Autumn of concerts

Au­tumn of­fers an in­tense sea­son of music at dif­fer­ent venues, au­di­to­ri­ums and the Palau Sant Jordi (with the two Madonna con­certs fi­nally re­con­firmed after hang­ing by a thread for a few weeks) but, for the mo­ment, no con­certs will be held at the Lluís Com­pa­nys Olympic Sta­dium for the rest of 2023 or through­out 2024, due to Barça play­ing their home games there this sea­son.

After a spate of con­certs in early Sep­tem­ber, in­clud­ing Juanes, Lewis Ca­paldi, Puerto Rican Rauw Ale­jan­dro, the dis­tin­guished Elvis Costello in a duet with At­trac­tions pi­anist Steve Nieve, and Los Fab­u­losos Cadil­lacs, who open the Mil­len­nium Fes­ti­val at Poble Es­panyol, there will be the op­por­tu­nity to see Led Zep front man Robert Plant, who pre­sents a pro­ject called Sav­ing Grace at the Forum Au­di­to­rium on the 12 Sep, and the mod­fa­ther Paul Weller, who plays at Razzmatazz on the 18 Sep, as well as the first con­cert in 15 years in Barcelona by the Cana­dian singer-song­writer Feist (19 Sep, Razzmatazz) and the re­turn of the in­com­bustible Echo & The Bun­ny­men (29 Sep, also in the old Ze­leste). Ben­jamin Clemen­tine (19 Sep, Apolo), Joaquín Sabina (27 and 29 Sep, in the same venue) and Hom­bres G (30 Sep, also on Mon­tjuïc, with tick­ets al­ready sold out) are other con­certs in a month in which a new edi­tion of the Barcelona Jazz Fes­ti­val will also be held (Woody Allen at the Tivoli The­ater on the 18 and 19) and we see the re­turns of the el­e­gant Joe Henry (14 Sep, Par­al­lel 62) and The Dic­ta­tors (21 Sep, Up­load) and a twenty-first cen­tury band that guar­an­tees a party: The Pine Hill Haints (22 Sep, 62nd par­al­lel).

Fi­nally, as al­ways in Sep­tem­ber, music lovers will have the BAM and La Mercè con­certs on their agenda from the 22 to the 25, as well as El Mer­cat de Música Viva de Vic (from the 13 to the 16 Sep, with La Lud­wig Band, Clara Peya and The Gramo­phone All­stars Big Band) and the Cer­dany­ola Blues Fes­ti­val (from the 29 Sep, with pro­gram­ming not yet an­nounced).

Oc­to­ber be­gins with the Blink-182 re­union tour on the 4 Oct at the Palau Sant Jordi, where for­mer One Di­rec­tion mem­ber Louis Tom­lin­son (6 Oct) will also per­form that month; Vanessa Mar­tin (7 Oct); the first solo tour of Hauser, a mem­ber of 2Cel­l­los (10 Oct); the Cata­lan Ai­tana (12 and 13 Oct, the for­mer al­ready sold out), and the cel­e­bra­tion of the 40th an­niver­sary of the fa­mous Rock & Ríos by the Granada-born mu­si­cian (28 Oct). Oc­to­ber’s agenda also in­cludes con­certs by the al­ways fun The Hives (4 Oct, Razzmatazz), the Rid­ers of the Canyon by Joana Ser­rat from Vic (5 Oct, La Nau), the Ar­gen­tin­ian Babasónicos (5 Oct, Razzmatazz) and El­liott Mur­phy (7 Oct, in a con­cert cel­e­brat­ing 50 years of Sala Apolo), as well as Long Ry­ders (Amer­i­can rock clas­sics of the 80s, at Up­load on the 8 Oct), De­sakato (farewell con­cert the day be­fore at the Sant Jordi Club), Il Divo (12, Forum Au­di­to­rium), Teenage Fan­club (18 Oct, Paral·lel 62), the now clas­sic dou­ble act of the Amer­i­cans Ru­bi­noos and the Cata­lans Suzy & Los Quat­tro (20 Oct, Razzmatazz), Él Mató a un Policía Mo­tor­izado (22 Oct, in the same venue), Bebel Gilberto (26 Oct, L’Au­di­tori), Blind Guardian (26 Oct, Razzmatazz), Gilberto Gil (28 Oct, Forum Au­di­to­rium) and Weyes Blood (31 Oct, Apolo).

The month of No­vem­ber starts strongly, with two Madonna per­for­mances at the Palau Sant Jordi, which were in dan­ger of can­cel­la­tion due to the ill­ness the singer suf­fered this sum­mer but were re­con­firmed mid-Au­gust. The two Cata­lan events on the Cel­e­bra­tion Tour have been sold out for some time. On the same days that the voice of Like a Vir­gin per­forms, in Barcelona you can see Love of Les­bian (1 and 2 Nov, Razzmatazz), Sleaford Mods (1 Nov, Apolo), Pokey La­Farge (1 Nov, Apolo 2) and the more jazzy Joshua Red­man Group with Gabrielle Cavassa (2 Nov, Palau de la Música). Then there is the re­turn of the Amer­i­can fe­male blues duo Larkin Poe (7 Nov, Razzmatazz) and a trib­ute con­cert to the group Big Star with the only one of its mem­bers still alive, drum­mer Jody Stephens, join­ing forces with Mike Mills (REM), Pat Sam­sone (Wilco) and Jon Auer (The Posies), on the 15 Nov at the Apolo venue.

The Jazz Fes­ti­val, in No­vem­ber, will host con­certs such as Donny Mc­Caslin (6 Nov), Michel Camilo with Marco Mezquida (7 Nov), The Bad Plus (8 Nov), Ron Carter (9 Nov), Richard Bona with the Liceu Big Band (9 Nov) and Ser­gio Mendes (17 Nov). The Piñata cycle will also take an im­por­tant leap for­ward with con­certs such as those of­fered by Billy Cob­ham and Mark Guil­iana (19 Nov), Makaya Mc­Craven (21 Nov) and La Delio Valdez (25 Nov), all at Paral·lel 62.

Mean­while, Cruïlla de Tar­dor has an­nounced per­for­mances such as those by the African Fa­toumata Di­awara (22 Nov, Paral·lel 62), Joan Miquel Oliver (who will pre­sent his new album on the 25 Nov at Razzmatazz) and 31 Fam (25 Nov, Sant Jordi Club). No­vem­ber will also see Joan Isaac’s an­tho­log­i­cal con­cert at the Palau (28 Nov); the four per­for­mances in a row, each fo­cused on a dif­fer­ent album, by Els Catar­res (from 22 to 25 Nov), and the first of Els Pets’ end-of-tour recitals at the Apolo (27 Nov, with a sec­ond date four days later). Also on the agenda are Surfin’ Bi­chos (16 Nov, at Apolo), Alan Sparhawk’s tour after the dis­so­lu­tion of the group Low (17 Nov, La Nau), The Jesus & Mary Chain (17 Nov, Apolo), Nick Wa­ter­house (26 Nov, La Nau) and Screamin’ Chee­tah Wheel­ies (29 Nov, Apolo).

With many con­certs still to be con­firmed for the last month of the year, there will be the op­por­tu­nity to see the joint tour of Ariel Rot with Kiko Ve­neno (1 Dec, Palau de la Música); Raphael’s re­turn to Sant Jordi with a new album (2 Dec); the sec­ond visit of Greta Van Fleet, the new hope of rock, to the Sant Jordi Club (3 Dec), and the vis­its, also to the Mon­tjuïc pavil­ion, of Jason Derulo (6 Dec) and Morad (7 Dec).

MUSIC