The best scratches of Mazoni and a bunch of accomplices

We must begin by refuting the protagonist. "It will be a night of nostalgia and guests," said Jaume Pla, Mazoni, before starting the 20th-anniversary concert of the album Esgarrapada (2026). Guests there certainly were, but as for nostalgia, not a shred. Furthermore, there are things that do not need the validation of nostalgia. Therefore, there was no self-indulgence in a vibrant performance that was a confirmation of the virtues of the repertoire of Mazoni's first album in Catalan. These are ten songs (plus the version of Cançó 7ena en colors, by Pau Riba) that go beyond generational impact because they are made with material that does not yellow with the passage of time. They keep their gaze on the present, also due to how Mazoni performs them with the band from the tour of the album Banderes per daltònics (2025) and, above all, because of the guests he has chosen, some of the most relevant in current Catalan music, everyone connected with those electric and poetic scratches.

It was very exciting to see songwriters with the personality of Roger Mas, Xantal Rodríguez (Remei de Ca la Fresca), Joan Pons (El Petit de Cal Eril) and Quim Carandell (La Ludwig Band) living in the verses of Esgarrapada. "Perduts en la boira però agafats de mà" could have been written by a more telluric Roger Mas, and that is surely why he sang it with such naturalness; what a beautiful song, by the way. In De mans i peus, Xantal Rodríguez launched with the house-trademark defiant force "I would buy you the nails if that way you shut up and leave me alone". Joan Pons' screams in Esclatassangs and at the end of Qualsevol dimarts m'estimaràs spoke quite eloquently of the mutual influence between El Petit de Cal Eril and Mazoni (and of how they both like punk-rock). And in No tinc temps, when Quim Carandell sang, as if he were the author, "I'm really sorry but I'm late for I don't know where", suddenly one could understand why Jaume Pla is "a benchmark", just as Pons had said.

The concert, organized by TresC to also celebrate twenty years of work, covered all the material from Esgarrapada and seven songs from other Mazoni albums. Except for the initial Que sí que sí, que sí, each of the other ten from the 2006 album featured a different collaboration. And it is only fair that the names be recorded: Meritxell Neddermann, Pau Vallvé, Roger Mas, Magalí Sare, Anna Andreu, the duo Cala Vento (Aleix Turon and Joan Delgado), Xantal Rodríguez, Joan Pons (who sang two of them), and Quim Carandell. Everyone got straight to work, without unnecessary speeches: just paying tribute to the songs with the best performances. Furthermore, saxophonist Genís Bou and trumpeter Marina Feliu contributed wisdom and nuances to a good number of tracks: melancholy in Com he arribat aquí?, with Pau Vallvé on drums; delicate filigree in the finale of Perduts en la boira; psychedelic enthusiasm in De mans i peus; and, of course, late-night joy to complete the Stonian tearing of No tinc temps.

Bob Dylan, Pau Riba, brit-pop and the Beatles' Revolver were the heartbeats that set the rhythm for Mazoni in 2006. They are still there in 2026, but one of the successes of the concert at Paral·lel 62 was the multitude of details that suggested the musicians' commitment was much greater than in other similar celebrations. For example, Joan Delgado giving a nod to Fugazi in the initial drums of Ulls de gat mesquer. That Anna Andreu's voice took Virgínia i el pantà to another dimension. That Meritxell Neddermann rode the keyboard within the groove of Gised. Or that Magalí Sare took on the challenge of performing as a duet, and renouncing further prominence, the version of Pau Riba, which started acoustically and grew little by little until it became one of the most memorable moments of the night, almost like a pagan spell.

Solidity and joy

Between the two blocks dedicated to Esgarrapada and in the final stretch, Mazoni unfolded a mini-anthology. Songs played included Purgatori, the grumpy Un petit racó de pau per cadascú, the highly electric Apocalipsi now (with the band breathing the spirit of Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue tour), La promesa, La granja de la Paula (a Dylan-esque reference he dedicated to the spectators who had come to the concert from outside Barcelona), Eufòria and Ei, que surt el sol.

Throughout the concert, the band demonstrated the solidity and joy that have accompanied the momentum that Mazoni gained when he returned to the stages in 2025 after a short period of creative crisis. While they were playing Ei, que surt el sol with that enviable ease that makes the music take flight, a large part of the guest musicians were dancing and smiling on one side of the stage, happy to be part of the same world as Mazoni, and they showed it when they joined the party to close the concert by singing the song together. "Esgarrapada was the record that gave me a profession", Jaume Pla had said a few days ago. The musicians who were invited to the Paral·lel 62 venue are grateful for it, and so is the audience: impeccable before the gift they were receiving from the stage and spectacular by charging ahead and singing Ei, que surt el sol while the musicians waved goodbye at the end of a magnificent concert