Calexico was playing a show at the Echoplex for Cinco de Mayo and even though I am not really into this sort of drunk celebration, music from the Tucson band was a perfect fit for the night. I had seen them before and had been enthusiastic about their way to blend mariachi music and other styles of American music into these gorgeous and vibrant compositions.
It was a pure Arizona feast, and Tucson resident Joey Burns is not the one who is going to tell you to boycott his state, ‘I know it got bad publicity lately, but go to Tucson’, he said at one point of the show, a statement not popular among musicians as he was of course alluding to the new anti-immigration law. But isn’t doing so much for Mexican music, isn’t touring with Mariachi bands, a music style regarded as only folkloric by many and making them as cool as the next new indie band, a much better way to deal with this issue than boycotting the state?
And isn’t the song ‘Crystal frontier’, a much more efficient form of protest than anything that Conor Oberst or Zach de la Rocca have ever done for this cause? Inspired by Carlos Fuentes' novel, the song's lyrics are about the Rio Grande river at the US-Mexico border, the crystal frontier:
‘Blood spills out on the streets/And bodies are missing for weeks/Both sides keeping a close eye/Watching the bullets fly here… On the Crystal Frontier, Crystal Frontier’
Joey Burns is a humble frontman, not only sharing the stage for many songs with the musicians of Tucson Mariachi ‘Luz De Luna’, but even letting them perform by themselves some of their repertoire, and thus be in the spotlight way more than the usual backup band.
Baritone voiced Salvador Duran, the charismatic frontman of the opening band ‘Sergio Mendoza y la Orkesta’, another Arizona band which played an interesting twist on Mambo, Cumbia and other Latin styles mixed with rock music, was even invited on stage several times.
In fact, Salvador’s band and the Mariachi ‘Luz De Luna’, which started Calexico's set with a few of their own songs, had heated the place pretty well, with glorious tenor croon, a song sung by a woman (just when I thought it was kind of macho music) and even some humor,… ‘the more you drink, the better we sound’ as one of the trumpet players put it.
But Calexico was really the star of the evening, with their cinematic-outdoor songs, blending intimate melodies with some grand-angle Americana, and of course these bright Mexican trumpets as triumphant as melancholic.
They opened the show with ‘Across the Wire’, which let the horns shine right-away, bursting ‘Ring-of-Fire’ style between the crying solo steel guitar. There also were the nice addition of the distinct sounding Veraruz harp on some songs, a keyboard, which was sometimes venturing into some Cuban Cha-Cha, and trumpets exhilarating and sad at the same time, like escaping from a Ry Cooder’s composition.
But it’s so interesting how their music is even more anchored in a spaghetti western version of the American west than ‘authentic’ western music, much more Ennio Morricone than Willie Nelson in fact. Take many of their well-known numbers, like ‘Minas de Cobre’ and of course ‘Crystal Frontier’, that they played at the end of the show just before the encore, or any of their trumpet-driven numbers, and you will see wide-open spaces, and cowboys biting the dust.
They did their fantastic cover of Love’s ‘Alone Again Or’ with flamenco guitars and some bombastic and vibrant energy, and a more rocking-than-the-rest cover of Minutemen’s ‘Jesus & Tequila’.
The show lasted for more than 3 hours, 3 hours of pure happiness for all the people in the crowd, as I was seeing smiling faces everywhere,… it is indeed inspiring music. After all, their song ‘Crystal Frontier’ was chosen by congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (who was victim of the terrible shooting in Arizona) to wake up her astronaut husband, Mark, during his space shuttle missions. Good music has no frontier!
Setlist:
Across The Wire (w/ Mariachi Luz de Luna) [MP3]
Roka (w/ Salvador Duran)
Deep Down
Jesus & Tequila
News About William
Inspiracion (w/ Salvador Duran)
Not Even Stevie Nicks
Two Silver Trees
Alone Again Or
Fractured Air
Stray (w/ mariachis)
Ojitos Traidores (w/ Mariachi)
Minas de Cobre (w/ Mariachi)
Linda Paloma (w/ Mariachi)
Theme de Mariachi (w/ Mariachi)
Three-song Mariachi Luz de Luna set
Corona (w/ Mariachi)
Crystal Frontier (w/ Mariachi)
Encore
Man Made Lake (w/ Mariachi)
Cascabel (w/ Mariachi)
Guero Canelo (w/ Mariachi)