrown in, the crowd were eating up the good vibes, which continued with the summery dub stylings of “Babaloco”.  

With the majority of songs harkening towards the rock/ska/punk spectrum, “La Nostra Sort” displayed a poppy edge in its piano and a catchy chorus letting in a lot more harmony, reminiscent of the kind of dub-pop that Twenty One Pilots occasionally drop into their songs. As the songs continued though, there was a nod to second-wave ska with mischievous guitar and horns, and even a Latin-nod with “Calitja” and a salsa piano flourish overlaying the rock. 

After a mock encore, the band returned for a rocking, accordion-led number which had the crowd clapping and dancing, so by the time the final song hit the energy in front of the White Stage, and that emanating from it, had hit manic levels. The crowd kicked up a dust-storm, the horns skanked at the back and everyone came on stage for a final whirligig of a song, pulling into it everything from the previous songs and wrapping it up in a ebullient final storm of sound.  

If you missed them, or just want to repeat the show all over again, you can catch the band playing again at 3:15am tonight at the Crystal Palace.