Oh, ok, maybe not.

But I went to see one of my favorite bands, Aterciopelados, last night at the House of Blues in Chicago, and damn, what a fun time it was. They aren’t related to metal at all; the best succinct description I’ve seen is a combination of alt-rock, electronica, and Colombian folk music. Not a word was spoken in English at the show (even their cover of Queen’s “Play the Game” was in Spanish), but to use a hackneyed cliche, music crosses all boundaries.

During their groovier songs, most of the crowd would be bouncing around, with the floor going up and down right along with everyone. The middle area often formed into a curious mix of half-mosh pit / half-dance party. And let me tell you, that combination is a hell of a lot better than either of those things on their own. I’m not much of a dancer, or much of a mosher, but here I really ended up gittin’ my groove on. I can definitely recall getting that dance-y feeling at an Amorphis show, and perhaps at a Gathering show too, but there was never enough crowd density at those places to share in my groovy mood.

It was also cool being at a show with such a variety in songs, from rocking things, to atmospheric acoustic stuff, to phat beats.

The crowd size seemed about the same as it was at the Opeth show (meaning it was pretty much full). That’s interesting because Aterciopelados is a major-label band with 5 albums, albums that have sold over 500,000 copies, and playing in a city with a huge Latino community. Not quite sure if that means anything, but there it is.

Next up on the world music tour: Tabla Beat Science on March 5th

Oh yeah, and just so I don’t sound too pretentious or gay (too late?), I’m sure I’ll be banging my head off at the Amon Amarth show coming up.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 26th, 2003 at 12:35 pm and is filed under concert. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.