Fifteen-year-old Macarena pauses mid-scream to catch her breath and tells me: “I almost cried when they came on stage.” She and her small crew — including one Eugenia squawking into a phone held aloft so her friend can listen in, and another Eugenia who has spent six years studying English — are gathered at the back of La Trastienda Club to watch British pop punk outfit McFly play Argentine soil for the very first time.
Speaking to the Herald, singer and guitarist Tom Fletcher said: “We’ve never been here before so we’re just building — it’s crazy to even think we even have any fans.”
As it happens, they have at least 900 Argentine devotees who packed the venue to capacity — though it looked half empty because the tables had been cleared away and the teenagers (average age 13) were all squashed against the front of the stage. Dozens more tried to bribe their way in, offering the burly doorman $100 for a ticket. He wasn’t having any of it, but I’m not sure what would have happened if that teenage mass, with “I love McFly” scrawled across their cheeks, had decided to team up and charge him, elephant style.
The band — Fletcher, Danny Jones (lead vocals and guitar), Dougie Poynter (vocals and bass guitar) and Harry Judd (drums) — had apparently been on their South American tour far too long: they came on an impressive hour and a quarter late, and my eardrums couldn’t wait for them to start. Mental note to self: pack earplugs for the pre-pubescent, pre-concert hysteria next time.
Who knows what they were up to backstage? What do pop punk stars get up to when left to their own devices? Perhaps one of the quartet had got lost in the unlit streets of San Telmo. Still, when they finally bounded on stage, the sound barrier was shattered — and in the interests of health and safety, warning signs really should have been posted for epileptics in the crowd, so rapid and flickering were the 900 camera flashes.
McFly could do no wrong on that chilly Friday night — a date written into hundreds of diaries many months in advance, though the parents waiting outside 75 minutes early might beg to differ. The show was fun and full of energy, their tunes are genuinely catchy, and although they are only just building a fan base in Argentina, this was definitely a performance that will boost their popularity.
The band have been together for nearly six years and know exactly how to tease the almost entirely female audience into a frenzy. Singer Danny only had to hold a fan’s gaze a second longer than appropriate to set the whole place screaming for more, but overall the McFly formula is a winner: there’s a slightly grungy edge to their music and image (marking them out as bad boys), while their cuteness and musical talent (they actually play their instruments) speak for themselves (marking them out as good boys). After all, it’s the parents footing the bill for tickets, CDs, posters and T-shirts, so they can’t be too bad, can they?
Rattling through the hits, the McFly setlist was lengthy. From latest album Radio:ACTIVE came Falling in Love, One For the Radio, POV, Corrupted and Falling in Love while other tracks included Transylvania, That Girl, Everybody Knows, Room on the 3rd Floor, Shaky Shaky, Lies, I Wanna Hold You, plus their British number ones Star Girl, All About You and Obviously. All 900 teenage girls (plus the two men over 25 I was with — you are going to be named and shamed here, Richard Townley and Ramiro Cittadino) knew every chorus, if not most of the lyrics.
My own personal gig requirements were met by McFly’s first-ever Argentine show: a bit of a sing-a-long, a bit of a dance, and no queue at the bar because everyone else was under 18. A fun-filled night out, made even better by a free poster with the ticket stub.
www.buenosairesherald.com/PrintedEdition/View/3326