Time sure flies when the holiday season approaches for our little business. We are proud to come from Santa Ana where the holidays begin well before late December. Día de los Muertos is an important time of year in our culture and our hometown and we are fortunate to play a key role in local celebrations. Viva La Vida’s día de muertos street festival is the reason we first ventured into constructing stages for live events. It is a day we wear multiple hats as members of the planning team for this non-profit organization. We volunteer our time and labor for this event that closes local streets so that residents may construct altars to honor the memory of those who have passed.
The lineup of Viva La Vida’s 10th annual Día de Muertos celebration was a beautiful representation of our local music scene. Performers included bands and youth groups we’ve had the pleasure of working with throughout the years including Conjunto Incredulo, Eddie and Thee Scorpions, and Chapis. This year we added a second, smaller stage to the street entertainment, run by local musician Miguel Mejia. These festivities took place just blocks away from Downtown Santa Ana’s monthly Art Walk, which our team also worked on providing live sound reinforcement for the stage featuring the band Mother Rose and local MC Frosty with Phaizrok
Día de Muertos is a very emotional time for many, including ourselves. Add to that the general demands of setting up, running, and striking a live event it is no surprise we’re catching up on our blog posts many weeks later. BUT we are happy to be here writing about October’s Down the Street performances.
The days leading up to this Down the Street night met us with a last minute cancellation–it happens!– but the show must go on so we put the word out to the night’s other featured band, Bounce House, who recommended LA-based The Corpos who said yes to joining the bill!
These two bands were an excellent pairing as both sets took the audience along for a story told through music, lyrics, and in the case of The Corpos, the occasional work-place memo.
The Corpos hail from Los Angeles and bring with them a sound that reminds me a little of the Dead Milkmen. Good solid post punk mixed with satire that makes one reflect on how bizarre corporate America sounds on a daily basis. Complete with a message about a tedious work life and rebelling against the powers that be (“Where the Fuck is My Promotion?”). For the featured song, we chose I Like, What You Like. We also chose to include some of the pre song banter for you to check out. We were really impressed by the picture they painted on stage and also appreciated them coming through on such short notice.
Closing out the night we had Santa Ana’s very own Bounce House. The tight musicianship and fast words make me think of like a punk version of T.Rex. The songs are quick but sophisticated. Good guitar licks, fast drums, and tight bass lines make Bounce House an enjoyable night out. Thanks to Leroy for making this one of our favorite Down the Street shows all year. And yes… that IS Eddie Navega playing bass. He keeps himself busy to say the least.
Thanks so much to Resident Vinyl for coming through on this night. It makes us happy to be able to provide a night of good tunes by local bands, and to be able to bring a mobile record shop into a space like El Indio so people can immerse themselves in music. It’s what we love doing. This month’s playlist contains some good old ragers and new tunes I dig. Our favorite song on the playlist was “Not Like You” by N8NOFACE.
Down The Street returned to El Indio on Thursday, November 21st with Ellery and Simya. We’ll have the highlights from this video out probably in a week. It was a good one so stay tuned!
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