Review of Ozomatli at the Fillmore 12/2/05
Dec. 3rd, 2005 12:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zdashamberI did, in fact, go to see Ozomatli last night, despite minor travails like "not having a ticket to a sold-out show." Craiglist didn't answer my "extra Friday ticket?" post, but I figured I'd go anyway and stand out front and ask, and if no luck, it's right next to the AMC Kabuki and I could see Harry Potter. I figured Van Ness was probably going to be completely messed up, so I diverted off west, and then did one of my lovely "driving tours of San Francisco"... "Wait, Castro? I'm on Castro street?" For just such occasions, I have a Map. Whoo-hoo!
I found a parking spot free on the street not 5 blocks away, walked up and checked the ticket office: 1 left! No extra Ticketmaster charges! Yay! I got a drink, and set up leaning on the stage... At the Fillmore, you can touch the band's shoes.
The Salvador Santana band, opening for Ozomatli, was alas a bit uninspired. The base lines didn't seem like much, and the female singer pranced around without connecting; I was mostly wondering how it worked out for her to have legs the same diameter as her neck. Also: never use a saxophone where what you really need is another human voice. Or two. (Too bad, the saxophonist was good for the saxophone parts...)
Ozomatli was great. "Well, duh," moment for me: of course their music is bright and good... They use brass! I was right in front of the trombonist. Imagine Jayne, as a trombonist in a rock band. Same look, same sense of fun... With his dancing he said, "Oh dear! My boobs are showing!"
Audience ESP: You don't have boobs, trombonist-who-looks-like-Adam-Baldwin.
Jayne-with-a-Trombone: Then I'm ok to bounce up and down now?
A-ESP: Heh. You're funny. And cute.
There were, in fact, a great many people in the band who were very easy on the eyes, a good 50% of 10-11 people. I particularly liked the Asian guy on bongos... Jiro Yamaguchi, apparently. He seemed to be having a ball, huge grin while soloing.
That's another nice thing about Ozo. They let pretty much everyone in the band have spotlight time. I appreciate going to see a Group, instead of a bunch of guys drawing a paycheck to back up one star. And everyone in the band was good at many things... Even the rare people who only seemed to play one instrument danced like crazy.
For two full hours! I have no idea how they did it. I was out of internal hydration within the first fifteen minutes. I was considering bellying up on stage and stealing one of the water bottles only 3 feet away. Or fainting.
Most neat thing: they uniquely scotched the irritating encore thing... As they were playing their last song on the stage, they started one by one handing down drums and instruments and hopping into the audience, whence they paraded to the center of the floor and played, and then played a conga-line parade all over the floor, and then finished up over in a corner many minutes later, filtering right though the whole stirred happy crowd when they finally stopped. Great idea. So neat. Also, hanging by the stage as they played Sesame Street in the center, I thought about water, and then looked over to see that on their way down they'd kicked a stage bottle right into hand's reach. Saved!
They also quoted Fiddler on the Roof, an oldies song I don't remember, probably many other things I didn't connect, and at one point they reminded me precisely of Dead Can Dance.
Good show. ;)
I found a parking spot free on the street not 5 blocks away, walked up and checked the ticket office: 1 left! No extra Ticketmaster charges! Yay! I got a drink, and set up leaning on the stage... At the Fillmore, you can touch the band's shoes.
The Salvador Santana band, opening for Ozomatli, was alas a bit uninspired. The base lines didn't seem like much, and the female singer pranced around without connecting; I was mostly wondering how it worked out for her to have legs the same diameter as her neck. Also: never use a saxophone where what you really need is another human voice. Or two. (Too bad, the saxophonist was good for the saxophone parts...)
Ozomatli was great. "Well, duh," moment for me: of course their music is bright and good... They use brass! I was right in front of the trombonist. Imagine Jayne, as a trombonist in a rock band. Same look, same sense of fun... With his dancing he said, "Oh dear! My boobs are showing!"
Audience ESP: You don't have boobs, trombonist-who-looks-like-Adam-Baldwin.
Jayne-with-a-Trombone: Then I'm ok to bounce up and down now?
A-ESP: Heh. You're funny. And cute.
There were, in fact, a great many people in the band who were very easy on the eyes, a good 50% of 10-11 people. I particularly liked the Asian guy on bongos... Jiro Yamaguchi, apparently. He seemed to be having a ball, huge grin while soloing.
That's another nice thing about Ozo. They let pretty much everyone in the band have spotlight time. I appreciate going to see a Group, instead of a bunch of guys drawing a paycheck to back up one star. And everyone in the band was good at many things... Even the rare people who only seemed to play one instrument danced like crazy.
For two full hours! I have no idea how they did it. I was out of internal hydration within the first fifteen minutes. I was considering bellying up on stage and stealing one of the water bottles only 3 feet away. Or fainting.
Most neat thing: they uniquely scotched the irritating encore thing... As they were playing their last song on the stage, they started one by one handing down drums and instruments and hopping into the audience, whence they paraded to the center of the floor and played, and then played a conga-line parade all over the floor, and then finished up over in a corner many minutes later, filtering right though the whole stirred happy crowd when they finally stopped. Great idea. So neat. Also, hanging by the stage as they played Sesame Street in the center, I thought about water, and then looked over to see that on their way down they'd kicked a stage bottle right into hand's reach. Saved!
They also quoted Fiddler on the Roof, an oldies song I don't remember, probably many other things I didn't connect, and at one point they reminded me precisely of Dead Can Dance.
Good show. ;)