How well these guys from La Ludwig Band do it

JumpBarely five months after the end of the last tour in Barcelona, La Ludwig Band returns to the stage, now at La Mirona Salt, as part of the Strenes Festival, with a new album under their arm, the fantastic Pel barri es comenta, which has just come out of the oven. In the live debut of the new album, the band has shown a very good tone, with drive and exuberance, singing new songs, yes, but with the shared feeling that in this minimal gap between one project and the other, not much has changed.

In fact, these months the old songs have been chaining together with the new singles released one by one, and during all this time of creation, the group has never completely moved away from the spotlight of concerts. Perhaps that's why the new album, which has a sense and unity in itself, also presents a continuity that is very well aligned with the previous themes. It consciously hits the right notes to keep the energy up without falling into self-complacency, but at the same time, it doesn't alter any of the foundational traits of its origins. Perhaps it is a bit more pop and showy, but Quim Carandell, a great poet of mundane things, continues to dance and sing with the same nasal and Dylan-esque refrain as always, now about heartbreak and bitterness, as he used to do about the butchery of Espolla or the lands of Cal Coix.

And live, of course, all of this is a celebration. At the premiere at La Mirona, the band sounded polished and especially compact, with a musical foundation that always moves forward. The staging is enriched with new light effects, and the six musicians, who haven't quite let loose with the choreography yet, dress with more pomp than a while ago.

However, there are also imperfections and blunders, because yes, La Ludwig's songs live sometimes sound out of tune or with rhythm discrepancies. With stutters in the verses and silent stanzas that the audience reproduces from memory. With Carandell's voice touched up, raspy, and almost hoarse. But that's also essentially what the alt-empordanese group is: the astonished, almost mocking gesture of someone who feels loved and makes music with friends without the pretense of having to please anyone or be liked too much.

The concert in Salt, lasting almost two hours, began with the cries of El teu amor, followed by the litany of Rapunzel, both with the bass drum on the off-beat, very sharp. Immediately, old songs like Judes, and Contraban, one of the hits by La Ludwig Band, which were already playing on the last tour, appeared on stage. Then came the bulk of the new album, alternating upbeat songs that stretch the limits of tempo, putting syllables where they don't fit, with more lyrical and calm ones. On t’has ficat aquesta nit? was frenetic, starting with the ukulele in the style of Guillem Gisbert and a saxophone solo that is not on the studio version; and Creu-me, impressive. From old songs, they brought back El meu amor se n'ha anat de vacances, Manela, 30 monedes and S’ha mort, the latter with three very funny volunteers coming up to sing a verse each. And, for the grand finale, the ingenious Millor amb ell, Enganyar-te dragged out like a bolero, the chorus dedicated to Xavier, the sound technician – who is now a new band legend – and, at the end, the concert's ode by Mushka in the purest Manel style.