My apologies to Coast to Coast, Jai Roots Herb-N-Café Project, and Piñata Protest: I missed CTC; Jai Roots was without at least half his usual band, so I’m holding on my review; and by the time Piñata Protest took the stage, not only didn’t I have my notebook in hand, I didn’t know what a notebook was (a testament to the success of Saluté’s generous margaritas).
But I was 100-percent there to hear Los de Esta Noche, a band several people had already warned me about. So was former Strokes producer Gordon Raphael (and he doesn’t drink).
Los de Esta Noche (The Ones From Tonight) has been playing together for about a year, and is still looking for its sound. But if the earth-shaking opener, “Settle the Score,” is any indication, they’re looking in all the right places. The song begins as an accordion-based cumbia-reggae but ends up a rocker — guitarist/trumpetist Julio López makes it his own, sounding like a punk/Coahuila Indian primal-screaming hybrid.
After that, LDEN was all over the place: bluesy rancheras, out-of-tune passages (whether intentional or not, they added wonderful crazy magic to a band that’s already crazy), English and Spanish, and a song ridiculously named, I swear, “Si tu lo” (it’s impossible to translate from the Spanish, but guys: please change it now).
Amidst all the chaos, LDEN kicked butt, pumping out one of the most refreshing new sounds in SA. The backbone of the band (Julio López and bassist Juan Camacho come from mariachi; and accordionist César Herrera Jr. is a student of the great Valerio Longoria) is dynamite, and the rest (René Ibarra on drums, Jonathan Anderson on congas, and Jonathan Villarreal on keyboards) are solid individually, despite the horrible sound system.
The band is entering the studio in the next few weeks, and the album should be ready before June 2011.
Raphael thought they were “pretty good.”
My verdict? Check ’em out.
Los de Esta Noche
Dec. 17
Salute International Bar
2801 N. St. Marys
(210) 732-5307
