Azkena is a word that in Basque means the latest. In the homonymous festival of 2009 its meaning has maybe even more preponderance than ever, perhaps symbolising the third cycle in the career of its main acts.

Over the 14th, 15th and 16th of May, Vitoria-Gasteiz was completely dressed in rock. The followers of the Black Crowes may have had some problems confusing the many Basques, and the not so, that walked the medieval streets of the old town with their long manes and seventies outfits.

After a weak show by The Breeders, Juliette Lewis arrived disappointingly closing the list of the inaugural day, with a set full of tics typical of Iggy Pop; more than one might have been left looking for The Stooges. By contrast, White Denim, who were content with a much shorter set during the afternoon, overflowed from the stage with a ferocious and compact sound.

Friday, the second day and perhaps the peak of the festival, attracted a multitude that thanked amongst other things the good weather. The main dish, The Black Crowes, and their supporters, Soul Asylum, count around two decades of music making, and this was evident in the faces of their audience that in its majority had left adolescence a while ago.

Soon after signing some autographs, a bit confused or maybe unaccustomed, with a popularity that stayed back in the ‘90s, Soul Asylum burst on the Lux Interior stage by the hand of the originals Dave Pirner and Dan Murphy, and with the help of other experienced musicians such as Tommy Stinson, ex The Replacement and now also in Guns ‘n’ Roses, and the great Michael Bland who has been known to play with Prince and Paul Westerberg, to throw a few names in. The group from Minneapolis raised the tone of the festival with its well-known stage style: strong guitars, a lot of electricity and the broken and felt voice of Pirner. Unfriendly for the Latin taste they may be, but solid as in their best moments, Soul Asylum paved the entrance for the main act.  

The retro vibes of the Robinson brothers were felt even before the first notes of their set, with a handful of apples distributed at the edge of the stage and copiously inserted with lit incense, sensorially announcing The Black Crowes.  They were magnificent. The unmatched charisma of Chris Robinson only grows more gigantic with the depth of the melodies of his brother Rich. The band in itself has a lot of tours behind them and that translated into a set that was homogenate, coherent and poignant. With new songs and some classics, The Black Crowes spent more than two ritual hours in which they moved their yesteryear fans and conquered the hearts of the young audience. And if azkena means the latest, then the latest is not the newest but the best.

And speaking of endings, the third day was seized by the Fun Lovin’ Criminals that could not recreate the magic of other times but that with a little less they serve well their role of support band to the dinosaur that is Alice Cooper.

Only for fanatics, Alice Cooper threatens with a mega chilling show and then vanishes in clichés that age him and robbed him of seriousness. It’s allowed for one to think that if a musician does not retire, maybe he should retire some of his songs. It did not jell other than with the most staunch adepts of the band and sadly distorted his fame of avant-garde artist with a proposition that was both tired and not very creative.