In the intense and highly creative decade of the 90s, The Knights of the Flame They were one of the key bands, within a generation that included artists such as Los Piojos, La Renga and Babasónicos.
They had their popularity peak with success Come on brunette and they separated shortly after, in 2002. Today they meet again for a tour and an amusement park, Thursday 13th April.
It should be noted that it is not their first meeting in twenty years, because in 2017 they filled the Estadio Unico de La Plata, as part of the Provincia Emergente festival. Since then there have only been a handful of shows, but there has never been a tour, let alone a concert of this magnitude in the Capital.
“It’s Always a Party”
According to Iván Noble, “Up to now, this year we have only done one show, in Zapala, which has been very good. The truth is that I wait for Luna with emotion and happiness, which is no small thing. Because every time we are there met in these years, which were three or four but very sporadic, they always ended up being a party».
-You were the first surprised by the great response of the people.
-Yes. And I had a lot of fun, because between my neuroses and my skeptical gaze, I never really knew if I wanted to do it or if being together was a good idea. Especially being a band that had been off the scene for 20 years. But what has always happened, from the Unico stadium until this year on the Day of Remembrance, Truth and Justice, was seeing parents and children together. This is what struck me the most.
-Did you think they might have forgotten about the group?
-The truth is that there have been many years of absence, and even if there have been successes like Come on morocha, Toad from another well AND Rusty, did not know how much they had accumulated and how much they pulled. And I was surprised and moved. We played last March 23 at the former ESMA Memory Space, for the World Forum on Human Rights, and the same thing happened, which embarrasses me a bit because I’ve seen my peers cry.
I wanted to tell them, “Gentlemen, it’s not a big deal, and we are great!” (laughs). Obviously there is something in our songs that has scratched a lot of people’s hearts, more than I thought.
-Almost all bands that break up say that at some point they think people have forgotten about them.
-Or that maybe they haven’t been forgotten, but it wasn’t that easy to hold back the emotion. There’s an emotional anchoring that goes beyond the songs, because it’s not just a musical enjoyment. There are memories. It seems to me that there is a lot of that untranslatable word: “saudade”. In other words, it surpasses the band, which at a certain point is like the alibi for people to have that connection.
– Quite a responsibility.
-Yes. Bands have to live up to that enthusiasm. Songs must be well performed and what happens on stage cannot be soulless. And this only happens if we are also enthusiastic. And the truth that keeps happening.
I doubted it would happen to me, because my whole solo career has nothing to do musically with the Caballeros. I didn’t know what it would be like to put that shit back on. I didn’t know if I should have done this. And the truth is that it was a great personal lesson, because it helped me find a side of myself that was in disuse.
The meeting 2023
How did this return come about?
-At the end of last year I realized it would be 25 years The patience of the spider. It seemed to me a symbolic number, with how much and how little those things mean. There we communicated and I asked if we were doing anything. And unlike other times, it felt like instead of doing one event we could have done five or six shows on tour. We are now embarking, rehearsals are going great and the camaraderie is still very good.
Was Luna Park a pending issue, an old whim?
-For me Luna was a thorn, because I remember that I wanted to present Patience at the Luna, because we had already done some work and because it was a legendary place where I saw Titans in the Ring, Ray Charles, Charly, James Brown and the Chili Peppers. But it was closed and we had to go to Parque Sarmiento. So it’s also like a beretin.
-Are the topics almost the same as in the previous meeting?
-There is a backbone of fifteen songs that are immovable and there are 10 more that may or may not be played, depending on the event. Being a closed and beautiful place, we will do an acoustic set with songs that maybe you can’t play outdoors, as part of a festival. Because we also realized that: there are songs that are the DNA of the band and it’s unimaginable not to play them.
The reunion in 2017
-How was the first reunion, before the Unico stadium?
We never saw each other again! Eventually one would bump into another for a birthday, but the original five members had never gotten together. It happened only 15 years later, before Unico, in a meeting with empanadas, wine and grievances to settle, which weren’t many. I think adulthood or maturity appeases your venom.
-And you can talk about it or just ignore the elephant in the room.
-Clear. After all, we are other people after fifteen years. Historically I’ve always said the same thing: “The Knights parted without strikes or advocates,” though of course there have been times when many of us have hated or scorned each other. At that time everyone had their reasons, but not anymore.
What’s so weird about a band breaking up? Look take up again or the Metallica documentary. I think what’s really remarkable are the bands that are still together after 10 years, and for that reason I really admire Babasónicos and Los Auténticos Decadentes.
-It is rare to ignore such an important and long-lasting past.
-One is what he has done with his life, and in our case it was half of his life. Professionally at 18 I was a cadet, then I studied Sociology and immediately started singing. It’s my life’s work, and in that sense Signori was Kindergarten, Elementary and Secondary. So the situation of six people meeting in the craft, older and tolerant, is to be thanked and celebrated. Especially if things are done with respect to history.
I’m absolutely sure it’s a better band now than before. We sound better now, because the audio and rehearsal conditions were very precarious 25 years ago, but the personalities are also macerated. There is an assembly of passion and old things. I don’t know how long it will last, maybe the time will come when it will be more aged than passionate! (laughs)
-What comes after the Moon?
-Then comes the whole tour: Rosario, Mar del Plata, Córdoba, Mendoza and Santa Fe. We said we’d do a first semester of Gentlemen. Then we will see what happens during the trip.
play for children
-Did wanting to show the band to your children influence your comeback?
I was very doubtful whether to be together. A few years before, I had never had one, and when the Unico came out, what I decided was that Benito started listening to the Caballeros a lot, and he was about 12-13 years old. I remember that one day Giulietta called me and said: “Your son is listening Gentlemen”! Even now some songs keep appearing in their playlists.
I think it’s a way to tell your story, just like our grandparents told their war exploits. There is a moment in life when one seeks serenity, when one begins to make a summary, an inventory, and there aren’t many things one has done in life. And of those things that one did, the ones that made you who you are now, there are two or three: the women you loved, the friends you kept and what you did with your job.
-Do the band comebacks serve to make me relish what I stopped enjoying at a certain point?
-Yes. It’s like going back to Ithaca, to your homeland, older. Ulises’ curse was that he would return but late, badly, without maps and without companions. Coming back late and bad for a band is the worst thing that can happen. No maps not bad. And without companions it is impossible. Bands must return before it’s too late, in the best possible way, with dignity, honoring history and with their mates, because it’s non-negotiable. Coming back for money isn’t enough and people would notice.
Source: Clarin
