Guieldu at the San Francisco Theatre for St. Patrick's Day

León

A sold-out night, nods to Ireland, special guests, and a standing ovation

On March 17, 2024, St. Patrick­’s Day, we took the stage at the San Fran­cis­co The­atre in León, invit­ed by the venue itself for the occa­sion. Until then, we had most­ly per­formed in town squares, fes­ti­vals, and stand­ing-room halls—a envi­ron­ment where we feel right at home. The the­atre set­ting was a dif­fer­ent for­mat we want­ed to explore, because Celtic music isn’t just made for danc­ing: its lay­ers and atmos­pheres also invite intro­spec­tion and lis­ten­ing with your eyes closed.

We knew online reser­va­tions were hov­er­ing near 80% capac­i­ty, but we nev­er expect­ed that when the box office opened that evening, the the­atre would hang up the sold-out sign. It’s not some­thing we are used to. At a fes­ti­val, you nev­er know how many peo­ple will stop in front of the stage, but a sold-out the­atre is a dif­fer­ent sto­ry: it means those peo­ple made a delib­er­ate choice, with name and sur­name, to spend their evening lis­ten­ing to us.

Although many audi­ence mem­bers were already famil­iar with us, to be fair, a small per­cent­age did­n’t quite know what to expect. When peo­ple talk about Celtic music, it’s easy to pic­ture a calm acoustic ensemble—not a full band with drums, elec­tric gui­tars, and bass. So our sound came as a wel­come sur­prise to those listeners.

We also tai­lored our setlist to the venue. We have more atmos­pher­ic, pro­gres­sive tracks and bal­lads that don’t always fit fes­ti­val setlists, but the San Fran­cis­co The­atre was the per­fect space to enjoy them. It’s safe to say we won over that new audience.

That night, we were also joined by two excep­tion­al guests: dulzaina play­er Antolín Cardeñoso (“Tolo”) and accor­dion­ist Ser­gio Gar­cía (“Segis”). Wel­com­ing two key fig­ures of León’s musi­cal tra­di­tion onto the stage was anoth­er way to bridge our sound with the roots of the audi­ence in front of us.

Giv­en the St. Patrick­’s Day theme, sev­er­al Irish tracks in our reper­toire took cen­ter stage, such as Irish Fleadh and Eire­ann Set. Both are suites com­posed of tra­di­tion­al tunes adapt­ed to our style, fea­tur­ing eas­i­ly rec­og­niz­able melodies. By the time we launched into these pieces, much of the crowd was already on their feet, clap­ping along to the beat.

This con­cert was an incred­i­bly enrich­ing expe­ri­ence for Guiel­du and helped us refine this seat­ed audi­to­ri­um for­mat. In fact, we are already writ­ing new mate­r­i­al designed specif­i­cal­ly for this setting—whether enjoyed in a the­atre or from the com­fort of your couch. Some of these tracks will fea­ture on our upcom­ing album.

Want to watch the video?

Concert Video and Photos

© Pho­tos: Enrique M.