Saturday, July 26, 2008

GRUPO FANTASMA at Waterloo Records 7-25-08

Grupo has a new album out called Sonidos Gold, hence the in store performance at Waterloo Records. These in stores usually last about 30 minutes. Afterward they move to an autograph table.
Grupo Fantasma is made up of 11 or so musicians with full percussion & horn sections. The stage at Waterloo is so small that several of the musicians were on the floor instead of the stage which prevented me from even seeing the bongo player. They have what I call the Funk Rock/Cumbia/TexMex sound and are lots of fun live. As you'll see in the video, the camera is moving up & down because I could not stand still while they were playing. At least the video is moving to the rhythm!
One of my favorite memories of this band is seeing them open the first ever Austin City Limits Music Festival in 2002. My friend Bruce & I met in Austin (I didn't live here then) with no idea what this festival might be like. I'm from Illinois & he lives in California. We liked the lineup & decided to meet down here. We had never heard of Grupo and had no clue as to what they were about. Next thing you know a bunch of people hit the stage & a big wall of sound came at us. We just looked at each other, smiled & said this is going to be fun. I didn't know much about that music then but now I would guess they started with a cumbia of some sort. You couldn't stand still.

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