The dance floor at SOhO is more elastic than you might think, but there’s rarely a chance to find that out. It takes about 150 people simultaneously jumping up and down to give the place enough bounce to remind you that you’re on the second floor, consequently making you wonder if it’s too much to hope that they fill up the post office below with a couple hundred thousand cotton balls once the sun goes down. The band whose fans revealed this fact to me is Kinky, and it definitely warrants the enthusiasm. I don’t dance much in public, but on Easter Eve the electro quintet made me seriously shake a tail feather.
Kinky’s music is nothing like Ray Charles’s though- instead offering a crazy mix of Mexican dance pop, lots of synth, Latin percussion, tight, heavy bass, and satisfyingly liberal accordion accompaniment. And with a self-proclaimed goal to “set dance floors afire,” it’s no surprise that most Kinky fans stress that you need to see them play live to achieve maximum appreciation.
Santa Barbara was apparently the group’s last stop on the U.S. portion of this tour, which coincided with the re-release of 2006’s Reina. They didn’t play “Mexican Radio” for the SOhO crowd, but no one seemed to miss it (as evinced by the dancing frenzy that went on throughout the set). There was a very minor lull in the room’s exuberance somewhere in the middle, but I chalk it up to the fact that dancing your butt off is tiring, and people need a chance to breathe and regroup.
Sonic highlights included “Una Linea de Luz,” “Quiero Que Me Quieras,” and “Mas.” But the top three moments of the evening were found in two of the most smile-filled stage dives ever dove, and the happiest mosh pit ever formed. The only disappointment was the lack of encore, which was surprising considering the overall audience enthusiasm. Otherwise, the night gets a solid three-star rating on the good times scale.