It’s really no wonder Los Amigos Invisibles are among the biggest band in Venezuela, they mix poppy dance beats, funky latino drums and solid, fun guitar riffs. The front-man is almost irrelevant though in a band like this, he was more of a hype-man, encouraging the fans to hop around. You felt more like people were there for the dancing and grooving and the lyrics were inconsequential at times, especially since he was singing in Spanish.
But that didn’t matter. The Black Cat is a great music venue and I had wormed my way up nearly to the front of the stage. Los Amigos sounded like hooky -pop freebasing Latino rhythm with dashing DJ beats. This combo lead to many bouncy efforts and even “Rock Fist-bumping” (note: this is when you have your hands in the “metal” pose with your pinky/1st finger/thumb extended and then fist pump the hell out of the beat.) My initial reaction was they were a mix between DeadMau5 and Maroon 5 but much more raw than either.
I was also semi-impressed by the opening band RubbleBucket whose stage was as crowded as it could stand to be with instruments of all assortments. Through all the saxophone, trombone, trumpets the thing that stood out to me the most was their drum and bass guys. They drove the show and without it those laying down precision rhythm, the improv moments would have ceased to exist. RubbleBucket earned negative points for a trombonist who was white and had dreadlocks.
My guess is that Los Amigos Invisibles sound better live than it ever could on CD/disk/mp3/whatever. They were fun but they weren’t anything too special. I highly recommend a live show. Bring a date, especially if she is one of the many Latino women in D.C. Either way, if you love dancing your ass off, go see Los Amigos Invisibles.
