By snoadmin
“I’m so stressed,” confessed Pilar Diaz, aka Lady P, lead singer of new wavish-indie band Los Abandoned.
And why shouldn’t she be stressed? After all the buzz the band is generating and the media attention it’s receiving (MTV was filming its sound check), the infinite possibilities of success are bound to drive an artist a little bit insane.
As the band prepared to headline its show at West Hollywood’s iconic Troubadour, by devouring tacos and veggie burgers, opening bands Astra Heights and Foreign Born made their way to their respective merch tables and struck up conversations about Morrissey and a very angry Troubadour security guard.
Formed by a group of brothers of a self-proclaimed Asian-mix, Astra Heights is the first band to send the night into a rock-frenzy. With obvious influence from The Beatles and Queen, the band had what it takes to open the show with furious riffs and extreme falsettos coming from lead singer Mark Morales. Freddy Mercury would be proud.
Next up, Foreign Born. For reasons that I won’t bore you with, I missed the first half of this band’s set, but as I walked back into the crowd, Foreign Born’s soothing folk melodies and obvious drunkenness made for a nice change of musical pace.
There was a small reunion, as Los Abandoned’s Vira Lata and Don Verde joined their ex-drummer’s new band for the song “Union Hall” as back-up chorus boys.
The Troubadour slowly filled up as drunken couples and eager teens wearing Los Abandoned’s now popular broken heart logo on their T-shirts stared directly at the stage.
The members of the headlining band quickly set up their instruments and as quickly as they disappeared to their dressing rooms, they came back, looking like something crafted out of glitter and good music.
Legions of chanting girls and uncomfortable hipsters jumped up and down as the band ran through Spanglish songs like “Live and Direct,” “Conquistarte Bien” and the Indie 103.1 regular “Van Nuys (es very nice).”
The quirky foursome made for some unforgettable moments. From Lady P’s red ice-capade outfit to Vira Lata’s robotic dance moves, Los Abandoned had what it takes to make it to the big leagues.
In the past, Los Abandoned have done an awesome Ramones-esque rendition of Selena’s “Como La Flor,” but this time around the band opted for X’s “Los Angeles,” which only made the veteran punks in the house a little more angry.
The audience stared in disbelief and fell under some kind of spell that brought them to their knees, literally, as Lady P urged “everyone in the house to get down” during the Spanish ’80s pop-friendly “Electricidad.”
But the obvious hit of the night had to be “Me Quieren en Chile (They Love Me in Chile).” It was an electro-dub number that came equipped with a ukelele and evolved into a furious, guitar-driven mosh of drunk kids chanting every single Spanish curse word.
In the end, the same sweaty kids who where jumping and pushing each other just a few seconds ago headed toward the merch table to spend some money on the band’s latest release, Mixtape (Vapor Records). If they were lucky enough, they got to engage in a long conversation with one of the band members and talk about “Alien Nation.”
