On a Wednesday my local cantina serves jugs of Sangria for $10 which i thought was an awesome way to start my Wednesday night as i head towards Sydney’s Manning Bar to see Mariachi El Bronx on their final show for this Australian tour. For those of you who are unaware of Mariachi El Bronx they are the alter ego of LA punk band The Bronx and when their in this guise they play strictly mariachi music with accompanying mariachi musicians.
I arrive just as the band take to stage as always decked out in traditional mariachi attire, it is packed inside i negotiate my way along the back of the crowd i can see there is no room on the floor, so the sides it is. They open up with Right Between the Eyes followed by the more traditional sounding Cell Mates. The band would just keep delivering crowd pleaser after crowd pleaser as they played songs from across all three MariachiEl Bronx releases tracks like Meaning Of Life and Rescue Me went over well, but my favourite song and seem’s everyone else’s came early in the set with 48 Roses, this song just sounds so musically authentic and lyrically it is a song close to my heart as we all sang along and swayed to beat, another great highlight came in the track Norteno Lights, this little funky number alway’s delights with the sound of it’s horns and its mix of Spanish and English lyrics gets us all clapping and foot tapping away.
Towards the end of the set they got a bit political on us only by saying with he U.S election looking the way it is, now more then ever they want to come live here with us Australians we just need the officials in charge to open up our doors and let them in and help out by giving them a work visa and as a display of there work skill set credentials one by one the whole band get to let out a solo of each instrument they play. Their musicianship is amazing and if i was in charge i would have no trouble approving their visa thats for sure. After it would be time to wrap things up and they play what i think is a fitting track after making such a statement Revolution Girl is the song and it is just the perfect way to cap off a fun night.
In the end a Mariachi El Bronx show only differs from a Bronx show in that obviously the music style is different and we don’t open up a mosh pit or belt out in gang vocals, but you can see in the bands faces that no matter which guise they are in they are here to have a real good time and want us too have it also and that is just one of the things that makes these shows something special to be apart of i felt that tonight on any of the tracks played i could have closed my eyes and imagined myself in some cantina bar with jug of sangria in hand listening to the best mariachi band ever fronted by kick ass punk rockers.
Review – Chad
Gallery – Christian Ross