Who could have thought that Ozzy Osbourne wanted to be in a mariachi band? He probably didn’t know it himself, but this is the bet that Metalachi has made, coming on stage dressed up like some crazy punk Pirates of the Caribbean meet Gwar and play metal (and beyond) songs with a strong mariachi flavor!
The quintet, the first and only metal-mariachi band in the world, was playing a free show at 5-Towers, the stage installed at the entrance of Universal CityWalk and a few tourists may have mistaken them for another attraction of the entertainment park, although they are actually a real band. Let’s come back to the outrageous outfits for a minute, because they were a large part of the show! These guys must have studied the whole panoply of rock’ n’ roll, from Guns N’ Roses’ hippie-pirate foulards, to Poison’s metal frizzy hair, to punk patches and gloves! Trumpeter El Cucuy had obviously quite a thing for Gwar meets Kiss’ Gene Simmons (he was even pulling his tongue like him), whereas singer Vega De La Rockha could have been mistaken for a potbellied Jack Sparrow/Axl Rose. It probably doesn’t make any sense described like this, but they were certainly more flamboyant than a gay parade on Halloween. Some had oversized sombreros but honestly, the most mariachi thing about them was their instruments, trumpet, guitar, Mexican bass guitarrón and violin, all typical of mariachi bands.
Passed the surprise to see all these detailed and elaborated costumes, the other surprise was to see them play metal songs with a tone usually reserved for romance and serenade. They played for quite a long time, taking a short break mid set and clowning around between songs with jokes delivered with a exaggerated Latino accent. Among the tunes, I recognized Dio’s ‘Rainbow in the Dark’, Led Zeppelin’s ‘Immigrant Song’ and Stairway to Heaven’, Ozzy Osbourne’s ‘Crazy Train’, Alice in Chains’ ‘Man in the Box’, Ratt’s ‘Round and Round’, Bon Jovi’s ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’ (yes, I know, that’s so metal!!), Twisted Sister’s ‘We’re not gonna take it Anymore’, AC/DC’s ‘Back in Black’, Sublime’s ‘Santeria’, Slayer’s ‘Raining blood’, Guns’ N’ Roses’ ‘Sweet child of mine’, but there were more, probably more Sabbath, a few medleys, and some Spanish songs in the mix, such as ‘La Cucaracha’ in the middle of Dio’s song, or ‘La Bamba’, or even an ‘Ave Maria’ before inviting an embarrassed girl on stage and serenade her for much too long than she couldn’t stand. Children were also brought on stage at one point and speedily evacuated on the side because the band ‘had some t-shirts to make’.
These guys sounded like real entertainers, perfect for the place visited by families on Sunday night – although I am not sure Slayer is appropriate! – and it took me a while before realizing that the buff guard with them on stage, wasn’t part of Universal Citywalk security, but their ‘own Metalachi security’, as well as another guy on stage, their own emcee, constantly haranguing the crowd to make it participate more. Of course, after a while, all this could have sounded more like a giant joke than anything else if these guys hadn’t been excellent musicians, propelling cool Spanish guitar, by Ramon Holiday, or mariachi trumpet solos by El Cucuy in the middle of the heavy songs,… actually, despite the outfit and the repertoire, the result sounded more south of the border-mariachi than rock metal.
The crowd, largely Latino, was participating and singing along, especially during this Bon Jovi’s song that I hate,… but Metalachi did it with so much fun that they made me enjoy it. The show was both bizarre and fun, a sort of apotheosis of hard-rock-metal clichés, with on-fire showman, Vega De La Rockha, who was singing like a hair metal Mexican god, trumpeter El Cucuy, who couldn’t stop smiling from ear to ear or pulling his tongue, guitarist Ramon Holiday, who even had a few great solos as a singer and was ‘their Justin Bieber, except he had reached puberty’. If Poncho Rockafeller, who played guitarrón, and the violinist, who was replacing Maxilimian ‘Dirty’ Sanchez, were more discreet, their musicianship and punk-inspired mariachi outfits were what this band was all about, bringing a new flavor to these metal classics. I am sure there’s no limit to what they can cover, constantly bringing LA East Side right in the middle of the Sunset strip.
