In spite of being chastised by Jarocho music purist for taking liberties with Jarocho music and even worse, for adding hip-hop elements to their music or singing in English, Las Cafeteras persevered and continued to play their music at demonstration and protest rallies, schools, community events, churches, museums and anywhere they could get their music played and now they will be playing with the L.A. Philharmonic at the Wilshire United Methodist Church as part of the Walt Disney Concert Hall’s insideOut 10th anniversary celebrations on Thursday September 26.
Las Cafeteras is a band that lives their passions through their music and their activism. Las Cafeteras have been very active at demonstration rallies for immigration rights and reform; the band is very supportive of gay rights and education and they often visit schools to encourage the students to continue their education and to teach them about the musical traditions of their culture.
Las Cafeteras is one of the most exciting live performers as they are not just gifted performers, but their charisma, energy and passion are genuine and it is difficult to not feel uplifted and inspired after witnessing one of their concerts.
Since the release of their debut album, “It’s Time”, Las Cafeteras have been featured in many local and national media as well as numerous internet music websites and have received praises like “make no mistake: If you go to a Las Cafeteras show, you will seriously get down to their political folk music.”- (LA Weekly) or “these dedicated community musicians have taken their unique interpretation of the centuries-old cultural tradition everywhere it stands to be heard.”– (OC Weekly).
Besides giving memorable performances at Make Music Pasadena festival, Grand Performances concert series in DTLA and the SXSW music festival in Austin, TX, Las Cafeteras have opened shows for such music luminaries as Lila Downs, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Ozomatli, Aterciopelados, Zack de la Rocha (of Rage Against the Machine) and many others and just recently have been announced as the opening act for Juanes in Miami, Fl, after winning a competition sponsored by Dewar’s.
The month of August saw the release of their second video from “It’s Time”, the love ballad, “Luna Lovers”, which has become one of the crowd favorites during their live performance and a song to which many marriage proposals have been made.
The concert at the Wilshire United Methodist Church is a free concert and seats will be available on a first come, first served basis, so show up early as this will be a very special performance where they will perform by themselves and also accompanied by the L.A. Philharmonic.
