Photo credit: Piero F Giunti
Last Sunday night, Las Cafeteras performed the first show of their “More Than Music Tour” which will see the band on the road for the next month and half with stops all along the West Coast, the states of Illinois and Wisconsin and a couple of shows in Canada.
For the first show of the tour, Las Cafeteras were part of the closing of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros Big Top Festival at the Los Angeles Historic Park in China Town. The festival included traditional circus acts, like a ringmaster, marionette show, sword swallowers and acrobats amongst other acts and activities.
Performing under the main big top, when Las Cafeteras took the stage, those familiar with the band, made their presence known and although; at first, some people were not too sure what to make of this band playing all those “strange” instruments, by the end of the first song, people were clapping along and moving their heads to the Jarocho sounds.
If there were any skeptics at the beginning of their performance, the love ballad, “Luna Lovers” quickly changed the mind of the skeptics as the whole tent swayed along with the rhythm, lovers held hands, some people called their loved ones who were not at the show and held their cell phones up so they could hear the song and at the end, the whole place exploded with cheers and even some standing ovations.
The energy, passion, charisma and musical talent of Las Cafeteras is so addicting and intoxicating that it is able to break down the barriers of language, musical genres, ethnic and generational gaps as Latinos, Anglos, young and old, hipsters, folkies and rockers, all got into the music and the message of Las Cafeteras, especially with the familiar tune of “La Bamba Rebelde” for which, the entire audience got up and danced along with the band.
Below you can see the rest of the dates on the tour:
10/22/13 Everett, WA Everett College
10/23/13 Olympic, WA Olympic College
10/23/13 Seattle, WA Nectar Lounge
10/25/13 Victoria, Canada Pearson College
10/26/13 Vancouver, Canada Vivo Media Arts Center
10/28/13 Chicago, IL TCSPP
10/29/13 Chicago, IL Loyola University
10/30/13 Chicago, IL Old Town School of Folk Music
10/31/13 Chicago, IL Old Town School of Folk Music
11/1/13 Milwaukee, WI Latino Arts, Inc.
11/2/13 Chicago, IL DePaul University
11/3/13 Kirksville, MI Truman State
11/5/13 Grayslake, IL Lake County College
11/7/13 Fullerton, CA Cal State Fullerton
11/5/13 Oceanside, CA Miracosta College
11/16/13 San Diego, CA The Ken Club
11/20/13 Portland, OR Portland State
11/22/13 Santa Barbara, CA UC Santa Barbara
12/14/13 San Francisco, CA Brick & Mortar Music Hall