By the time you read this, you will probably already have danced with your amigos to the many tunes of Super Mistico Fantasma, the Mexican band that starts their tour of B.C. along with Sechelt musician Janet Panic. They’ve put in appearances at Sechelt’s summer music series and the Roberts Creek Legion. Saturday, August 8 at the Gibsons Legion is your next chance to hear them doing their rooster strut performance.
The tunes are all original music on their album Roosterdam, a reference to the Dutch city Amsterdam, where so many activities that are generally considered vices are allowed, but with control. The group’s social activism emerges in their lyrics, though the sound is rock-funk with some Afro and Latin beats and a touch of reggae. The album, like the city, manages to strike a balance; it’s danceable with a big sound and listenable as well.
The five-member band hails from Monterrey, near the U.S. border.
“There’s a cultural mix there,” said Luis Prestamo, vocalist for the group, which is why some of the songs are in English, some in Spanish or a mixture of the two – Spanglish, as Prestamo calls it. Lyrics that work in English don’t necessarily translate very well when the song is in poetic Spanish. Spanglish makes it work.
While Panic was visiting in Mexico she caught their act and was immediately drawn to performing with them. She’s like them, she notes: “We live to play music.” When one of them mentioned that he would like to visit Canada, she knew what she had to do. “I can make it happen,” she told them, and she has organized a tour that opens on the Sunshine Coast and takes them to Salt Spring and Bowen Island. The Juno award nominee and recording artist (Most of What Follows is True…) will perform with Super Mistico’s backup on some of her own compositions.
Every international visitor gets asked the question, how do you like Canada? But they don’t always get an answer like the one from musician Rafael Rafonk: “It’s weird to see so many whites with a smile.” Mexicans from Monterrey who cross the border to the U.S. usually see grimmer faces. “You’re more like Mexicans,” Rafonk says. It’s a compliment.
Super Mistico Fantasma is a long name but the guys don’t want it shortened. They like the long, slow nature of it – it suits them.
“We’re not fast food,” says Prestamo, stretching the metaphor a bit. “We could have done fast food a long time ago and we could have made a lot of money.” Instead the friends decided to do what they do best – make their music come alive.
Get on over to the Gibsons Legion this Saturday at 8 p.m. Admission is $5 for members; $10 for guests.
