Colombia’s three-time Latin Grammy winners Aterciopelados (“The Velvety Ones”) and Venezuela’s Latin Grammy winners Los Amigos Invisibles couldn’t be more different, yet this bill makes perfect sense and features two bands that came back with a vengeance after seemingly out or on the way out.
The Colombians (Andrea Echeverri on vocals and guitar, Héctor Buitrago on bass) are the closest things to an environmentally friendly, hippie-punk duo with zero reservations when it comes to jumping from pop to bolero and from cumbia and champeta to about any electrified thing you can think of. Echeverri has the voice of a socially conscious feminist whose “pensar bonito” (thinking pretty) philosophy gives light to the music without sacrificing any of its edge.
Los Amigos, as accurately self-described in the excellent The New Sound of the
Venezuelan Gozadera (their second album, released in 1998 on David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label), are an irresistible funky blend of “Latin dance and sex culture” with an Esquivel! attitude and an insatiable thirst to make people dance. Aterciopelados’ Claroscura (2018, their first album of originals in a decade) earned the band their third Latin Grammy and confirmed their status as evergreen rockero heavyweights. El Paradise (2017, the Amigos’ first studio album in four years) was nominated for a Grammy and, even though only three members from the original six remain in the band (singer Julio Briceño, bassist José Rafael Torres and drummer Juan Manuel Roura), the Venezuelans haven’t lost an ounce of power and are still arguably the ultimate Latin live party band.
Technically speaking, they’re both co-headliners, but we suspect Aterciopelados will close the show, so check out “Bolero Falaz” (the song that put them on the map back in 1995), the glorious cover of “Baracunátana” (a classic vallenato) and “Florecita Rockera,” three hits that represent the extremes in Aterciopelados’ music. The Aztec has positioned itself as the center of Latin alternative music in town, and they’re bringing the best. So stop bitching about rockeros not coming to SA and show up to this one — it deserves a full house.
$30-$50, 7pm Tue April 30, the Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 812-4355, theaztectheatre.com.
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