Diarios de Madrid

I had already been told that, besides being a popular professor at the Complutense, Jonathan Holland also played in a band. Not only does he play both the guitar and the bass, writes most of the bands original material, but he also does a decent impression of someone singing.

So last week when his band performed in a bar called Zanzibar a few of us went down there to check it out. I must say, I was expecting the good professor to step on stage like some kind of Stephen Malkmus and launch into some very far-out grungy, Pavement meets Blur-style indie rock.

What we got instead was a more traditional folk-rock band, playing covers ranging from Van Morrisons "Brown-eyed girl" to Billy Braggs "New England" (A song, by the way, that I hadn't heard in ages and immediately threw me back in time to my first year at the University of Brussels), with a singer that reminded me vaguely of Luka Bloom and a backing-vocalist who reminded me in the best possible way of Shawn Colvin. There were some original songs as well that really fitted in with the rest of the material and the Zanzibar is a really nice place to hang out on a Saturday night.

The other guitar player was playing a beautiful PRS-20th anniversary model, the kind of guitar that can not be bought by any legal means; our professor on the other hand was playing a more modest Fender Stratocaster. I had a great evening and, if anything, was reminded of those heady days when I myself used to play in a band and how much fun that can be.
It's still the greatest excuse to act like a total adolescent without anyone paying mind....

And, no, that is not some Photoshop motion blur in the photograph but the face of a man who is indeed... ehrm...rocking out.