Los Super Elegantes ~ LIVE at Safari Sam’s ~ Hollywood

Photos by Daniel Sebastian Villela

Los Super Elegantes have always straddled the line between artifice and art and farce - a bit like their adopted hometown of LA. A six-person band that's thought of as a duo; a multiculti, sonic collage that's highly original and strikingly in debt to its inspirations; an infamous outfit who's not famous; an art project that's also a band. Los Super Elegantes are-like our city-fractured, delirious, and beautiful.

These qualities were all on display last Saturday night at Safari Sam's, with the band playing a showcase for the labels that doubled as their return to public performance, this being their first show in LA in almost a year. They followed a set by the Overnight Lows. While I'm not sure what the suits thought, the crowd's reaction to the concert was a bilingual beso-fest....

Kicking off with the song they composed for the Whitney Biennial, the 10-minute bolero-turned-baile funk that is "Where Is The Whiskey," the band stormed through what was essentially a greatest hits set, playing highlights from their debut CD and the songs from their new album that have leaked to the blogosphere. One new track which hasn't been heard (at least in mp3 form) was "Chica Gotica," a cheeky groover with a dynamite chorus and a trumpet solo on loan from Wham.

When Los Super Elegantes appeared in town, many felt they'd lead a new wave of LA bands to mainstream success, the kind that had graced Beck but had eluded so many other Silver Lake stalwarts like Extra Fancy, Glue, and the Geraldine Fibbers. Now, seemingly out of nowhere, the band seems ready to explode, maybe a bit later than we all thought, but perhaps the better for it. Discovered last century, perfected in this one. Just like LA.