Happy, Happy Kinky

When Seattlest walked in the doors to Chop Suey for the Kinky show last night, we immediately wondered if we'd been transported to some other dimension where everyone at Chop Suey was smiling, talking, and happy. Really really happy. This is not our beautiful house, we thought...who the hell are all these fun, casually gorgeous people and are we really in Seattle?

Based on Donte's review, perhaps we were at the alternate-reality Latino version of a Scissor Sisters show. Sadly, we forgot our camera when rushing out the door so we're left with bad cameraphone pics. We also made the same mistake as Seattle Metblogs at the Scissor Sisters show, and arrived at 10pm, just in time to have missed opening act Gram Rabbit.

Trust Seattlest when we tell you this was our favorite crowd at a show ever. There were people who aren't white! People who don't stare at the ground and shuffle their feet, crossing their arms and barely bobbing their heads. Holy shit, the teeth! Smiling people everywhere, shaking their asses and jumping up and down. It was infectious. We smiled, we jumped up and down, we thoroughly enjoyed the Kinky show along with a couple hundred other shiny, happy people. If someone jumped on your foot, they turned around immediately, and honestly apologized. Then then smiled at you, and started jumping again. This happened no less than five times.

Kinky was on fuego with their unpinpointable, swaggering blend of traditional northern Mexican musical influences and ass-shaking electronic beats, samples, and basslines. We dare you to dislike it. They are, admittedly, one of our favorite bands--when we discovered them (along with Ozomatli from LA) we almost took up religion because it seemed like someone up there was looking out for Seattlest. They opened with the track "Leon" from their new album Reina, the sound system blaring out roaring lions to fire the crowd up before the band came on stage. And when they did the place exploded, we could feel the floor flexing under our feet. Kinky displayed tight chemistry together on stage; they prowl and strut like bombastic veteran rock stars, yet are still somehow charming and approachable. They moved immediately into a string of songs from their self-titled debut album, including the trumpet-fueled love song "Soun Tha Mi Amor", dance floor burner "Mirando del Lado" and our favorite "Ejercico." Naturally they also threw in the big hit from the debut, "Mas" replete with crowd sing-along.

We didn't hear a single song that we recognized from their second album, which was a wise choice. We caught that tour at Chop Suey as well, and their forays into English-language pop were not loved by Seattlest nor anyone else we know. But they clearly learned their lesson--Kinky still has non-Spanish tracks on their 3rd release, but they are far less fluffy and pop-ish than their prior efforts. We'd liked "Una Linea Del Luz" when we skimmed the CD earlier, and were pleased to hear that live as well. They closed their first set with the single "Sister Twisted" and we do have to admit that the rough, gritty live sound was more appealing than what we heard on the recorded version. (Here's an LSD-homage video for Sister Twisted.)

The second set amped everyone further with a few more tracks off the first disc, and then they closed things down with "Again and So On" from Reina. Lead singer Gilberto Cerezo had been equally as happy and smiley as the crowd all night, offering his drink up in mutual toast many times (and also mentioning how they love to play Seattle since it produced many of their early musical influences). For the last song, Cerezo roiled the crowd into a frenzy, telling us we could tear the place up. And there was more jumping, along with the nicest, happiest mosh pit that Seattlest has ever seen.

The tour bus was parked on our way to the car, and so we wedged our way into the crowd to grab a kiss on the cheek from bassist Cesar Pliego, on whom we've had the most ridiculous, huge, middle-school crush ever since we first saw the band live (always the soft spot for the bassists with us...well, except for Flea--ew). Even without that we'd have still told our friend as we got to the car that the happy hangover from this show just might linger for days.