On a beautiful Sunday afternoon at the Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights on February 16, music fans and 13 independent bands officially launched the Unirock Breakout Tour.
Throughout the afternoon and evening, fans enjoyed great music and comradery between the bands and the fans.
The Mariachi Plaza is known for being a place where families can go to enjoy a good time listening to mariachis and eating good food, and many of those regulars attendees to the Mariachi Plaza showed up to the plaza and found out that their mariachis were replaced by rock bands, but rather than leaving, most of those “regulars” actually stayed and enjoyed the music of these talented musicians, which made for an eclectic mix of music fans.
Each one of the 13 bands brought their individual talent and styles and for any real fans of music, this would be like hitting the mother lode, as one could hear all types of genres and sub genres of music going from ska, reggae, punk, alternative, corridos, cumbias, and straight ahead rock & roll.
Although most of the bands that appeared at the festival are from the L.A. area, we also had Signa, one of the premier Orange County Latin alternative bands, who year after year are rated amongst the top bands in Orange County.
From Hesperia in the San Bernardino desert, Manantial De Fuego; one of the Unirock founding bands, not only brought their musical talent, but they also have such a passionate and devoted fans that they are followed everywhere they play, and they came to support not only Manantial de Fuego, but all the other bands.
Alianza Rebelde at Unirock Breakout Tour
All the bands turned in great performances and with each band, the momentum seemed to rise more and more, but when the all girl band, The Sirens, took the stage, those of us who were witnessing them for the first time, were left speechless by their stage presence and energy and we wondered how difficult it would be for any other band to follow them after putting such an electrifying performance.
The last minute addition, Kronica Azul, had the difficult task of following The Sirens, but not only did they rise up to the challenge, but they also continued to raise the momentum with a riveting performance.
This great day of music finally came to an end with another one of the Unirock founders, Alianza Rebelde, who put on an extraordinary performance that left the fans asking for more.
Although we have highlighted some of the bands, this doesn’t mean that the rest of the bands were any less worthy and we have to give props to every single one of the bands starting with, Grados De Altitud, Simbala, Ni Modo, Love Star, Mario Lamarque, Conflicto and the other two Unriock founding members, La Era and Radio Elei for uniting their talent and forces to this movement that is trying to re-organize the often misguided Rock en Español scene in Los Angeles and its surrounding areas.
