Ask anyone around the world about Medellin and I pretty much guarantee that the first thing that pops to most people’s minds isn’t punk music. Well, it should be!
Medellin’s annual music festival “Alta Voz” (Loudly) did not disappoint. This was my 2nd festival, having attended 2010’s which was headlined by my good buddies Los Suziox.
Alta Voz organizers tend to alternate bands each year. In a city like Medellin, brimming to the rim with Punk talent, it’s not hard to alternate bands and still have a kick ass line up.
I along with local punk royalty, Monica and Viola from the legendary band IRA and a few thousand punk fans headed over to the Park next to Parque Explorer on a beautiful Saturday to take in some kick ass punk and hardcore music.
I arrived in time to see another legendary band, GP take the stage. GP is a band that’s been playing punk music in Medellin for over 25 years. Yup, that’s over a quarter of a century! While Punk may be big in Colombia but it is not new.
Next up was a relative newcomer on the scene (who isn’t compared to GP!), Herida de Guerra (War Wound). Well actually, they are not THAT new, I checked their site and they’ve got a few CDs out and the crowd seemed familiar with the guys.
After Herida de Guerra was our good old buddies, hardcore mainstays Desestra Capital (Capital Disaster).
These hard core heavyweights were followed by my favorite “new to me” band of the evening, Atrofia (atrophy). The energy these guys put out was contagious and I really dug the songs. I hear the lyrics are pretty potent as well, so I’d love to get my hands on their CDs.
After a brief pause wisely used by the guapa (cute) and very punk Telemedellin TV hostess to give back a couple of odd, mismatched shoes that had somehow made their way from the punk pit to the stage (gee, wonder how that happened? No one would throw a shoe at a punk show would they?), the show cranked back up.
This time it was my good buddies Lokekeda (leftovers) who rocked the place. Lokekeda came out rocking to one of my favorite punk songs from Latin America, “Espinas Assassinas” (Spine Killer?) which set the tone for the rest of the high energy set.
The thousands of screaming, moshing, out of control fans must have inspired these guys because I’ve seen them play a few times and this was by far the best set I’ve ever witnessed them.
My only regret of the evening was missing industrial punks “Neus” who were on the bill but I couldn’t really get a read of when they were supposed to play AND missing legendary hard core band “EstoyPuto” (I’m Pissed). Gotta love these punk band names and sometimes google translate just doesn’t do them justice.
I had to leave a little early but I hear the place rocked til 1AM. Maybe next time.
Enjoy the pics below and stay tuned for a couple of videos coming up later in the week!
