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Kinky
Elbo Room | San Francisco | 04.15.02
They flew in from Monterey, Mexico on a wind of change. The music world is in flux, discouraging to some, yet creating fresh opportunities for the more ambitious, more eclectic - the multiculturalists. Monterey is a Mexican melting pot, a crossroads of anything Central and South American moving north into the USA, and anything from the United States on its way South. With Kinky, you get the musical reflection of this movement, and Monterey's rough and tumble attempt to mix it all together. Kinky is the NAFTA of music, incorporating influences from throughout a wider world. You can clearly hear Southern California funk (think War and Ozomatli), Northern California psychedelia (think Santana), European Rocktronica (think U2 during the Achtung-Zooropa period), and of course the polyrhythmic boulliabaise of samba, mariachi, salsa, merengue and rhumba that wafts up over the border like the scent of carne asada.
Kinky is a hot band on the fast track. This was their first appearance on their first US tour, but the band has already seen its album lauded in Rolling Stone, the New York Times, and dozens of new music publications. Though they would play the Elbo Room for around 100 people, they already have dates scheduled with Letterman and Kilborn, and several return trips. Despite the fact that it was a Monday, a good crowd turned out to see what all the hubbub was about, most of them serious music fans I recognized: many I admit were there because I had written about the show in last week's WhatDaFunk newsletter (thanks y'all). They turned out and got completely turned on by Kinky's aforementioned blend of styles, but more importantly by the passion with which they mixed them.
The show was short, maybe an 80-minute set, and they took nothing more than cursory breaks to catch their breath between songs. It was like a musical hot rod, beginning at 90-MPH and ending at 195MPH, blowing past speed traps and spraying cervesa out the windows. The quintet (Cesar Pleigo - bass, Carlos Chavez - guitar, Gil Cerezo - vocals/guitar/turntables, Ulses Lozano - keys/sequencers, Omar Gongora - drums) came on so fast, so strong, changed rhythyms so flawlessly, that for a song or two, the crowd didn't know what to make of it. But after limbering up their ears and ankles, the audiences was bobbing, waving, and trying to move their feet to the frantically fast South American rhythyms being churned out by Gongora, and amplified with house and trance sequences of Lozano. But this was not some electronica band busting out instrumental versions of rave music. Rather, electronic styles were just another layer that Kinky could add to their musical enchilada. By the fourth or fifth song, the band was ecstatically jumping up and down together in rhyhym and shortly thereafter, a crowd that had not met these men but a half-hour ago were bouncing around with them. While my friends from a belly-dancing class were trying to keep up to the timbales with their hips, I saw rock and rollers doing the "Bohemian Rhapsody" along with Chavez's Edge-like flange-funk.
After the show, I saw some things that boded well for this fresh face on the music scene. First was a RUSH to the merch table to buy the band's CD and sign up on the mail list (they sold out and ran out of paper). Second was a humble, almost shy, and completely respectful interaction with the audience. They may sound a bit like Los Amigos Invisbles, but they don't have the "boy band playing disco" attitude. Rather they seemed to me like the kind of inward-looking, positive-thinking, musically-obsessed types people often associate with the jamband circuit (which is funny because their sound is almost like a Mexican Sector 9, albeit without the new agey-ness, or a more rhythmically versatile Particle).
Finally, I saw some of those same educated music-heads, shaking those heads in disbelief. One of them, a woman who I have seen at HUDNREDS of different shows even admitted "Damn, that may be my favorite band... where are they playing next?" Most of those I spoke with were united in their feelings that his band was completely positive, completely fresh, and absolutely headed for stardom. And if they are able to keep the same attitude and continue to grow their music, without growing their heads, then someday perhaps they will get there. My advice: see them now before you have to wait in line for tickets.
For more info, check out Kinky's website.
Robert Kowal
WhatDaFunk Newsletter | San Francisco
JamBase | Bay Area
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