Last night Megan and I went to downtown and saw the Nortec Collective in concert. This was a free show that was part of the 10th annual Festival Cultural de Mayo.
The Nortec Collective is a art and music group based in Tijuana and are best known for an album they released 2000 called "The Tijuana Sessions". The artists in the collective sample instrumental parts from old norteņo recordings and combine them with electronic and dance music. This makes for great music and an entertaining album, but I was worried that it wouldn't make for a very good live show.
Happily, the band blew my expectations out of the water. It really helped that they invited Banda Agua Caliente, an excellent typical norteņo band, to play along with them. This meant that instead of using noreņo samples, they had a live band to play these parts. The band knew the songs well and enhanced the electronic music perfectly. I particularly liked the version of "Dandy del Sur" and "Don Loope" that were played.
Since Nortec is an art and music collective they had some really great graphic design showing behind the band during the songs. The art perfectly complimented the songs and enhanced the entire concert.
After a very large set with both the banda and the electronic musicians, there was a shorter set featuring just the Nortec Collective and some of their more club music songs. After this the banda did their own set. We left just before midnight, but not before hearing a truly amazing cover of Depeche Mode's "Never Let Me Down Again". It was really great to hear a new wave song covered by a banda group with it's big brass band sound and supported by the electronic musicians of Nortec.
If you would like to hear some of the Nortec Collectives songs, download some o f the following mp3s:
Colorado - Fussible
Dandy del Sur - Hiperboreal