Reunion with Green Lights

A message that José Luis González left me —music manager and producer— A few months ago on WhatsApp caught my attention. It alluded to a rock group that was looking for a vocalist. It did not say the name of the band, but the description of its musical characteristics and what they expected from the possible selected one pointed me directly to Green lights. After exchanging several messages, José, very discreetly, confessed to me that, indeed, Luces needed a replacement for El Pollo, who was already finalizing details to settle outside of Cuba.                                                                 

The first time that, aware of its existence, I heard Javier San Juan Galán (aka El Pollo) sing, it was with María Ochoa in my living room. After he interpreted —on guitar and voice— one of his songs whose name I don't remember, I went crazy; I had in front of me the type of singer-songwriter that gives me goosebumps. The works of El Pollo have strength, dynamics, peculiar melodies, daring rhythms and a lot of poetry, both in the lyrics and in the intention, an amalgamation of magical functionality and depth. which manages to close with the execution. He is not the best singer, nor does he have a great voice, nor can we say that he is an excellent interpreter, but he has the magic of transmission, he knows how to reach it, converts and adapts his finely tuned voice and achieves the impact, the success, the artistic. El Pollo is one of my favorite singer-songwriters from the generations around me, even though I've only heard him a few times, all live, always on guitar and vocals. I will regret that his career as a singer-songwriter has not had a greater impact, but his work with Luces Verdes remains, and although geographically “distant” now, the mark of this wonderful composer already exists, trying to escape the oblivion of the years. 

On October 26, in an Instagram post, Luces Verdes officially announced Javier's departure from the band. A few days later, on November 2, through the same platform they presented their new vocalist, a certain Chaski, whom he had seen in previous publications without knowing his name, with influences from Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Fito Páez and Heroes of Silence, according to the post. I was intrigued and I confess I was a little suggested thinking that the boy would not be able to fill the gap left by El Pollo, but, a few days later, reviewing the profile of the group I came across with a video that he had overlooked some time ago, where the band appeared already accompanied by its most recent member. I loved her voice, her projection, her ease. I was watching an eighties rockstar singing the theme pepe the spider as she wiggled and played with her hair and microphone stand. Sergio Eguino (Chaski) exceeded my expectations; Green Lights had —at least in terms of vocals— found the perfect substitute for El Pollo.

Green Lights with their new lineup. Photo: Taken from the band's social networks.

The last time I saw the band live before the total closure due to the pandemic was at one of my project meetings CUBAO exhibitions, exactly on January 25, 2020 in La Madriguera. A year and many months later, as part of the El Madrigazo production team, I learned that the group I was one of the guests for the reopening of this event; I would meet him again in the same scenario as last time. I sensed that they would come with a different dynamic, with the transformations that a change of alignment implies. I was eager to see live this new vocalist who had impressed me so much on Instagram.

Being part of the production team of the event, my responsibilities started very early, coinciding with the sound checks. He had a loaded table when Green Lights started testing. I stopped, listened, moved the table to one side, and sat down to listen to the entire song with my eyes and ears on Chaski. Although musicians tend to suppress their projection during sound checks, this guy looked energetic, swayed, pounded out rhythm with his whole body, fiddled with the mic, and best of all, never missed a note. The voice came to me clear and solid, I understood inch by inch what he was saying to me, what he was transmitting to me. Chaski's ability to exploit all his body expression on stage was one of the things that caught me. El Pollo, regardless of his communication skills and vocal sentiment, was a stake on stage, that's why seeing Chaski so restless represented a radical change in the way of assimilation of Luces Verdes on stage. The work did not allow me to listen to more than one song, but I knew that at night it would be the opportunity; I'd be in charge of the center stage production, I'd have them right next to me. 

At night, while I was smoking in the entrance, I bumped into José Luis who was accompanied by the new singer. After a brief talk about the weather, production and others, I turned to Chaski and gave him a thousand compliments and some advice and observations, which he sincerely and humbly thanked. I knew him at that moment as a receptive boy, warm and eager to get to know and penetrate that environment that —I imagined— was new to him. We talked about music, poetry, stage, bureaucracy, but above all about how much I was waiting for their musical moment. 

A few hours later, almost eleven o'clock at night, Luces Verdes went up on stage. There was quite an explosion, guitar, drums, piano, bass and Chaski Eguino in the lead voice. The boy unfolded, increased his momentum, decreased it, solidified his posture, became flaccid, moved to the sides, became intimate, burst haughty, whispered, scratched his voice to the limit, made it melodic again, adjusted the jumpsuit straps, closed his eyes, opened them, looked directly at the audience, lay down, sang, felt, made people feel. That day I found one of the Cuban rock n' roll vocalists who has satisfied me the most on stage. I saw many greats through him, at the moment I had Mick Jagger, Jim Morrison, Robert Plant, Ian Gillian, Bon Scott, Sherpa, Spinetta in front of me. Chaski has many resources, but the wonder is that it has been known how to build original, with the sparkles of those who I imagine its paradigms and with the courageous impulses of a faithful, expressive, powerful body and voice. The “tell me if you know him?” of pepe the spider that night he removed La Madriguera and, to whom he did not know him, Chaski introduced him. 

With El Pollo, Luces Verdes had the wisdom, the speech, the precision, the explosion from the calm, the approach, the claw. Now with Chaski he has the overflow, the sensuality, the dynamics, the explosion from the intensity, the scenic power, the fire. Undoubtedly two stages that are not at all similar but that pursue the same goal: the persistence of the rock label and the good music of this group. They are two stages as different as they are valid and I consider them an important part in the formation of what is and can become Green Lights in the history of rock n' roll in Cuba. Time will put the last verses to this good musical poem that has been born for years.