Mariachi El Bronx suits First Fridays crowd just fine
Kevin Bronson on
1
Of all the successes big and small enjoyed by Los Angeles bands in 2011, none was improbable as Mariachi El Bronx, the side project-turned-focal point of hardcore punk quintet the Bronx. Born on a lark in 2007 when Fuel TV (R.I.P.) asked the punk Bronx to perform acoustically (oh, the ignominy), Mariachi El Bronx have come to embrace the finest traditions of the genre.
Mariachi El Bronx’s sophomore album has sold a modest 15,000 copies, but the band – Bronxers Matt Caughthran, Joby J. Ford, Jorma Vik, Ken Mochikoshi-Horne and Brad Magers, supplemented by Vince Hidalgo and Ray Suen – became touring darlings in 2011, playing Coachella and the “Tonight Show,” opening for the Foo Fighters and trotting their charismatic, suited selves across Europe (and soon, to Australia).
So there was a practiced, giddy feel to the Los Angeles band’s performance to kick off the Natural History Museum’s First Fridays series, which annually combines scholarly fare and eclectic music performances (the Soft Moon headlines in February, and Zola Jesus takes over in March) amid the dioramas in the institution’s North American Mammal Hall. The theme for this year’s series: “This Time It’s Personal,” and on Friday night that applied to the band as well as the brains.
Mariachi El Bronx casts frontman Caughthran – the vocal shredder in the punk outfit – as a lovable, crooning schlub with more foibles than marbles. “With four different lovers / and 48 roses / I need a confessional / that never closes,” he sings in “48 Roses.” From the roguish smile on the singer’s face to the reverential and technically spot-on playing of his bandmates, they make it endearing, and the footloose crowd in the hall responded accordingly.
The band’s pluck at having struck such a unique chord on today’s indie landscape was not lost on Caughthran, who repeatedly and profusely thanked the crowd, his hometown and everybody including the stuffed animals for listening. On a night when it felt like anything could happen – in some cases, it did, as the sprinklers on the museum’s south lawn unexpectedly came on and doused the food trucks and their patrons – Mariachi El Bronx’s set felt like a celebration of its own moment in time as well as the rich legacy from which its music draws.
Could’ve sworn the Gray Wolf winked.
Photos by Debi Del Grande
[…] You Should Have Been Here Because: It never fails – every time we see L.A. punk-rockers in their Mariachi El Bronx guise, they are playing a sun-facing stage on a hot afternoon wearing those heavy, handcrafted black charro suits. And they seem happy to be there. “It’s been a hectic week,” frontman Matt Caughthran told early arrivals in his best motivational speaker’s voice, “but it’s all led up to this beautiful moment under the hot sun.” And beautiful it was, the eight-piece taking their reverential music and spiking it with festival gusto. It was the band’s first Mariachi El Bronx shows since May – Caughthran, Joby J. Ford (who celebrated a birthday Saturday), Jorma Vik, Brad Magers and Ken Horne have been touring in their hardcore punk persona the Bronx – but they’re so good by now at their dual personalites (four punk albums dating back to ’03, two mariachi albums) it hardly mattered. Besides favorites like “Cell Mates,” “Slave Labor,” “Revolution Girls” and “48 Roses,” they played a new song “Wildfires” that’s so catchy it should be on radio. They also revealed that a new MEB album was on the way, possibly in November. Oh, and as Caughthran said, “There’s this band called the Bronx who are playing here tomorrow afternoon at 4 and they’re pretty good.” Downside: Caughthran croons like a mariachi singer and cusses like a street kid. Postscript: If you’re not familiar with how the punk-rockers came to take on mariachi, read this. […]