Project Description

LOS LABIOS

@ Transit Bar Canberra

26 September 2017 (Live Review)

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Los Labios

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Los Labios might one day be a world famous rock band playing enormous stadiums to millions of screaming fans. If and when that happens the band are going to be ready. They’re already ready. They dress like rock stars, they move like rock stars, they might best be called rock stars in waiting.

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Vocalist Sammy Taylor’s exaggerated flamboyance is pure showmanship, and thank Christ for that. One of the great casualties in the emergence of the indie scene with its sensitive, downplayed vibe is the braggadocio and swagger of the great frontmen. Rock n roll is, in my view, crying out for someone who’s all sex and ego and attitude and charisma. I don’t know for certain if Sammy Taylor is the man they’re looking for, but he sure as hell intends to make them take notice long enough to find out. His stage persona, complete with a half dozen costume changes, does a pretty good job of channelling everyone from Jagger to Iggy Pop. It might in some cases be considered a little derivative, except for the fact that he so thoroughly believes it. Taylor is so swept up in the rock n roll decadence of the whole thing, that his commitment creates its own authenticity.

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Los Labios

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The sound is a pretty cosmic mix of sixties garage rock, 70s glam and 80s cock rock. Under most circumstances it would be impossible to pull something like that off without it seeming like self-parody. But again the band’s commitment to the core rock n roll sensibility of the whole thing is infectious. Any doubts disappear into the ether as they launch into tracks destined to be classics like ‘You Look Like You Need A Man’ and ‘She Don’t Come Anymore’. They cover the old Chess Records classic ‘I Just Want to Make Love to You’ and nail it. I should stress that it’s by no means all smoke and flashing lights, there is an undeniable edge that comes from a genuine musicality. Charlie Cepeda and Nacho Sarria on lead and rhythm guitar respectively are both highly accomplished and Ricky Candela’s bass combined with Fernando Reina’s understated work on drums combine to create a huge but impossibly tight sound.

The band’s debut ‘Birthday’ is out and it’s a pretty good representation of what they do, but this is a band whose particular brand of sleazy rock n roll has to be ingested live. Accompanying them on the Canberra leg of the tour was local act Betty Alto, a four piece act defined by dual lead guitars and double vocals. Its super upbeat stuff, and powerful enough to make a dent big enough in most stages for them to headline, but with Los Labios completely on fire from start to finish everything else kind of gets lost in the frenzy. I took a veteran of the local Canberran music scene to the show with me, who reckons it was the show of the year. Don’t take his word for it, go see for yourself.

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Los Labios

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AMNPLIFY – DB