Last Saturday I went to the B-Live event on Olvera Street.
The concert was sponsored by Bacardi Family of Brands. It seems like they’ve been doing the B-Live event for some time because it was a pretty sophisticated and classy set up.This pictures are from the New York Event, but it was the same deal for LA. 
They gave away all kinds of merchandise big budget advertisers have: T-shirts, ponchos, tank tops, cushions, etc. And beautiful models to hand them out. Love those black mini-skirts. I came home with about three t-shirts, a poncho, and a belly full of Bacardi Reserve rum and Coke. Well, not really, they was charging $5 per drink, in these bars with ice sculptures they had set up all around the gazebo at Plaza Olvera, and all over the streets. The hostesses poured the drinks as if they were pouring hot oil into a cola bottle. Like this:
The lines were long. Fortunately, TV monitors throughout the location made sure you didn’t miss a bit of the concert. Lookout for the promotional DVDs of these performances coming out sometime soon. For promotional purposes only, of course. They also will the drinking in moderation message.
The fine folks at Nacional Records hooked me up with tickets. They represent Aterciopelados. Who were coming off a Latin Grammy award for Album. Also on the bill were Calle 13, another Latin Grammy winner for best Urban song. Maldita Vecindad and Alejandra Guzman rounded up the show. Love that MySpace band website shit.
Aterciopelados opened with their hit Bolero Falaz. I like it that they will play their songs differently, each time. Andrea Echeverri introduced Florecita Rockera by saying, “De pronto la conocen.” It opened and I didn't recognize it until the words, and it sounded completely different from the two versions I already own. They played other tunes from previous CDs as well as their latest. They had a local Colombian accordion musician join them on the stage. Labelmates Pinker-Tones joined them on-stage too. Very cool and creative collaboration. Interesting personality that lady Echeverria. (Fan photo).
Then came the first break and I went to watch the dancers Bacardi hired for entertainment. They wore Halloween masks. If you were an average dancer in an ugly bikini, you would wear a mask too. But, that was the entertainment between groups, and I enjoyed ogling.
Maldita Vecindad followed. Damn, this was a surprise to me. I had heard them once many years ago, but really didn’t know their music. Their Punk-Ska resonated heavily with the crowd, that went wild dancing. I thought the moshing was only an Anglo occurrence. But this was an acculturated Latino crowd. Their set was quite kick ass. Again, another interesting collaboration. They had the Olvera Street Mariachi band come on stage. Now figure that one out, Mariachi a lo Punk Ska. I could tell some of the older gents on the stage were hesitant, but in the end it sounded quite well. The dancing in the pit proved it.
Again the girls danced for us on the wings of the main stage. At this point of the night, they were looking mighty fine, specially the one in the skin color body suit. Oh, and inside the Olvera Street Gazebo, aerial ballet...Bacardi does know how to throw a good party.
On came Calle 13. The first time I saw these guys on TV they were 4 skinny dudes on a stage the size of a king size. Obviously they’ve hit the big time. Now they’re 6 (or 7) skinny dudes and a hot chick, on a huge stage, with three several movies screens. Their sound was big. Really big. They reminded me of 70s Santana when he had the brass in his arrangements. Opened with Antidoto. As I've said before, typically this is a reggaeton free blog, with few exceptions, this is one of them. Rene dedicated one of their tunes to Mr. Bush. I won't go into details because it would make the president look bad. In a bad way. Bien por esa Rene. They also played a new number “pa' saca'se la espinita, tu sabes”. I like these guys. Exciting sound as well.
Satisfied with what I had seen to the moment, I headed home and missed the Alejandra Guzmán set. I heard the band doing soundcheck. They used that 80s hit "Tainted Love" - Falso Amor in Espanish. Pretty big band. In addition to Alejandra, the lead guitar was a girl. Cool. And as is typical, the backup singers.
And the crowd, Latinos obviously. I think the only Anglos I saw were there because they worked for Bacardi, its distributors, or something like that. For them it was a work function. The rest of the crowd was hip, urban Latinos, of all ages, and styles, in a party mood. One thing I noticed, though, and there’s nothing wrong with it, maybe it was the rum, or the night, or the music, but whatever it was, I saw several girls kissing girls. More than I saw guys kissing girls, or guys kissing guys... And I wondered, is this a new Latino trend? Do Latino men turn off Latinas? Are Latinas more experimental? Was it an Alejandra Guzman effect? I wondered as I rode into the cold dark night on the 5 freeway.
LA is a cool city.
