OK, it’s official, Los Amigos Invisibles is the band I’ve seen live the most during the past 10 years. I don’t know if they just follow me or they somehow manage to be everywhere I am or they have a couple of clone bands playing different venues in different cities at the same time. But one thing is for sure: these guys must be the hardest working Latin band in the US.
There is virtually no festival that doesn’t include them in the line up. I’m starting to think there’s some sort of monopoly going on, like every time a show promoter wants a Latin band the New York/Caracas combo always pops up in their brain as the first and maybe only option.
The explanation for this is rather simple and a lot less supernatural, you can definitely rely on Los Amigos Invisibles for sold-out shows, they are a great party band that deliver consistent crowd-pleasing performances and they appeal to a mix crowd that goes from alternative cosmopolatinos to Top-40 listeners. And they have a major plus that every other band wish they had even if they don’t admit it: their audience is always packed with a whole lotta hot single girls.
So I could go on and criticize the fact that they play in automatic pilot and have been doing basically the same show since forever, I could point out that they are getting a little too old for the testosterone-infused horny frat boy early lyrics. But in reality I have to admit that I’m just jealous and I’d love to be up there on stage playing with them (and/or backstage for the afterparty) because they seem to be having a lot of fun, still.
In any case, the Invisibles are not really my amigos, even though I see them more frequently than other people that do carry that title in my book. My amigos were actually the opening acts for last week’s at The Independent, and the main reason I attended the event: DJ Felina, who opened with an eclectic mid-tempo set and the Chilean Funky C, who used to be C-Funk from Los Tetas (the best band name ever, period). For those who didn’t know, Funky C recently moved to the Bay Area (like we didn’t have enough chilenos here!).
This was his first SF show, promoting his album Joya (released by Sonic360 early this year) and he did very well. His rendition of Los Tetas’ 90’s classic “Corazón de Zandía” mashed-up with 2Pac/Roger Troutman’s “California Love” was epic. Hopefully we’ll be seeing a lot more of Funky-C live soon. Who knows? Maybe he’ll end up overthrowing Amigos’ Latin funk monopoly.