“Saturday Night is Rock’n’Roll Night” proclaimed Oliver Baroni, double bass player and one of the two founders of The Hillbilly Moon Explosion with Emanuela Hutter, before attacking with the fifth song of his performance at the Sala BBK, in the middle of the Grand Via Bilbao. And who can argue with that. It is what we feel and what we want and what music gives us, especially live. The four-date tour here ended with this concert, which left a very pleasant taste in the mouths of the Bilbao public (and not from Bilbao, there were those who came from the south to see the Swiss) before throwing themselves into ever-diminishing dangers, for unfortunately, of the Bilbao night. And the hour and a half of the Swiss, in which they downloaded 23 songs, was clean and professional and well appreciated by their large fan base.

Of course, the concert began with a certain coldness. “Dead cat Boogie” and “Sometimes late at night” seemed to serve to test the sound, the atmosphere and the desire that the quartet was going to put into it later. The static and apparently distant Emanuela Hutter, who shared most of the songs with the double bass player Baroni (thirteen by herself, seven for her partner and the rest for two voices plus one played by guitarist Duncan James) complied with the file, although He was entering the environment little by little. “It’sa long way down”, “Desperation” and “XKE” (this one with a good guitar between her and Duncan) were the best of the start of the show, already combined, with Oliver Baroni delivered to play with his double bass as only the Those who use it live know how to do it and with a resounding yes from the respectable. This time standing, because the Sala BBK is more than a numbered seat, on Saturday with good sense.

Two classics like “Broken love” and “Queen of hearts” (for two voices, with a musical and static pause, one of those that some do and are always as effective as they are well received) gave way to the Country “Reno”, already with the concert atmosphere of enjoying dancing, come on, things were going as expected due to the expectation that the appointment had caused days before. Comfortable them above, comfortable everyone else below, what could go wrong? “Play, play” as an old national soccer referee used to say. Two of their most famous songs, “Depression” and “Broken your heart” (this one with an instrument exchange between the alma mater duo of the group Emanuela and Oliver) arrived a couple of songs before their hit “My love for evermore”,! eye! sung by guitarist Duncan James (who had shown off disturbing the good distortion on his instrument in the aforementioned “Broken your heart”), playing Sparky, the singer of Demented are Go, who provided the voice in the video clip about the topic.

And from then on, free track towards the final txanpa. Good version of “Call me” by Blondie, ending with “Maniac lover” and an expected encore of three songs. Two tributes in version mode, the first to Ronnie Spector’s classic “Baby I love you” (some of us think of the Ramones pointed by Phil Spector’s gun, the creator of the Wall of Sound, when he produced their fabulous “ End of the Century” with this theme included of course), and the second “One Cup of Coffee and a Cigarette” (Glen Glenn’s version) and final with its theme “Natascia”, performed in Italian by Emanuela, which will break with a glass of wine in hand. Is there a more elegant way to leave a stage?

Text: Michel Ramone

Photos: Dena Flows