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June 28, 2005
Cafe Tacuba - Not Like How You Hear Them on "Morning Becomes Eclectic"
Last Friday, mi chavo and I were invited to meet friends at the Aragon for a Cafe Tacuba concert. I knew I had heard of the band and couldn't remember how. Sunday's NYT Magazine piece on Nic Harcourt reminded me that I had heard them on my favorite radio program - Morning Becomes Eclectic, (which you can now listen to on demand!)
Anyway, back to the concert - I don't have a ticket stub because my ticket was simply a raffle ticket, which surprised me since it cost $55. So, I don't remember the names of the opening acts. The first act was a band lead by a female vocalist whose favorite phrase was "la la la." Apparently, writing three minutes songs is too difficult these days. Instead, the tired, basic sound of post-punk 80s was attached to a few phrases in Spanish, and the over-arching "la la la," which seemed to occur in every single song as the major lyric.
The next band was much, much better. They're name is Kinky (really, how can you forget that?) The Chicago Tribune wrote that they're one of the best new latino bands around, and I agree. They have a punchy connection between rock and traditional latino music - including a rousing accordian player.
The only problem, which kept getting worse throughout the concert, was the ventilation. Aragon fits about 6,000 people and although the place wasn't sold out, it kept getting more crowded. Add to that the lack of a decent air-conditioning and a well-known poor quality sound system and it added up to one uncomfortable night. Between the drunks spilling and throwing beer, the stifling air, and the music being blasted at a decibel level meant for an audience three times the size of the venue, I was almost ready to leave before Cafe Tacuba got on stage.
The concert was announced as started at 7pm. I believe the first band took the stage at 8pm, and Cafe Tacuba didn't start till after 10. Since mi chavo needed to pick his grandmother up from the airport, we weren't able to stay for the whole concert. While we missed a little, I don't think we missed much. Our friends left with us because one of them got nauseous from the heat. Besides, the music didn't need to be as loud as it was and none of us were looking for a concert with 1,000s of our closest inebriated friends. Guys were stumbling from the concession stands with five beers in their hands and usually chugging at least two of them. I'm all for people having fun and drinking, but please explain the point of buying a $7 cup of crappy beer and the throwing it onto the rest of the audience?
According to our friends, Cafe Tacuba's concert at the Hard Rock Cafe here in Chi-town was much better, both because it was calmer and because the ventilation and acoustics were so much better.
Posted by cj at June 28, 2005 04:35 PM