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Is it true that there are teenagers and young people who listen to rock? The question may sound tricky in these terms, but it has a lot to do with the group’s call. air baga true case study. On Friday, the series of three shows that the group of brothers began on the Vélez court Sardelli (Gastón, Patricio and Guido) scheduled the court in the Liniers neighborhood for this weekend, and showed that, as a massive phenomenon, they have not yet reached their peak. It is enough to remember that last year they did only one show in that stadium.
Seeing that young and adolescent audience that in the preview applauded and chanted songs by ZZ Top, Led Zeppelin, Creedence Clearwater Revival or a Steve Wonder classic made you realize that every rule has its exception. Just because rock is no longer (and for a long time now) a youth standard, does not mean that there are not young people who listen to it and adhere to its precepts. They simply like the style of music, beyond trends.
Rock still plays, of course, but those living heroes over seventy who perform it have an audience their age, which is far from youth. In that sense, the response to Airbag was a declaration of devotion and also vindication of a style. In fact, this performance on Friday was the last to be added and, however, far from seeming like an encore, perhaps without completely covering the capacity, it ended up being a packed stadium.
Airbag has an extemporaneous gesture if you look and listen to the show from head to toe. That is, from that gigantic skull that dominates the structure of the stage, up there, to the band playing below. The skull is, in some way, an icon of metal rock that, depending on how you look at it, suffers from a certain anachronism. In a band with 25 years of history (and that plays rock) it is not something out of place, even though its musicians are between 36 and 42 years old.
With all that baggage and with that tailwind that they have had for a few years, just a few minutes after 9:20 p.m. the Sardelli brothers took to the field, for the first of these three recitals. “Anarquia in Buenos Aires”, “Chrome Riders” and “Perdido” was the triad with which he tuned his engines, in the first minutes, and planted a news item on the screens: “March 2025, new album. “Fight Club,” one could read. Behind them fireworks exploded while the musicians waved on the stage.
That way of starting a show, by what would usually be the end (effusive and pyrotechnic) is a gesture that speaks of the band; do yours, beyond conventions. And current conventions do not indicate that the trend or fashion is as classic rock as the one Airbag generates.
From the nineties sound of Bon Jovi and the Guns to Marshall’s wall that supported the musicians for a more classic aesthetic, or from Pato’s skills with his guitar solos to the Maradonian images of the central screen, the show was helmed across two dozen tracks and almost three hours.
There were songs that talked about love. There were hit songs (“Sleepless Nights”, “Cicatrices”, “Cuchillos Guantanamera”); there were ballads like “Never Forget” and “Ten Days Later”, with Guido on the piano, or AC/DC-style rawness, of “Hurricane.” There were versions of “She used my head like a revolver,” by Soda Stereo, and, later, the classic popularized by Creedence “Have You Ever Seen The Rain?”
There was also a chorus well distributed between men’s and women’s voices, because Airbag calls for boys and girls almost equally. Although The highest marks were given by the girls who were closest to the stage. There were some who, standing on the shoulders of their partners or friends, decided to let go of their underwear. A little topless and rock and roll, in the last part of the show. Almost like a festival from the sixties, which the camera director briefly struck out. The yapas, two and a half hours before the start, arrived with a pop version of the tango “Volver”, “Por mil noche”, and postcards that went from Vicente López y Planes to Piazzolla, and from “Kalashnikov” to “Solohere” .
In summary: Los Airbag did a show in Vélez last year, and this December they are doing three shows, a trend that seems to be the counter-trend of the music market, the one that goes towards urban genres, univocally. Meanwhile, the classic brings out its value. Rock is no longer an emblem of youth, but as a gesture of a tradition (although at one time it was on the sidelines of tradition). Two hours of music, very classic rock, in a full court. This Friday the Sardelli brothers trio played the first of those three consecutive dates with which they will close the year. Perhaps this is explained with a phrase from Pato, during a recent interview with LA NACION: “We are always on our little path to the side of the world and doing what we like. We don’t care much about trends and fashions. I think there are great things that happened in these years, but we always held on in the trenches, playing. I have no doubt that there is a great breeding ground for musicians, but we always try to be ourselves and enjoy everyday life with a lot of rock and a lot of rebellion.”
