Lowbrow electro Mexicans unite! Silverio and María Daniela are on tour through the United States and last night they tore it down in San Francisco at the Red Devil Lounge. I was appointed with the honorable mission of opening the gig so I have the insiders scoop to share with all Remezcleros.
You know whom you are dealing with and what to expect –and not to expect—from chaotic party animals like Silverio and electro-diva María Daniela. And what you can’t expect from them, apparently, is to show up on time. Sound check was scheduled at 6pm, club opens doors at 8pm and the show has to start by 9:45pm.
So being the punctuality freak I am, I arrived to the place at 6pm. Of course none of the talent was there, only the club staff and the promoter. The Mexican troupe had a late party night. They performed the night before somewhere in Southern California and the after-party went on deep into the wee hours. Now they had to ride all the way up to the Bay Area on the hottest day of the year. Right. No way they’re gonna be on time.
So around 8pm a club staffer told me that they were opening the doors and I should start spinning and so I did. Almost an hour later the crowd started to come in slowly. It must have been about 9:30pm when the artists showed up… for the sound-check! So they tested mics and samplers while I was still DJing, or trying to. Needless to say, my set got extended. At 10:20pm Silverio finally went on stage and the party really started.
Now I don’t care if you like his music or not, you must see this guy live. Even if it’s just to make fun of him, insult him, spit on him or throw stuff at him (he wants you to.) That’s what’s up. People go crazy during Silverio’s shows and he goes even crazier. After the fourth Corona (not counting all the ones he had before going on stage) he was already stripped down to his signature red underwear, jumping up and down, picking fights with the audience and humping the girls on the first row. This guy is latintrónica’s G.G. Allin!
I played for 20 minutes more after his performance and then with the club half packed (tickets where $20!) this petite pale Mexican in spandex walked on stage and started singing her hilarious electro-retro campy hits. The thing is, after crazy-ass Silverio, nothing can really surprise me now so I watched the first half of María Daniela’s show, then I went backstage and came back for the last couple of songs when she did a cover of Rigo Tovar, another one of Los Farm López’ “La Kabra” and of course, “Miedo” her biggest hit.
Nothing was supposed to be taken seriously and nothing was. Call them simplistic, infantile, absurd, all you want. But this was a hell of a crazy night and if people had half as much fun as I did, it was definitely worth those twenty bucks.
