Concert Review: Grupo Fantasma at MFA

Sweet Lou—no, not that one—tears up the congas. (Richard Gastwirt.)

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The night air was muggy last Wednesday in the Museum of Fine Arts's Calderwood Courtyard, but, as Grupo Fantasma was quick to remind the crowd, it was nothing like a Texas heat. The funky Latin big band from Austin, accustomed to greater temperature extremes, barely broke a sweat. That much can't be said for the crowd, many of whom seemed determined to reinvent salsa dancing from the ground up.

Things started out quietly enough. Grupo Fantasma began its first number with a spacey dub, horns squawking short chaotic lines over a bed of a washed out, slow moving drone. But it wasn't long before the percussion picked up the tempo, increasing it gradually, like a careful hand on a Casio keyboard dial, until it reached danceable speed. Grupo Fantasma was just getting warmed up.

As the band bragged from the stage, Grupo Fantasma plays "all types of Latin rhythms." Concertgoers were treated to salsa, mambo, boogaloo, cumbia, and norteño. The band even included a funk revue, "a tribute to James Brown," during which they introduced themselves by name. Austin was the birthplace of psychedelic music, and Grupo Fantasma had room in its sound for that, too. The dual guitarists each played through a matching array of electronic pedals, and their sound was heavy on the wah-wah.

The dancing started during the third song, and it didn't stop until the band had left the stage. The crowd's dance moves ran beyond the gamut of acceptable Latin dance, especially if you included the sound crew, who improvised a collective monster lurch, a species of performance art. Not that there weren't folks taking it seriously. A couple in matching purple tops stepped confidently and dourly through the flailing fray around them: salsa pros.

Photos by Richard Gastwirt.

The show was a part of the MFA's Elaine and Jerome Rosenfeld Concerts in the Courtyard series. The next performance, featuring Cuban rock star Alex Cuba, begins tomorrow at 7:30 p.m.