Free drinks

Back to Bluesfest on a pleasant Friday. The only band on the lineup for the day I was really adamant about seeing was Blonde Redhead, but there were a few other folks I wanted to at least take a gander at. Chicha Libre was among the first. They were prforming on the Subway Stage. The band comes from Brooklyn, but the roots of their sound hail from South America, namely cumbia, with which they overlay some psychedelic pop and 1950s and '60s instrumental sounds. They struck me, and several other people, as having a lot of the same musical ideas as The Flaps and The Empiricals.

Olivier Conan rocks the cuatro.



Vincent Douglas handles the Gretsch.



Greg Burrows handles some of the percussion.



Neil Ochoa handles the rest; while Nicholas Cudahy rounds out the combo on standup bass.



What's over there?



Why, it's Joshua Camp on the Hohner Electravox.



I popped off for a while to see Garaga, but then returned to shoot the whole bunch.



Greg selects his next target.



Joshua sings!



Olivier sings!



Guitar action!



The end!



Not bad, but I've got to say The Flaps do it better.

• Show reminder: Bison, Biipiigwan and Collider destroy Cafe Dekcuf with volume; Abandon All Ships, Woe, Is Me, Structures and Liferuiner are at Mavericks. Elvyn, The Diableros and The Woodrunners play the Elmdale House.