KINKY LIVE CONCERT CREATES A VORTEX OF DANCING IN THE MIDDLE OF DOWNTOWN LA!
June Caldwell
July 12, 2006
How did six guys from Monterrey Mexico single-handedly give me my hometown LA on a silver platter? I have lived in LA most of my life. To experience the free Kinky concert smack dab in the middle of downtown LA was a dream come true. Never before have I seen the diverse crowd of LA all together, dancing, hip swinging, smiling, hugging each other and singing along together like this! Somehow Kinky hit all the bases, and we were in this Utopia that I always dreamed LA could be – at least for the length of time of the set. The music was for all of us and we responded in kind. During the set, Gil said ‘It’s great to be here in downtown LA. Now LA is our home!’ We all cheered. I can only say: ‘Kinky, welcome home!’
Kinky fans loaded up with their favorite food & drink, showed up early to get a good seat, and then stayed late to dance with wild abandon well into the night. Free concert, perfect So Cali weather, a bottle of vine & 3,000 of your closest friends? Sounds like a Kinky dance party to me. The free concert series sponsored KCRW at downtown LA’s California Plaza hit a Grand Slam by featuring Kinky for this Saturday’s show. The perfect weather, the streaming fountains were perfect. The stage was behind an enclosed lake, so the only conflict was the inevitable few people who couldn’t resist jumping in the lake and swimming to the stage!
The set was a non-stop dancing dervish of their album, including the upcoming Reina. Kinky’s charisma onstage is hard to describe. Their energy, playfulness and enthusiasm grabbed the crowd immediately.
Mas – The set started with all barrels blazing with ‘Mas’, the ultimate Kinky song! The unmistakable base line and congas are what Kinky is all about. The cheering was deafening.
Cornman - Then they broke into the funk-accordion mash up of Cornman. When they start rapping and adding their 70s sound samples is when you need to stop keeping track and start dancing!
I Say Hey – Reina From their upcoming album, Reina, I Say Hey kicked in. An instant hit with the crowd who never heard it before. The 80s retro keyboards and the wall of rich textures beat the crowd into a frenzy.
The Headphonist – Next, from Atlas was this true Latin beats party. This is where the heavy dancing crowd around me was doing some serious hip swerving! In this context, it was hard to understand the lyrics, but we were mesmerized by the movements of Kinky on stage.
Leon - Another rocker this time from their new album, Reina. I looked around and it looked like the whole crowd was nodding to the beat if not dancing and sweating by that point.
Mirando de Lado - A funky jazzy adventure of layered sounds and beats streamed over us.
A Donde Van Las Muertos - From Reina, this song had us all chanting along ‘La, la, la!’ with the chorus at the tops of our lungs! Now we are singing and dancing. It was hard to imagine sitting passively at this point.
Sambita - Next, the cool Caribbean rhythms of this cool breeze of a song took us away to a festival somewhere, and I thought, why not here?
Do U like it? - Hitting the stage with a blazing guitar intro, the cool daze of the last song was broken as it was time to rock. From the more hard edged Atlas album, combined with the hypnotic dance beats, this was Kinky at their best.
Sister Twisted - From the upcoming Reina, this had the uncanny quality of a sing along with a crowd who had never heard it. That is part of the magic of Kinky, hypnotic pop beats that pick you up and make you a believer.
Sol - Next on, Sol is one of the more jazzy of Kinky’s songs. Jazzy, yes, but did I mention a driving Latin dancing beat?
Nothing Really – This was the love song of the set. Make that love-dance song! I looked around and saw so many people smiling at each other, not to mention kissing, it was a good vibe fest. I couldn’t believe all of this in downtown LA!
Ejercicio started out with some samples and some funky dancing, with ‘Listos?’ repeated throughout and us all cheering ‘yes!’
Great Spot was the encore - Part of the self titled ‘Kinky’ techno phase and by that time the movement in the crowd was non-stop. We knew it would end soon, so we gave it all we had!