One of the huge benefits of living in Los Angeles is the variety of amazing live music we get to experience. The Red Bull Music Academy radio Panamerika hosted a sold-out show at The Echoplex that had the crowd sweating from start-to-finish. Featuring the Chilean-French rapper-singer Ana Tijoux, Kumbia Queers from Argentina and L.A.’s global bass wizards, Subsuelo the night became a tremendous dance party with heavy tropical and hip hop influences.
If you are a Breaking Bad fan, you may have heard Ana Tijoux’s 2010 track “1977” featured on the show’s Season four episode, “Shotgun”. With no need to change her Spanish lyrics to any language, her songs have a strong narrative portraying social reality and have crossed many borders. Nacional Records just released Ana Tijoux’s new album “Vengo” that flawlessly blends hip hop beats created with Andean flutes and live instruments. Her song “Vengo” says, “I come like an open book anxious to tell the story that our ancestors have left” and she clearly manifested this with a powerful show.
PHOTOS: Ana Tijoux at the Echo
Usually the audience is anxious for the main dish, however the night was filled with stellar performances and visuals orchestrated since the very beginning by the Subsuelo crew DJs Ethos, Gazoo, Gozar and Canyonazo that not only kept the crowd getting down with tropical influences and strong bass, but also brought their heavy artillery with a live flamenco-hip hop band fusion that dazzled everyone. It was our first time and we were not ready for the madness that Kumbia Queers brought with their Tropi-Punk fever, their own mix of queer cumbia with heavy punk in the middle. These women not only drove the crowd crazy but also invited to the stage L.A.’s (luchador) masked band El Conjunto Nueva Ola and together got everyone going wild to cumbia. So yeah, waiting for Ana Tijoux seemed like the funnest thing for the audience that even received a pleasant surprise when Ana Tijoux called the Kumbia Queers to perform with her on stage.
PHOTOS: Nacional Records Road Trip with Los Amigos Invisibles & Ana Tijoux
It was an incredible night with latin beats jumping to punk, sweating to cumbia, and all fans mesmerized by the flamenco and hip hop vibes. The Subsuelo DJs kept the party people dancing until they could no longer. Excellente!
Photos and Words: Farah Sosa
Ana Tijoux
Subsuelo
Kumbia Queers
Check out more photos in the gallery below!
