14 May 2022 - O2 Forum, Kentish Town
Joy!
The unbridled joy of a first gig in almost three years.
The joy of two and a half hours of uplifting and passionate music.
The joy of a rapturous crowd at a beautiful and iconic London venue.
Joy - what a great way to spend an evening. I cried for the first five minutes or so, I think in large part just because of the power of live music hitting me again.
Not many shows begin with a support band playing to an almost full room, but that certainly seemed to be the case by half way through an energetic set by Mariachi las Adelitas. They are a London-based mariachi band, comprised of women representing at least a few corners of the globe, including Mexico, Cuba, Italy and the UK.
They ripped through around forty minutes of cumbias and other feelgood tunes - a bass, two guitars, two violins, two trumpets, three of them singing - oh the singing.... What voices - three people who can really belt out a tune and hold a note!
And did you ever consider a mariachi version of Back To Black? No? Well, neither had I, but it doesn't half work - and one just hopes that Ms Winehouse would be appreciative. There is even a bit of La Cucaracha at the end - and we are grinning from ear to ear by now.
In any other setting, this would be a terribly tough act to follow.
But, we are talking about Calexico here.
This is a band who I came to criminally late to, discovering them only around six years ago. They really know how to light up a room though, with the musical shades they can throw. The obvious connection to make is Mexican, because of those trumpets, but there is country and folk and rock and samba and a hundred other influences in this musical pot.
The start is a slow one, as we are graced with several tracks from the new album, El Mirador, before entering into more familiar territory. The early highlight is Splitter, as close to a full rock out song as there is.
The mood is dialled back again as we approach mid-set. Fortune Seller is done solo by Joey and echoes hauntingly around the Forum - you could almost hear a pin drop as the crowd drinks it in. There is some upright bass noodling by Scott Colberg and we are ratcheting it back up again.
The El Burro Song is the party song from the new album we are all waiting to hear and you swear you can feel the spit and sawdust of the bar under your feet. There is Flores y Tamales lifts you up, Cumbia de Donde is as sultry as heck, along with Alone Again Or - all bringing the crowd back up to the boil.
With that last one, I know I shouldn't enjoy the covers the best, but they always do such a phenomenal job of it - the urgency of the instruments and the vibrancy of the singing (ably abetted by the crowd).
And lets take a second here to talk about John Convertino. It's fair to say, he is not the flashiest of drummers - there are few high tempo fills and flares - but what there is, is a consistent beat through every song, fast ones and slow ones alike. His beat is the sexiest, swingiest groove out there.
Under The Wheels swings along and sets us up for the glorious finale of Crystal Frontier. A wave of mariachi trumpet and wah-wah guitar washes over us - "The ground is shaking and starting to crack."
Indeed. And there we are. Tired, happy, sated.
Calexico are:
Joey Burns - vocals and guitars
John Convertino - drums and percussion
Scott Colberg - bass
Martin Wenk - trumpets, guitars and vocals
Jacob Valenzuela - trumpets and vocals
Sergio Mendoza - keyboards, accordion and vocals
Brian Lopez - guitar and vocals
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