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LA33 live in Leeds – Fri 4th July 2008....... by Torqueo
 This was the first of LA33's gigs on their brief tour of the UK, promoted by DJ Lubi, and held at the University of Leeds Student Union. We reached the University Campus, parked up, and got to the Union building shortly before 9pm, as I'd offered to do the projections for the evening.
Things had become slightly delayed, as the band had come straight from Gatwick via a lengthy customs process, and a few wrong turns (who'd promote live music, eh!!). They finished their soundcheck, the doors opened just before 10pm, and from then the venue filled up very quickly.
The venue itself is very good for live music, and has a decent sized dancefloor. The only problem here for Salsa was the rather inadequate lighting and occasional use of the smoke machine!!
 Nicky Lloyd Greame kicked things off with a very popular partnerwork class, then Silvao started the music and the dancefloor was immediately full. He played a great set and really had the dancefloor rocking and ready for the band (we'll definitely be booking him for one of our parties).
The band came on at around midnight, played a brief intro, then launched into the title track from their first album. There are some real characters in the band, and the performance was so full of energy, it was hard to believe they'd been travelling for over 24 hours before this gig! A few tracks later, and the band members donned pink noses, got an inflatable pink panther out, and launched into their biggest hit 'La Pantera Mambo'. This was followed up by a cha-cha version of 'Roxanne'.
We left towards the end of their set, so didn't catch the DJ sets afterwards, but the feedback we've heard has been very good.
LA33 are definitely a band worth seeing if you get the chance. We had planned to see them in Birmingham as well, but were complete lightweights. JoJo, however, did………...
LA33 live in Birmingham – Sun 6th July 2008....... by JoJo
I had already seen LA33 perform live a couple of years ago at the Antilliaanse Feesten in Belgium, and on that occasion they were fantastic, and definitely the highlight of the weekend, so I knew what to expect from them this time around…….. and was really looking forward to it.
The Birmingham gig was held in Jongleurs on Broad Street, and was hosted by Latin Motion (www.latinmotion.co.uk). It was part of an ‘all-dayer’ event in which workshops had been going on throughout the day. I only went along to the evening part of the event though for the live band and the DJing by Mauricio and Diablo, though there was one last class just about finishing as we arrived.
We got to the venue at around 8.45pm and there were already lots of people there. We made our way to the bar, then found ourselves somewhere to put our bags and change our shoes, just in time for some dancing before the band’s first set.
The band came on for their first, smaller set just after 9.30pm, and right away you could feel the immense energy coming from this 12 piece band – they were smokin’, and as at the Leeds gig, they kicked off with the first track from their new album.
They had an extra band member with them now though, another singer, who had not been with them last time I saw them – so now they had 3 singers in total. The 2 original singers both have very distinctive voices and can easily be identified on each of the tracks on their CDs, so it was going to be interesting to see if the new guy would measure up.
They played for around 30 minutes, then whilst the band were having their break the DJs returned and the dancing continued. Just before the band were due to come on for their second set, there was a show by Tony Lara and Daniella – their very apt Pink Panther show. As soon as the show finished the band took over the reins again.
During both sets they performed all their well known tracks from the first album including ‘La Pantera Mambo’ (again with the inflatable pink panther and red noses), ‘Soledad’ and ‘Annie’s Boogaloo’ etc, together with some new material from their latest CD ‘Gozalo’.
They also covered The Police’s famous track ‘Roxanne’. Each of the 3 singers seemed to be responsible for the lead vocals on different tracks, and on ‘Roxanne’ it was the turn of the new band member………….. OMG………. what a powerful voice!!!! The whole room just stopped and watched in amazement while this guy sang his heart out – I am surprised his lungs didn’t burst. Fair do’s to him…….. he has one hell of a voice :o)
The band played like demons throughout their sets, giving every track their all……. and then some! They did 2 encores and when they finally hung up their mikes it was around 12.15am. We’d had an absolutely fantastic time and decided to call it a night and leave on a high, although the DJs were set to continue playing for about another hour for anyone that wanted to stay and continue dancing.
It was well worth the trip to Birmingham even though it was a ‘school night’, and I for one wouldn’t have missed it for the world. The only downside to this event was that it was very very hot in there, even though the air-con was on. Also, a few people were moaning about the dancefloor being sticky, though I have to say I didn't find a problem with it at all, I found the floor to be fine - the raised area where the seating was did have a very sticky floor though.
Next live music outing was going to be a trip to London to see Oscar D’Leon a week later……. Life just gets better and better…… and I’m loving all this live music that’s on offer this summer :o)
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