Last Saturday night, Caifanes and Jaguares fans gathered at the House of Blues in West Hollywood to hear the voice that has brought them joy since the mid 80’s. That voice belongs to Mexican rock legend Saul Hernandez.
At the show, Saul walked on stage carrying a book of poems and began the evening by reading a short composition from it. Then, he picked up his acoustic guitar and played a sublime acoustic version of “Antes de Que Nos Olviden” followed by equally superb acoustic versions of the Caifanes classics “Viento” and “Miedo”.
Perhaps the fact that the show started 45 minutes later than scheduled was the reason why fans did not seem to keen on the poetry readings. It could have been that or the fact that by the time Saul was on stage, most fans had already made themselves comfortable with numerous drinks.
Although this scaled-down approach of acoustic versions and poetry readings worked well for Saul at smaller venues such as his 2012 April performance at the Troubadour, at a bigger venue such as the House of Blues the performance failed to fill the room with the same magic it created at smaller arenas.
But poetry readings aside, all was forgiven by fans as they cheered and sang along to every lyric of “Antes de Que Nos Olviden”, “Viento” and “Miedo”—as they tend to do whenever and wherever those cult classics are played.
For the rest of the show, Saul and the band, which was composed of Marco Renteria on bass, Gustavo Nandayapa on drums and Bernardo Rios on guitar, easily weaved Caifanes and Jaguares songs into those from Saul’s solo album Remando.
For the encores, Saul and the band performed “Remando”, the title track from his solo album. Other songs included exhilarating renditions of another cult classic “Matenme Porque Me Muero” and “Detrás De Los Cerros”, along with a cover of “Lucha De Gigantes”.
Such as Enrique Bunbury of Heroes Del Silencio and Gustavo Cerati of Soda Stereo, Saul has been trying to find his way as a solo artist. But history has shown that path to be an unsteady one. Since the 2011 debut of Remando, Saul has received mixed reviews from fans, with some asking him to modernize his early 90’s rock en español sound or focus solely on producing.
After the show, I asked several fans what they thought of the performance. Most of them sounded unsure and the best way they could describe it was: “it was good, but…”
