The dead were dancing early in the evening Friday, October 30 at the third annual Día de los Muertos Celebration at the Santa Barbara Bowl, and they rose up time and time again throughout the evening – and never stopped. The much needed annual festival of Latino culture is still evolving and destined to become a crucial part of the Santa Barbara musical and cultural landscape, but it has kinks to work out and needs fine-tuning.
La Marisoul of La Santa Cecilia was the high point with her orgiastic, diva-quality voice knocking the lid off the Bowl and inciting all the giant puppet skeletons to dance. The entire evening was an explosive, psychedelic, and rocking journey into every mix of electronica, fusion, and Mexican and South American regional music with good old rock’n’roll. The ever-pervasive Colombian Cumbia beat was never far away in such diverse acts as Chicano Batman, Kinky, Bomba Estéreo. Still, the order and show times defied the habits of the audience. The festivities started so early that the regular flash dance Michael Jackson Thriller event played to a half empty stadium.
Still, this was a slate of extraordinary substance.
