By Will Cade

The start of Madrid’s Rock in Rio music festival is still over a month away, but I’m more excited about how it’s going to end. The festivities during the last weekend in June and first in July have an amazing line-up, with such big name artists as Franz Ferdinand, Tokio Hotel, and Bob Dylan, but the closing act can still top them all – and it’s only one man with two turntables.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to DJ Tiesto, the Dutch phenom voted best DJ on the planet. The number of people in the 200,000 cubic meter festival site just outside Madrid should be astronomical, but this won’t be the first time Tiesto has played for a grand audience. He mixed the Parade of Athletes at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens (the first ever DJ to do so) not to mention he was the first solo DJ to ever sell out a stadium of over 25,000.

In the electronic music world, Tiesto has remixed the rules. He started mixing in Holland during the mid-nineties, working his way up from club to club and harnessing his skills. When his popularity sky-rocked, he traveled the world over one party at a time and molded his music into a mix of trance, house, and techno. He even pulled off mixing classical in his “Adaggio for Strings,” one of his most famous tracks. This eclectic style has allowed him to move beyond the club and rave scene to compete with major acts on the big stage, a feat previously unheard of in the business.

Even with his irrefutable success, Tiesto is still staying true to what brought him here – a love for making music. Bathed in laser-lights, Tiesto takes his music to a new level during live performances, even mixing for up to 9 hours straight. He has spent the last few months mixing the night away in Thailand and working on his long anticipated live album, “In Search of Sunrise 7.”

You may not be able to pick up a copy of “In Search of Sunrise 7″ just yet, but you can see him live July 6^th right here in Madrid. Judging by his track record, you might even watch him finally find what he has been searching for, as the sun rises up over the crowd and signals the perfect end to both the festival and the night.

by Martin Brown

Tim Booth appeared on stage on crutches for this show. There was a muffled explanation in Spanish from one of his bandmates, but I didn’t catch it. So he sat for most of the show. This must have been very, very difficult for one normally so active! Known for his spasmodic whirling and spinning, he cut a different figure here. He has also shaved his head since I last saw him play.

I really like James, so this is not really a very objective review. I had not seen them play live for more than 10 years. Of course, they were inactive during most of that time, with all kinds of reported bust ups. Let’s just all be grateful that the issues have now been resolved. With a new album out last month, and based on the fanatical crowd at this show, the future looks good again!

I could feel Booth’s pain as he sang Born of Frustration, he wanted to be on his feet, not in a chair! The voice is the same, pure, unique sound as ever and the band seemed very happy to be there. Andy Diagram, resplendent in a spotted dress, blew his trumpet and compensated for Booth’s immobility by running all over the place throughout the show. There is not just one front man in this band, that’s for sure. Maybe that was the problem before?

Running through material from their 20+ year career, each song was greeted with screams for the 1500 or so people in attendance. It’s always amazing to me that, whilst most Spanish people seem reluctant to learn English, they are happy, and very able to sing the words to every song of their favorite performers!

Towards the end of the almost two hour set, Booth said, “We said we were not going to play this song for a year, but we are going to sing it for you tonight, because I am sitting down!” The crowd went nuts and sang along with the band.

The band looked genuinely surprised by the length and passion of the responses to the songs, especially after Sometimes, when the crowd continued, a capella, long after the band had stopped playing.
This was a lot of fun, for the crowd and the band, the perfect scenario for any concert.

by Will Cade

As my favorite Primus song goes, “Paranoia is a disease unto itself. And may I add that the person standing next to you may not be who they appear to be.” If you read my last blog, “La Bloguera,” I owe you an apology: My paranoia got the best of me.

Originally, I couldn’t find Yoani Sanchez’s blog, Generation Y, so I assumed that the Cuban Government had not only restricted her from coming to Spain to receive the Ortega and Gasset Award for Digital Journalism, but it had taken her website offline as well. After some serious, journalistic investigation, I discovered that I had actually typed in the wrong website. Ha… yea… my bad.

But I’ve found her blog today, and after reading a bit, I can see why Raul Castro doesn’t want this woman leaving the country: she reveals the inadequacies of the Cuban government with a sense of humor gentle enough to make you smile yet poignant enough to make you protest. Her honesty is literally transparent, being that she posted a digital copy of her Cuban ID card – identification number, thumb-print, and all.

Sanchez didn’t set out to become an activist blogger. At first she aspired to be a Spanish linguist. After a few years in the academic world, though, she grew tired of the abstract and ineffective (like so many that came before her) and decided to pursue technology. She became an I.T. specialist and eventually was reborn as La Bloguera, merging her areas of expertise in the most logical and effective way.

Her current profession is paying off. She is blogging in Spanish, English, and German about life under the Cuban Dictatorship, and her Spanish blogs are receiving up to 5,000 comments each, with her most recent recieving over 2,000 in under two days. She can still get the word out, even if she herself cannot.

If you’re hesitant to read her blog, expecting it to be filled with communist horror stories, fear not: Her writing style is more playful than philosophical. I once heard that a writer’s style is the candy coating that let’s you swallow the theme. It’s safe to say that after reading Yoani Sanchez, I’ve been popping back Genearation Y like a handful of skittles.

http://desdecuba.com/generaciony/