Saturday, August 25, 2007

Ozomatli, ya se fue, ya se fue!

When Ozomatli finishes their set, they start the crowd singing "Ozomatli, ya se fue, ya se fue!" meaning Ozomatli have left. They climb off the stage with drums, sticks, whistles, and find a spot in the crowd to continue the party. Once again, they found us, I'm convinced they saw a bunch of us singing and making room for them. I stood in between two of them while they jammed then broke out into the hokey pokey. When they started their conga line, Li'l Sis and I were right behind them, walking in the aisles while people squeezed against their seats to make room for us, looking at us like what are those girls doing? They stopped again in the crowd for a bit, then made their way out into the vending area. There were only about 20 of us that followed. It's incredible! When they were done, again, we shook their hands and thanked them for a great show. One of the guys said they were just the opening band, but for me they were headlining. They have such energy, such positive vibes, so gracious with the fans, and they obviously have a great time. At one point they came into the crowd looking for a child, brought him on stage, handed him a tambourine, introduced him as the next generation, and the kid played an entire song with them. So true. They formed through a community center in LA, holding weekly Friday and Saturday night fund raisers. The center focused on arts for the inner city youth, skateboarding, break dancing, graffiti. Now they are Grammy award winners with music focusing on diversity, justice, creativity, politics. One of them was asked at the end of a podcast, what advise do you have to give? His response was "Do good things everyday." I will see them again and again and again.

It was a great evening with my sister. It was a funny evening. Lot's of beer, young crowd, hot, the smell of marijuana permeating my clothes, uptight couple with bad karma so much so that they constantly got beer sloshed on them and my sister accidentally whacked him on the head while dancing, young cocky boys trying to get us women to dance/grind with them (imagine the Italian head slap "What are you thinking? I have children your age!" whap!), older guy grooving the whole time, G Love full of himself, and the two of us, full of ourselves, laughing, dancing, singing, never sitting, contemplating another club (foiled by a phone call). We vowed next time we'll stay out all night and get a room. When I got home at a very late hour, My Handsome Prince, sleeping asked "Did you have a good time?" I just laughed and said "Oh, yeah".

I received a phone call this morning, all it said was "Ozomatli, ya se fue, ya se fue." Dang I wish they didn't leave.

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