June 25th at Diego’s in downtown Santa Ana marked the return of Unirock and its efforts to promote the local Spanish rock talent. Mario Lamarque, Vispera and Orange County’s own, Signa turned in riveting performances that left everyone asking for more.
As the bands began to appear for set up and sound check there was a great atmosphere of comradery amongst the different band members, which is one of the goals of Unirock. Another one of the ideas of Unirock is for bands to work together instead of competing and this night was evidence of that working relationship.
Mario Lamarque took the stage first and from the very first chords, Mario and his band showed why they are one of the most exciting up and coming bands with an energetic performance with slashing guitars reminiscent of Nirvana or Pearl Jam. Mario Lamarque played several tracks of his recently released album Nada Que Perder. Mario describes his music as alternative with hints of post grunge and that energy certainly comes through on their live performance. Nada Que Perder can be streamed on Pandora and Spotify.
Local scene veterans Vispera took the stage next and gave a thunderous performance led by the double guitar attack by Robert Bañuelos and newly enlisted and local scene veteran Luis Gallardo, at the same time as Jose Fernandez on bass and new drummer Emilio Lemus kept the bottom end steady but energetic and all the while, lead singer Alfredo Mejia danced and pranced around to the songs of the band’s self titled EP along with some new songs they are working on for their new album coming out soon.
It couldn’t have been more fitting than having the local band Signa close out this great night of Spanish Rock. Signa is one of the pioneers of Latin alternative rock in Orange County and have been nominated for the Orange County Music Awards in 2011 and the All Indie Music Awards in Los Angeles in 2012.
Signa has always been known for their explosive live shows which the band was able to capture on their latest EP, Temporales. Besides giving highly energetic stage performances, Signa also talks about very mature subjects such as the title song of the EP ”Temporales” in which lead singer Beto Guñido sings about how life and everything around us is temporary and it can slip away from us at any time. On “Pinches y Jardineros”, the band sings about the injustices of the immigration process in the United States. Temporales can be streamed on Spotify can be downloaded on I-tunes.
After the success of the Unirock festival Breakout tour last February many bands have expressed interest in joining the movement and Unirock leader and founder Alan Colin has been busy trying to put new shows and festivals together and after striking up a working relationship with radio station, La Ligera based in Bakersfield and a subsidiary of Mexico’s La Ligera FM, many surprises are being planned in the near future so stay tuned and follow Unirock on Facebook to keep track of the latest developments.
