"A lo chorro orchestra" at PorchFest

In 2021, I was part of the first gig of the A lo chorro orchestra at the West Philly PorchFest. The West Philly PorchFest is a distributed, DIY music festival for which people in West Philadelphia put up performances in front of their houses (literally, on their porches). And a lo chorro orchestra is what we called the band that formed whenever our group of friends back in Philly got together to play. While later installments of the orchestra were joined by different people (for example, when we later did that Stromae song for Tau-Zeta's channel or when they played PorchFest 2022), this premiere of the group was composed by (in alphabetical order):

• Luiz Chamon: acoustic/electric guitar, singing
• Konstantinos Kallas: electric/acoustic guitar, singing
• Anastasios Tsiamis: piano, cajon, ney (flute-like instrument), singing
• Dimitrios Tzarouchis: acoustic guitar, tzoura (bouzouki-like instrument)

A lo chorro orchestra at PorchFest 2021

Before our semi-unplugged, somewhat-unrehearsed gig was interrupted by the band on the neighbor's porch (that was playing hard rock on a full PA setup), we managed to do our typical mix-and-match of world music, including

• Eye of the tiger, a Philadelphia classics;
• a medley of Greek Island traditional songs
• Roza, the most recognizable Zeimpekiko (dance performances by Caiman and Eliza);
• a combination of La cumbita (Tambo Tambo, Argentina), Sou milo kai kokkinizeis (Dionysis Savvopoulos, Greece), To kapileio (Xainides, Greece), Lambada (Kaoma, Brazil), and Bate forte o tambor (Carrapicho, Brazil);
• Wave, a bossa nova classic by Tom Jobim (where you can see the Kallas singing in Portuguese!); and
• Lucky, dedicated to 2018, the good times of Perkalosa.

Yes, we all got moustaches for the performance. To be fair, Kallas always has a moustache. And sometimes Dimitris leaves his as well. But for the rest of us, it was just the style for that day. It's West Philly, gotta make it a bit hipster.