1 April 2006

Desperately seeking Los Capitanes (and Big Boss Groove)

| Kerces
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Last night (as mentioned earlier) I set off with JB in tow to find the Los Capitanes and their CD launch. I’ve been hearing about them for a while now but, apart from the four free songs on ther website, haven’t managed to actually hear them play.

The evening started off with a glass of red each at Knightsbridge Penthouse. An enormous glass of red each. I had never been to Knightsbridge or any of its previous incarnations, so had no preconceptions of what it’d be like from its Mortis days. The crowd was a bit mixed but mostly young and hip, like the decor. They had bright coloured walls and a variety of impressive lighting, including a sea of optic fibres attached to the roof along the front windows and waving in the breeze.

I didn’t see any sign of the Youth Festival concert that was supposed to be on near the CT fountain, so goodness knows what happened to that. Garema Place however was bouncing self-consciously to the sounds of Big Boss Groove — a band made up of Duntroon and ex-Druntroon musicians playing big band funk covers. The crowd of about 60 was quite multicultural and multi-aged, from little kids dancing on the chess board up to an elderly trio who’d brought their own chairs.

The band consisted of a trumpet, tenor sax, trombones, guitar, electric bass, keyboard, drums and two singers who alternated between lead and back up.

The music certainly made me want to dance, but true to Canberra form, apart from the youngsters, all that was going on when we arrived was toe-tapping. Later a pair dancing what I think was ceroc broke the ice and soon the chess board was almost crowded.

There was a group of about half a dozen teenage girls in the crowd dressed in matching white tracksuit pants with red stripes up the side. They also wore red or white singlets and had bags in red or white. We couldn’t decide if they were part of a breakdancing troupe or just some kind of gang.

After some dinner at Oporto, we went on to the Holy Grail for the Los Capitanes launch. The information I had about the gig said there were four bands playing starting from 8.30ish with Los Capitanes scheduled for 10.30. We arrived at the corner of Bunda and Akuna Streets at about 9pm only to be confronted with a queue of probably a hundred waiting to get in. And it sure didn’t look like it was going anywhere fast, so I had to abandon once again the chance to see the ska band and we went off to find some beers elsewhere.

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Absent Diane11:04 am 03 Apr 06

Interesting going on’s the LCAP gig apparently

http://littlesmoke.com/justbands/?p=100#comments

has more info

jamius maximus10:34 am 03 Apr 06

PS. I love bit of dinner at aporto in between venues on a night out. Personally, I think the oporto grilled chicken wrap with chilli is the kabab of the new millenium.

jamius maximus10:30 am 03 Apr 06

I was at the BBG groove gig as well – they are a great band and it was good to see some dancing finally start up. The girls/gang were part of some street funk class – I think from erindale. They danced in between the big boss groove sets. They were pretty good, but all about 12 y.o. and grinding away to fiddy and unsher songs and some lovely tune about don’t be afraid to touch me. That was pretty funny.

I don’t know if it was the youth group thing you refer to K, but there was a concert going on near the flashy cube on london cct. Pretty good band, yery young, playing hip-a-de-hop stuff with a horn section. ‘Casual projects’ I think?

Hmm – think this belongs in the “Not quite a review” section 🙂

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