After getting about 10 hours of much needed sleep, I went down to get breakfast, where I bumped into composer Mark Isham and his wife, as well as publicists Ray Costa and Beth Krakower. Eventually we made our way up to the Hospital de Santiago, where I met up with some more people, and checked out some of the rehearsals – in particular, Blake Neely and Chris Lennertz practicing the three Michael Kamen songs that would be part of tonight’s concert. Awesome stuff.
We went to a typically late lunch at a restaurant where they brought us all manner of tapas, including bread (with the best olive oil ever), duck liver pate, salad with tuna, morcilla (woohoo!), mussels with artichokes, and very tender beef with potatoes. All very good, and enough to hold me over until dinner – which would be much, much later.
I went to the Chris Lennertz panel, but about halfway through realized that I would need to take a siesta – so I headed back to the hotel, napped for an hour, and then came back for the concerts. The sound check was still ongoing when I arrived, and I figured everything would be starting late – which, naturally, it did. The first concert was a chamber orchestra recital which featured music by Chris Lennertz, Blake Neely, Michael Kamen, Mark Isham, and others. The second half (including Isham’s portion) started around 10pm – this was going to be a long night! But Isham rocked, and his rendition of Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean A Thing If You Ain’t Got That Swing” was a showstopping performance. We then had a small break, with drinks and sandwiches, while they reset the stage for Bear McCreary’s concert. His concert consisted of music from “The Walking Dead”, “Step Up 3D”, “Wrong Turn 2”, “Battlestar Galactica” and “Caprica”. The highlight was his solo piano performance of “Prelude to War” from BSG, which was very impressive. But when it was all over, it was 1am – and time for dinner!
We all congregated back at the pizza place where I was the previous night. The restaurant closes at 12:30am normally (according to their sign), but they were convinced to stay open for this very large group of people. Wine flowed, and I had a salad (whew – no pork!), and by the time we headed out of there, it was 3am. Definitely time for bed.