Calexico – The Gov Thursday 17 January 2019
Words Geoff Jenke
Calexico are from Tucson, Arizona. Joey Burns told us it was cold in Tucson at the moment so it was nice to be here in Adelaide, even though it was exceptionally hot. The air conditioner in the Gov was pumping on full and it needed to be as the heat from the crowd was only going to get hotter as the band played on.
Calexico play a mix of traditional Latin sounds, mariachi, conjunto, cumbia and tejano mixed with more contemporary country, jazz and rock. It is not easy to explain to anyone what their style of music is. Mex Rock?
Calexico have a new album called The Tread That Keeps us and this night they start the show with three tracks from that album in, Dead in the Water, Voices in the Field and Under the Wheels. With seven players on stage and a multitude of instruments, the sound was full and vibrant, but the thing that really stood out was how clear the vocals were. One could actually understand the words.
Next up came Across the Wire from the 2003 album Feast of Wire and for the rest of the evening came a selection of songs from their entire career. The two-piece horn section in Jacob Valenzuela and Martin Wenk added a lot of fire to the sound. “Nice bit of brass” as Joey Burns told us.
Singer/guitarist Joey Burns and drummer, John Convertino are the two original members and though the band have been to Australia and Adelaide numerous times, it was the first time for two of the players. They went to Cleland National Park to see the” wild animals” (do all bands visiting Adelaide go there?) and then to The Gov to see more “wild animals”.
Cumbia de Donde had the crowd dancing even harder than before. The band “stole” parts of Neil Youngs Heart of Gold for one song, which sort of confused me. Was it a cover or an original, but it turned out to be an original with a few of Neil’s words. There was also a nice double bass solo during the evening.
We were asked if we wanted to know anything about the U.S.A. but a loud “No” from the crowd led into the next song. Towards the end of the set the band did a glorious cover of Love’s 1967 song Alone Again Or sounding fresh and invigorating. The band easily shifted from one sound to another with the change of each song and some songs were even sang in Spanish.
The encore continued the fun and excitement with Nao Queiras (which had the crowd howling like wild animals at the singer’s request), Rosco y Pancetta, Corona and finished with a new tune, Another Space, from their new album.
Twenty plus years on has not slowed the band and its music. During the show an audience member handed Joey a piece of paper with a song request. He said he would play a few seconds of if it, but then the band joined in and they played the whole song. After the show, Joey came to the merch desk and signed anything people wanted him to sign. Calexico are a band in touch with their audience.
Calexico are a very exciting entertaining band, and one you must see at some stage of your life.
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