As the line up for the annual Reventon Super Estrella concert presented by local pop station Super Estrella was announced, it was clear that this would be a night of memories as the line up consisted of older bands and some of who have not put out new material in decades
As a music fan, this concert took me back to the days of old festivals like the Watcha Tour or Revolución Festival where one could see bands like Caifanes, La Ley, Aterciopelados and other big names all on one stage. The lineup for this year’s edition would have rivaled any of those old festivals as the lineup included, local talent and recent Grammy winners, La Santa Cecilia, La Unión, Roco Pachukote, Fobia, La Ley, Enrique Bunbury, Caifanes and surprising closers, Victimas Del Dr. Cerebro.
As much as I enjoyed some of the performances, as a music critic, it is disheartening to see that there are no new bands being given the chance to show their talent in the big stages. Except for independent and internet radio stations, independent or alternative bands rarely get air time in the big corporate radio stations.
It is ironic that the bands that were showing a fresh outlook in music like Signa and Profesor Galactico were playing the tailgate party outside the Staples Center prior to the show, while inside even the artists who have continued to create new music like Enrique Bunbury, Fobia and Victimas Del Dr. Cerebro, because of time restrictions had to cut down their sets considerably and ended up playing only their most popular songs.
La Santa Cecilia were the first band to hit the stage and although the arena was still more than half empty, the band played their hearts out and by the end of their show, most of the seats were already filled and they were given a nice send off by the crowd.
The recently reformed Spanish band, La Unión took the stage and many in the audience had not had the chance to see the band live before, unfortunately many of us were disappointed as the band did not use a drummer, opting instead for a drum machine or pre-recorded drum beats that took the heart and soul out of such classic songs like “Sildavia”, “Ella Es Un Volcan” and the Spanish rock staple, “Lobo Hombre En Paris”.
Roco Pachukote, lead singer for Maldita Vecindad put together a strong set that was comprised mostly of Maldita Vecindad classics, and the highlight of his performance was the announcement that Maldita Vecindad will be reforming and touring to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the band.
Fobia, with only two original members, singer Leonardo de Lozanne and guitarist Francisco “Paco” Huidobro, put on one of the best performances of the night which quickly made us forget thatthere were only two original members on stage as they rocked through classics like “Hoy Tengo Miedo”, “No Eres Yo”, “Revolucion Sin Manos”, “Microbito” and other hits.
After Fobia came the lowest point of the evening as the station DJ’s congregated on stage to make everyone suffer through not only a wedding proposal but a complete wedding ceremony. Social media soon went into frenzy about how they did not pay for a wedding ceremony and they wanted more music, and as it turned out, the closing band was abruptly shut down at the end of the night because of the time restrictions and the time that was lost due to the wedding ceremony that no one in the audience cared about.
All through the wedding ceremony, the members of La Ley were waiting behind the stage, but the delay did not dampen their spirits as they come out rocking and gave a riveting performance that saw a band with a mission to reconnect with its audience.
Enrique Bunbury gave the L.A. audience a sneak peek into his upcoming Palosanto Tour which will come The Greek Theater on September 5th. Unfortunately because of the time restrictions, many Bunbury fans felt cheated as he was only able to play a handful of songs, but was able to get the crowd going with his version of the Heroes Del Silencio classic, “Deshacer El Mundo” and solo hits like “Si”, “El Extranjero”, “Lady Blue” and others.
The band that everyone was waiting for was definitely Caifanes, unfortunately, the absence of lead guitarist Alejandro Marcovich did have an impact on the energy and quality of the music. Not to say that new guitarist Rodrigo Baills didn’t do a good job, but it just didn’t feel right. I grew up listening to Caifanes and saw them several times before they separated and after they got back together, but as a critic I have to say that this show felt as if they were just going through the motions and those sing-alongs began to get tedious and at one point, even the audience was confused as to whether they should be singing or Saul.
To everyone’s surprise, Victimas Del Dr. Cerebro closed the show and in retrospect, they were actually a good choice as they took that stage by storm and lead singer Abulon got the audience into it with his athletic antics and running deep into the audience, unfortunately, as they played their biggest hit, “Esqueleto”, all of a sudden the revolving stage began to turn with Abulon not even being aware of it until he looked back and the band was gone.
Overall, El Reventon was a success with the audience as they seem to get into it, but the production at times seemed like a high school production as several times images on the gigantic side screens were out of frame. A wedding, that except for the parties involved, no one cared about. When Caifanes was about to come on the stage, they were introduced as Victimas Del Dr. Cerebro and to finish off, the abrupt ending left many fans with a bad taste in their mouths.
