“More Decadence and less Prozac.” Paraphrasing the famous book that Lou Marinoff launched in 1999, the phrase applies to Monumental Decadents – the Moviethe brand new film directed by Diego Alvarez which records the group’s historic concert at the Monumental Bullring in Mexico City in May of this year. And also, let’s be fair, to any intervention by the band that, for almost four decades, has been a source of joy thanks to songs that have resonated (and continue to resonate) deeply, not only among the Argentine public, but in a good part of Latin America.
The film is an excuse to revisit Los Deca’s repertoire, but also to glimpse, in Cinemascope and dazzling Technicolor, the group’s impact on the Mexican audience, which includes shirts from the Argentine National Team and from various local football clubs. In the vein of “concert films”, the common thread is the songs, but the story is also built from small sketches, hilarious interventions that play, like a trailer, with the aesthetics of horror, suspense and science fiction films, “Class B” (or “Class DD”, in honor of the Divine Decadence).
Participating in the concert The Caligariwhich recreate the cumbia-soulera version of “A street separates us”which they had recorded in collaboration with its author, the great composer and singer from Santiago Leo And y “Kilometers”from the repertoire of the Cordoba group. Also the Colombian electro-cumbé group Systema Solarrevisiting “America”from Los Tigres del Norte. And Maeto Sujatovichof Getting to know Russiawhich folds to the Hymn, “The Guitar”by the master Jorge “Perro Viejo” Serrano.
There is no revisionist intent, beyond the group’s own repertoire through songs. That’s what the indispensable documentary was for. Trucholandia (2016). However, there is room to remember the first visit to Mexico, the dedication to Horacio “Gamexane” Villafañe and Pablito Molina, from Todos Tus Muertos, and the concerts shared in the border city of Tijuana, together with TTM and Tijuana No.
“The Creole overflow that heals wounds”they sing in “Somos”, and it is a very accurate definition. Like a placebo against all the evils of this world, there are Los Auténticos Decadentes, tin soldiers of joy. Now, on a giant screen. It would not be strange if, during the performances, a little train was formed between the seats.
:quality(85)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/GK5DUAMFW5D2PGA34KXCB4OMRA.jpeg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 "Kurt Villavicencio announces the return of Gisela Valcárcel to Peruvian television with a program on Latina")