Ozomatli & Keyser Soze

O-ZO-MATLI…O-ZO-MATLI…O-ZO-MATLI… The crowd chanted the classic mantra to open the Ozomatli concert at the BMU Auditorium on the California State University, Chico campus on Saturday, December 6th. They would have to wait a minute for the headliner to hit the stage because the heavy hitting Keyser Soze would grace the stage first. Keyser got the crowd rocking right away. They combined punching saxophone and trombone riffs over tight rhymes, soulful singing and a diverse array of ska, hip-hop and reggae rhythms. I had seen Keyser perform a few times before, but this was the tightest I had heard them. They have definitely improved a great deal. I thought the brand new song "Who to Trust" was very good, and they performed a sweet version of Sublime's "Badfish." I even heard one of the members of Ozomatli mention that Keyser was his new favorite band. That is a pretty good endorsement.
My prior 10 times seeing Ozomatli they had always opened up their set by playing from some unexpected place in the venue and leading a parade around the crowd until they got up on stage. This was not the case this night. The band came out onto the stage casually and asked everyone to introduce themselves to the person next to them. At the same moment they expressed their excitement to the crowd through gestures of appreciation from the heart. They started off the night with a Latin rock song that featured ambient vocal chants behind heavy hitting bass lines. Ozo really knows how to get the crowd hype. With fiery Latin and hip-hop rhythms they brought the crowd to their feet, jumping wildly to the fast-paced horn progressions. The addition of the MC and a DJ gave them a crossover feel of world music and hip-hop. Ozomatli ran through classic songs and crowd favorites such as "Cumbia de Los Muertos" and "Como Ves."
One thing I noticed that detracted from the show was that the sound was entirely too loud. From my experience in the BMU Auditorium, the sound has always been tolerable. For me, this show was beyond the pain threshold. I found myself wanting to leave the room at times because of the extreme volume. I have quite a bit of experience in that hall, and this was the worst I have heard a sound engineer work the room. Ozo tours with their own engineer, and I would have hoped he would have the ability to figure this out, but it was terrible. The in-house student sound engineer had the room sounding tight for Keyser Soze so I know it was the negligence of Ozo's sound guy. After I put in some ear plugs it made things more tolerable, and I returned to the front to get my jump on.
The thing I enjoy the most about an Ozomatli show is the energy of the crowd. Everyone really participates with the band and it creates a feel-good time. Dancing was the theme of the night and people were dancing their asses off. It can become like aerobics at times, with the jump-jump, combined with the feet shuffle. When it was all said and done, I finally got the closure I was looking for as the band came off the stage for the encore and led the crowd in a parade, singing children's songs. One interesting thing I noticed is that Ozo led the parade right to their merchandise booth. I guess you could call that a solid marketing technique. It implied to me, 'hey glad you had a good time, now buy our stuff.' Overall this was a great night and a lucky chance for many to catch the Grammy Award-winning Latin powerhouse that is Ozomatli. I must say that my favorite era of this band was when Charlie 2na and Cut Chemist rocked the stage with Ozo many years ago. The new Ozomatli has become more of a novelty act than an up-and-coming sensation. I would say Keyser Soze proved their self to be the up-and-coming sensation this night.
- Azariah Reynolds

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