in 1978), people thought they were really serious. Whistles and boos would follow and what should have been a great concert turned into a fiasco, with fans clamoring for Sui Generis songs. Serú Girán did not get their point across their ideas as expected. It would all fuel wild speculations about the members' sexual orientations, a PR nightmare at the time. But the group bounced back with a vengeance with their 2nd album La Grasa de las Capitales. It was well received by the specialist press, and would cement their status as the most popular band of their time. Serú Girán's third album Bicicleta (1980) was tepidly received at first, but in time would be considered the band's best work. Both albums departed from the symphonic rock of the first LP, the music turning more visceral and 'simple' with less arrangement and pomp. Serú Girán would not be isolated in this trend, as slowly Argentine rock was writing the final chapters in its symphonic and progressive period. Argentine rock and Falklands War The nation was still in the grip of a dictatorship as the 1980s dawned, even as repression had eased somewhat by then. The start of the decade continued to feature Serú Girán, now with their less pretentious sound, at the top of the charts. Vox Dei entered their 3rd decade in rock, a virtual first for any local band, and León Gieco's popularity as a solo artist was on the rise. One of the last progressive bands would be Tantor. They were less symphonic and far more prog-experimental, with jazz as a major support. Their first eponymous album was a hit in the scene, and the band would continue till the mid-1980s as one of the last bands of the progressive era. Serú Girán went touring in Brazil in 1980, where their reception by fans at the Monterrey Jazz Festival in Rio de Janeiro was so enjoyed that the organizers requested that they perform again, the next day, but on the main stage with jazz-rockers Weather Report. There, Pedro Aznar met Pat Metheny, to whom he gave some cassettes with his own works. Serú Girán returned home, released "Bicicleta" and gathered 60,000 fans in La Rural back in Buenos Aires chanting no se banca más (it isn't bearable anymore, alluding to the dictatorship). That year they had also performed in concert with Spinetta Jade, Luis Alberto Spinetta's latest