Esne Beltza’s Latin-punk turned the Crystal Palace into a happy mosh pit from their second song till the riotous close of the set at around 4am. Latin punk and wild partying Spanish bands have a regular place at Fuji Rock, and there was absolutely no disappointment here. There is something about the sexiness of the vocals, the Latin dance rhythms and the punk backbeat that turns audiences into ecstatic dervishes. The band on stage was having just as much fun. For anyone there, it was impossible not get sucked in to the fun-spirited madness.

Esne Beltza sing in Spanish and Euskal, the ancient, pre-Latin language of the Basque countries in northern Spain, which is where they are from. Frontman Xabi Solano leads on vocals and a local variant of the accordion called the trikiti, and he’s got plenty of support behind him. There are eight members in all, including a rapping MC, a DJ, a trombone player and the rock n roll core of drums, guitar and bass. So the tunes mixed Basque folk, punk, Latin hip hop and dance floor beats. Towards the end, Xabi and the drummer came down from the stage into the middle of the audience, performing in the middle of the mosh pit. Singing shoulder to shoulder with the publicum is in line with their spirit of “people power”. They also advocated “Freedom for Basque Countries”, shouting it from the stage on one song, and inciting the crowd to pump fists and chant political slogans on others, albeit in a language no one understood. Everyone played along and had a great time. One could hardly expect the Basque cause to take too much root here in Japan. The issues are just too distant. But the audience was more than ready to party. And party they did!

Xabi Solano: diatonic accordion and vocals
Pini: vocals
Iban Zugarramurdi: drummer
Aitor Zabaleta: bass
Peio Gorrotxategi: keyboards
Jon Mari Beasain: guitar
Jon Elizalde: trombone
Zigor Lampre aka Dz: DJ