Last Thursday night, May 22nd, the sign outside the ticket window at The Observatory in Santa Ana read “Sold Out”, while inside the atmosphere was very hot, musky and full of anticipation and even the uncomfortably hot atmosphere inside the venue could not diminish the excitement of the crowd ready to see and hear Calle 13.
While waiting for the band to hit the stage, the crowd entertained themselves with some body surfing, yes, body surfing before there was any music on stage, and also, with the proximity of the 2014 World Cup in Brasil, chants of “ole, ole, ole” began to surface.
As Residente, Visitante and the rest of the band took the stage, the crowd went crazy with the opening number, “Fiesta de Locos” (Party of Crazies) and from that moment on the energy and momentum was kept on a steady rise.
With great stage presence, Residente took command of the night and without talking too much about politics or the state of the world, as he often does during interviews, he let his rhymes do the talking for him and the meaningful messages from songs like “El Aguante”, “Pal Norte”, “Baile de Los Pobres” and “Latinoamerica” sounded even more powerful as the audience felt them through the energy of the band.
Flags from different parts of Latin America were being waived in the crowd and Residente and his sister Ileana asked for some of those flags to be sent forward and as they got to the front of the stage, the flags were placed in front of the stage and The Observatory stage proudly displayed the flags of Mexico, Puerto Rico and Ecuador.
For those closed minded music fans who still relate Calle 13 to reggeaton, I urge you to listen to Calle 13’s latest albums and if possible, attend one of their concerts. Yes, their earlier sound very much resembles the often annoying beats of reggeaton, but with each album the band has evolved to a completely new sound that uses fusion of different rhythms from Latin America and Europe. Calle 13 also fuses hip-hop with rock & roll and they are not afraid to say what they feel about the state of the world we live in.
Although this tour was designed as promotional and performance tour for their new album Multi-Viral, the fans were treated to healthy serving of old hits like “Nadie Como Tu”, “Cumbia De Los Aburridos”, “Respira El Momento” and closed out the show with a riveting rendition of “Vamo’ a Portarnos Mal”.
