Concert Report - The Montezuma Project

As said, Montezuma Project shows very diverse influences in regards to their style, sound and melodies—from Mexican, Cuban and Spanish to African-American. They performed a high-energy/dynamic live show and the crowd was very pleased. They had as special guest a singer from a band called “Burning Star” who they open for and who were also very good. This second band was also based in a core of hip-hop but in their case the extra elements were mainly Rhythm and Blues and Funk rather than Latin and Spanish.

I saw this shows at the Temple Bar in Santa Monica. Th

The people watching the show were of around 21-28 years old, and was really funny to see all the attention that they placed on the band, on the stage. The people were constantly looking at the singer, or to the stage. Even if they dance (what happened most of the time in this concert) they were still looking at the band. It is assumed that this is the way a rock and roll or hip-hop concert goes. It is very interesting. It is not like in Cuban music in its traditional settings where all the people dance and the band is usually not the main focus. This was almost like an MTV video-clip, a TV show.

The conga player was ok, he just kept simple rhythms throughout the songs, never changing too much nor doing variations, but he definitely added a Cuban flavor to the mix. He played two tumbadoras in the Afro-Cuban style of Rumba making the mix of the music really good for dancing.

Another funny/interesting thing was that the band’s songs mentioned repeatedly “revolution” but it was not possible, due to the sound, to hear what was the revolution about. I think this no-lyrics sound situation is the case in most rock/hip-hop concert. So what you see is a couple guys (the singers) being extremely enthusiastic and crazy, raising their fists and asking everyone to join and saying things but you don’t know what they are talking about (does the crowd know? —the band don’t have any records out yet). The singers could just as well have been speaking in tongues or speaking backwards, and no

Some topics in this essay:
Jarocho Son, Temple Bar, Montezuma Project, Spanish African-American, Eyed Peas, Santa Monica, , creating sound, montezuma project, band called, temple bar, bands close,