The Estopas have been playing for 25 years, but they still had a few places left to play: Barcelona’s Olympic Stadium, Madrid’s Wanda Metropolitano… and an AVE. All three will be able to cross them off the list of pending positions this year. The two great Spanish stadiums will fill them in the summer with all the tickets sold and just yesterday they premiered on board a train.
After a few days of promotion in Madrid, they returned to their home, in Baix Llobregat, and did so by train. Not just any train, but an AVE with the first carriage covered in vinyl from top to bottom with the cover of his newly released album, Estopia. “We simply do our work and, suddenly, we find our giant faces on the train, it’s mind-blowing”, Jose Muñoz is surprised when he and his brother meet at the Atocha station and are greeted by the president from Renfe, Raül Blanco.
A little while later, as the AVE nears 300 km/h, David picks up the guitar and Jose begins to sing in front of a select group of fans chosen in a raffle organized by Renfe, which has become the train official of his summer tour through different Spanish cities in addition to Barcelona and Madrid. “We left the plane a long time ago, the AVE is a comfortable, clean, efficient method…”, emphasizes Jose. David becomes more philosophical, rambling on about this means of transport to end up concluding that “the train is a metaphor for life”.
They sit by the window, travelers swirl around them and the Muñoz brothers play several songs from the new album while the Monegres pass fleetingly behind them. Although it’s the first time they’ve performed in this format, you can tell they’re comfortable, with a well-tuned guitar and beer in hand.
Seen like this, surrounded by people recording with their cell phones, it’s clear that things have changed since they started in the music world. 25 years ago there were neither mobile phones at concerts nor a high-speed train between Barcelona and Madrid. What’s more, at that time, the Estopas rose to fame singing that they had a piñazo with a Seat Panda through the crack of your lap. Now, in their latest album, instead, they put the railway in the lyrics.
“We return to the last train that we almost lost, we walk along the platform, we get there when we get there,” they sing in Ké más nos da, a song that recalls experiences of friendship lived more than a quarter of a century ago. At that time, not even in their wildest dreams did they think of filling the Olympic Stadium and they walked back to Cornellà following the train tracks when the Amnesia nightclub in Sant Feliu de Llobregat closed its doors. Things have changed so much that there is now an old people’s home where courses are held to use the mobile phone and there are up to 55 daily AVE trains between Barcelona and Madrid at a lower price than it costs the entrance to a concert.
