Chicano Batman played Open Air Theater in San Diego in support of their 5th studio album “Notebook Fantasy” which came out March 29th of this year. This show was their second to last on the tour, leading up to a massive homecoming show at The Forum in Los Angeles. Their 90-minute set was an elemental mix of cumbia, tropicalia, old school soul, Latin pop, and psychedelic rock, that could only be woven together by a seasoned band like Chicano Batman. Hailing from Los Angeles, Chicano Batman truly show the make up of the city. All the members are Mexican, and they sing in Spanish, write cumbias, and other songs are influenced by the culture.
Chicano Batman got their start in 2008, and the band was initially composed of core members Eduardo Arenas, Carlos Arévalo, Bardo Martinez, and Gabriel Villa (who is no longer in the band since the Invisible People era). The quartet cut their teeth playing the local bar scene around LA, and ventured as far out as Riverside, Pomona, and various areas of Orange County in those early years. The band can’t quite be pinpointed sound-wise, but what they do is uniquely their own.
The live show had the modest crowd in the venue completely immersed from the first note until the end of the show. New songs like Live Today, with it’s cool guitar-driven melody and funky dance-y bass line, coupled with Bardo’s endearing vocals, worked perfectly alongside classic songs from an earlier era – like Black Lipstick, which has Bardo’s trademark vocal tone and an unforgettable synth intro that is the standout part of the track. The band didn’t let up for a single moment. Chicano Batman reminded everyone in the crowd were they’d been, where they are currently and where the future can take them if they stay true to their core beliefs as a band. Other songs that stood out for the night were new songs Beautful Daughter, Era Primavera, and older songs like Freedom is Free, La Manzanita, which is the point the crowd reached a new level of excitement and a reminder for anyone in the building that the band embraces their Mexican roots that make up the DNA of the band.
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