ENGLISHHere’s little bit of History for you guys to put things in perspective.
The Costa Rican Rockfest started back in the mid-1990’s, quickly becoming the single largest music festival in country, showcasing nothing but local bands. As the name implies it, the band roster would span all manner of Rock, from Reggae – some would argue that Reggae is not Rock – to Hardcore/Nu-metal, focusing greatly on the more popular subgenres. There had been, up until year 2003, no real extreme band contemplated within the festival’s line-up. The closest outfits that would be considered heavy enough would be Deznuke (Nu-metal) and Insano (Industrial/Nu-metal), bands that, while being pretty heavy, are still within the commercial side of the spectrum. One other band to have taken part of the festival, one that was a favorite amongst the Costa Rican metal base, was Slavon, which had a lukewarm reception at best, hence never participating in the festival again.
When DCW got the official invitation to take part in the Festival, the band had already been appearing in similarly themed concerts of a lesser magnitude, playing often alongside pop, ska, punk and all other manner of genre themed bands with great success, managing to appeal to audiences that normally don’t digest metal very well. So when the call came, we were pretty excited, but very confident about our chances to pull off a good show and expand our still growing audience.
It’s funny, in hindsight, the amount of controversy this invitation caused within the extreme metal scene. Many were calling us sell-outs, even though our sound wasn’t changing, and even more were angry at us exposing our music to “infidels” allowing them the possibility of actually liking our sounds, hence converting them to the metal fold. Others were afraid we would tank in front of such a different audience, or so they thought. Even the media was curious as to how we would pull this off, having a handful of interviewers ask us what we thought about the challenges of playing at such an event and the metal scene’s reactions. But as I said before, we were already used to playing for largely non-metal crowds and earning applause if not actual praise while doing so.
Now, the event in and of itself was run by a Mr. Ernesto Aducci, a man whose reputation as within the music circles of the country was quite varied; some spoke of him with respect and kind words, others admonished and warned of foul play. Personally – and I speak for all members of the band when saying this – the man we met was nothing short of a professional who took care of business to a tee and treated every band as far as a we could see with the respect an artist rarely gets nowadays. Mr. Aducci told us that he was taking a bit of a gamble with us on word of mouth recommendations from people whose opinions he valued. As he said, the one other time he put a metal band in the roster said group didn’t make much of a splash. Even saying so, he was quite friendly and we certainly appreciated his openness. Most event producers aren’t as forthcoming as the man was with us.
When the day of the festival came around, we were feeling quite optimistic. We were scheduled to play rather early, as the festival started at 10 in the morning and we were to be up on stage at half past noon. We hung out for a bit in the backstage area, while getting a rundown of the way things would be working and where we had to be before taking our turn.
We didn’t notice the way the crowd grew over the minutes when we were tuning and warming up in the back, so we were taken aback by the sheer amount of people that greeted us as we took our places in the publicity-clad stage. It was essentially the biggest audience we had played for by a large margin – the reports vary but there were between 3000 and 4500 people at the time – and the greatest surprise of all was the amount of metal-heads sporting the iconic black t-shirts that had shown up for our show.
I personally hesitated for a moment but quickly put any doubts out of my head as I quickly measured the stage and got rid of the mike-stand. I succinctly announced who we were – even though the MC had already presented us; had to make sure everybody got it ;) – and we kicked our set off. The crowd didn’t take much to warm up – I wager the metal-heads helped with that – and things rolled easily for the next half hour or so.
When we got off stage, a stage hand pointed us quickly to the press area, where bands would have pictures taken with fans as well as sign all the relevant paraphernalia that was necessary. We all thought “yeah, right! I bet there’s gonna be only a handful of people” – mainly our friends, I thought to myself – but to our surprise, the place was literally a-crawl with people waiting for us to come out. So much people that by the time we were done with the autographs and the pictures the band after us had finished their set and the one after them was about halfway through theirs. We were overwhelmed with the reaction. I was veritably walking on air!
When we got backstage again, Mr. Aducci was waiting there and he congratulated us on our performance, saying that he didn’t expect us to get such an enthusiastic reaction from the audience. He was also impressed with Allan’s speed at the drums and made a joke about my vocals –“Where do you get that voice from!?”-.
We stuck around for our comrades in Deznuke and Insano, both of whom pulled off amazing onstage performances, and made the most of a day that I’m sure we all at DCW wished would not end.
Shortly after the festival, we were pretty much confirmed for the next edition of it, testament to how well we did the first time around. Sadly, for many different reasons, the festival was put to death by its creator, leaving a palpable void within the Costa Rican music scene that is still felt even today, when the Rockfest’s spiritual successor, the Costa Rock, has increasingly enjoyed success and critical acclaim.
So here ends this bit of the band’s – and the Costa Rican music scene’s - history for you people.
If anyone’s got pictures of our performance in the 2003 edition of the Rockfest I invite you all to send them in (to this address: thealabastercorpse@gmail.com ) and well post them here, duly crediting all who contribute and, who knows, perhaps you’ll get something special other than the satisfaction of having your work exhibited!
ESPAÑOLAqui va un poquito de historia para ustedes y asi poner las cosas en perspective.
El Rockfest costarricense empezo a mediados de los años noventa, rapidamente convirtiendose en al festival musical mas grande del país. Como su nombre implica, las bandas que se presentasen en el festival abarcaban toda la gama de subgeneros del rock, inclusive generos cuya compatibilidad con el rock es cuestionable para algunos (como el Reggae). Siendo el enfoque mas dirigido a los subgeneros mas populares, hasta el año 2003 no habian aun bandas de metal extreme que hubiesen participado en el Rockfest. Las bandas mas cercanas al metal del canon purista, por asi llamarle, habian sido hasta ahora Deznuke e Insano, siendo bastante exitosas sus presentaciones y repitiendo sus actuaciones en ediciones siguientes, y Slavon, cuya unica presentacion en el festival no tuvo un respuesta particularmente efusiva.
Cuando DCW recibio la invitacion official para participar en el festival la banda ya habia participado en eventos similares de escala mas pequeña, compartiendo escenario con bandas de pop, ska, punk y demas generos, logrando exitosamente gustar a un publico que normalmente no digiere bien el metal. Asi que, cuando rebimos la llamada, estabamos bastante emocionados pero confiados en nuestras posibilidades de sacar un buen espectaculo y expander nuestro publico.
En retrospectiva, es graciosa la cantidad de polemica que causo dicha invitacion dentro de la escena metal. Muchos nos acusaron de vendernos aun cuando nuestro sonido y propuesta musical seguian siendo las mismas. Otros estaban molestos por exponer nuestra musica a los infieles, dando cabida a la posibilidad de atraer seguidores de otros generos al metal. Otros tambien temieron que nos fuese a ir mal en cuanto al publico debido a la variedad musical a la cual estaba acostumbrado en el Rockfest. Inclusive los medios tuvieron curiosidad al respecto, preguntandonos que pensabamos acerca de las dificultades que conlleva tocar en un evento de esa indole para una banda tan “extrema”. Pero como dije anteriormente, ya estabamos acostrumbrados a tocar para publicos predominantemente foraneos al movimiento metal con bastante exito y aceptacion.
El evento en si era organizado por el Sr. Ernesto Aducci, hombre cuya reputacion dentro de los circulos musicales del pais variaba bastante; algunos hablaban de el con respeto y estima, otros lo calumniaban o advertian sobre posibles maltratos. Personalmente, y de parte de toda la banda, el hombre que conocidmos no fue nada menos que un professional que se ocupada de todos los detalles de su negocio y que trataba a cada banda con el respeto que pocos artistas reciben hoy dia. El Sr. Aducci nos dijo tranquilamente que se estaba jugando un chance con nosotros basandose en recomendaciones de personas cuya opinion el tomaba a pecho. Como dijo, la unica otra vez que habia incluido una banda metal en el festival no fue exactamente un exito. Aun diciendonos esto, se comporta de manera amigable y, evidentemente, abierta, lo cual agradecimos bastante. La mayoria de productores no son tan honestos como este señor fue para con nosotros.
El dia del festival llego y nosotros nos sentiamos bastante optimistas. Estabamos programados para tocar relativamente temprano puesto que el festival empazaba a las 10 de la mañana y nos tocaba estar en escena a las 12:30 pm. Nos quedamos tras bastidores por un rato mientras nos explicaban como iban a proceder durante el evento; donde debiamos estar antes de tocar, a que hora y que hacer una vez terminado nuestro set.
No habiamos notado la manera en que el publico crecio durante los minutos que pasamos afinando y calentando en el area de backstage, asi que estabamos bastante sorprendidos por la cantidad de gente que nos recibio al subir al scenario. Era basicamente el publico mas grande para el cual jamas habiamos tocado por un amplio margen; los reportes varian, pero se estima que a esa hora el publico vario entre 3000 y 4500 personas. La mas grata sorpresa fue el numero de camisetas negras que habian llegado para nuestro set.
Yo personalemente titubie por un momento, pero rapidamente me ocupe con medir el scenario y deshacerme del stand del microfono. Resumidamente nos presenta, aunque ya nos habia presentado el maestro de ceremonias por altoparlante, y empezamos a darle. Por fortuna al publico no le tomo mucho para empezar a calentar y las cosas fluyeron de buena manera por una media hora aproximadamente.
Una vez que nos bajamos del escenario uno de los asistentes nos indico que debiamos pasar al area de prensa a tomarnos fotos y firmar autografos. Obviamente pensamos que eso era una tonteria porque seguramente estarian 5 o 6 de nuestros amigos y nadie mas. Lo que nos topamos saliendo al area de prensa fue una turba de gente pidiendonos autografos y fotos, tanto asi que para cuando terminamos de firmar autografos, no solo habia tocado la banda que nos seguia, sino que la banda que les siguio iba por la mitad de su set. Estabamos literalmente conmovidos con la reaccion de la gente.
Una vez de vuelta tras bastidores el Sr. Aducci nos estaba esperando, nos felicito por nuestra presentacion e hizo un comentario sobre la velocidad de Allan en la bateria. Tambien hizo un comentario jocoso preguntando de donde sacaba yo mi voz.
Nos quedamos el resto del evento para apoyar a nuestros colegas de Desnuke e Insano, cuyas presentaciones fueron simplemente geniales, e hicimos lo posible para disfrutar de un dia que no queriamos que terminase.
Poco tiempo despues del evento ya estabamos confirmados para la proxima edicion del Rockfest, evidenciando el exito que tuvimos en nuestra primera incursion en dicho festival. Lastimosamente, por muchas rezones, el festival fue cancelado indefinidamente por su creador dejando un vacio palpable invlusive hoy dia dentro de la escena nacional, cuando su sucesor spiritual, el Costa Rock, a pesar de su exito busca aun revivir la Gloria de lo que una vez fuera el Rockfest.
Con esto doy por finalizada esta entrega en la cual pretendo mostrar un poco de la historia de la banda y asi, indirectamente, parte de la historia del rock nacional.
Si alguien tiene fotos de nuestra presentacion en el Rockfest 2003 les invite a enviarmelas a esta direccion: thealabastercorpse@gmail.com . Quienes contribuyan seran debidamente acreditados y, quien sabe, hasta se podrian ganar algo mas que la satisfaccion de exibir su trabajo en linea.
