Oques Grasses are already memorable history

Anne Carson, the 2026 Nobel Prize laureate in Literature, commented regarding a Rosalía concert in Chicago that upon leaving the performance there was no shared euphoria among the audience. "Each person sinks into their own dream while adjusting their headphones," the Canadian poet wrote, noting the more introspective nature of the material on the album Lux, or perhaps Rosalía's overwhelming ability to leave one speechless. Individual experience prevailed, therefore, as legitimate as what was lived during the four farewell concerts of Oques Grasses at the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium, where the weight of the collective (and in many cases family) experience lived over two hours soaked the journey home for the 55,000 spectators (220,000 in total for the farewell). Down from Montjuïc there may not have been the euphoria that Anne Carson was looking for, but there was a shared joy, despite the inevitable pinch of melancholy because there will be no more opportunities to see and experience an Oques Grasses concert.

It is true that there was no football-like euphoria of the post-concert performances by Argentine artists and groups such as Fito Páez and Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, because the enthusiasm of the Argentine audience plays in another league, but the happy faces confirmed that the funeral proposed by Oques Grasses had been satisfactory. This happiness, and the involvement of the spectators during the performance, is the prize taken home by musicians who will not share a stage all together again: Josep Montero, Guillem Realp, Arnau Altimir, Miquel Biarnés, Joan Borràs, Josep Valldeneu and Miquel Rojo. Now that Oques Grasses are history, time will tell how the group's leader, Montero, will capitalize on this experience when he releases his first solo album. The emotional hangover can be overwhelming.

Apparently, there have been no differences between the four farewell concerts. Only the musicians are in a position to judge whether each performance was different or if the memory will be more indefinite. All four began with Montero alone singing Córrer pel camps and giving the same welcoming speech, but on Saturday with an addition: "It is the last concert, but we don't want it to be a sad concert," he said after repeating that they had reached this point thanks to the audience. "What a beautiful audience!", he exclaimed later, remembering that the concert could be followed on TV3 (and La 2 Cat). Compared to the first day, perhaps there were fewer nerves on stage, and more smiles, like those they showed during Passos importants while a sea of t-shirts shook the night, because as the song says, "important steps are usually taken without clothes". And perhaps there was more emotion in Montero's voice when, before La gent que estimo, he said: "We hope to have lived up to everything you have given us".

The group worked the four nights with the same repertoire and the peculiarities of the stage show left little room for improvisation, as they detailed the chronicles of the first night. The reaction of the audience was also similar, in accordance with the musical script and the dynamics of emotional social democracy proposed by the band from Osona. The involvement and ovations were equally intense before the martial epic ofElephants, which the winds place in the celebration (with the call "don't stop being you" as an existential slogan); the "wonderful disaster" of Ass face, the melancholy of Pingpong (with all the mobile phone lights in the stadium); the inflamed intimacy of The people I love and the final Lucky you; the joke of How things are going; the unstoppable party of the rhythmic Thermomix of In the night; the carefree joy of songs like Stable horse, Ass,It is me again and the brass band Song of the air which sometimes mask less cheerful letters; the desire to let go of dead weight of Terraces, who on Saturday introduced it by asking: "Shall we throw it all to hell?"... It is not easy to have 55,000 people with such dedication and without any drop in tension throughout two hours, except perhaps for the moment fall of John Brown and the hard rock fire of Upwards. This indestructible connection is the reward that Oques Grasses have received for wanting to say goodbye with songs and spectacle, without special collaborations or distractions artifices, and without making distinctions between the audience of the four days, because every concert was equally important, and they must be thanked.

Like Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, on Saturday the performance began on the small central stage before the musicians approached the main stage for the gospel burst of To crush it, with heart and soul, and the funk of It's cool, empowered by the artistic direction deployed by Montero and the Vic-based studio Noxfera, also responsible for the lighting and space design. The chromatic minimalism of the concert had a lot to do with the way of working of Noxfera, which has participated in the tour Blue room of Aitana and that of the album Dance the mazurka!, by Guillem Gisbert, in addition to other shows by Pau Vallvé and Lia Kali. The staging at the Olympic was completed by the Barcelona studio Eyesberg, responsible for the visual content, especially relevant in the second part of the concert, starting from Bambi, which is when the talent of a studio that collaborated with the most shone Franc Aleu in the opera Turandot at the Liceu.

When Jordi Herreruela, the director of the Cruïlla festival, said that Oques Grasses offers "concerts with a very ambitious live production", he was referring precisely to the possibility of proposing stadium shows comparable to those put on by international artists. It is legitimate to ask whether a macro-concert is the best way to experience live music, especially for the audience furthest from the stage, but it is evident that Oques Grasses wanted the farewell to be unforgettable. And the ecstatic audience that packed the stadium for four nights has made it unforgettable for Oques Grasses. As someone might say: love me as the audience has loved Oques Grasses.