Concert: Aterciopelados, Slim's

Saw Los Aterciopleados, the best-known (and probably the best) rock band from Colombia, at Slim's. I first saw them at the same venue some 5 years ago; both concerts were excellent.

I also caught their free appearance at Amoeba Music on Saturday. The setlist for that was:

1. Complemento
2. Que te Besen
3. Don Dinero
4. Cancion Protesta
5. Oye Mujer
6. Bolero Falaz
7. Baracunatana
   

They also played these songs at Slim's, and a bunch more. The lead singer, Andrea Echeverri, can out-hippie any San Francisco hippie, any time. She had, as always, great energy and charisma, and went onstage with the most gorgeous dress I've seen any rock player wear (sorry, didn't bring a camera). Colombian fashion doing well, as usual!

Any band that can write a song like "Bolero Falaz" (from their second album) deserves serious consideration.

For the Slim's encore, they did a slow-burning version of "Florecita Rockera", plus "Baracunatana," which is a cover a classic Colombian oldie. "Cancion Protesta" was directed against Plan Colombia, which uses US funds to fumigates coca plantations in Colombian National Parks, against other things. (Noam Chomsky has asked whether this might mean that Colombian airplanes can fumigate tobacco plantations in Kentucky; but that is a matter for another post.) I would just add that we need to condemn the drug traffickers as well, who slash down unreplaceable native forests and jungles to grow the coca, which will then be fumigated.

The song from Buitrago's solo album, about flying over Bogota, was quite good.

The opening band, Rupa & the April Fishes, did well, with french-folk-type songs in French, English and Spanish.

I like how this paper puts it:

One cultural theory holds that energy and change move from the center of a system to the periphery.

Outlying areas change, then surpass the center. This is the case with rock en español, which lately outshines American rock. Colombia's Aterciopelados ("Velvety Ones") makes the case.