Music is a drug. The way it affects our brains, thumps our pulses, makes our hair stand on end, commands our feet to do crazy spastic things. So then think of an Ozomatli concert as one giant, exuberant shot into the bloodstream. A direct line to god, or the universe, if you will. Either that or these guys really know how to get an audience grooving. Not that they needed much help. Thanks to the Torn ACLs, a local Seattle pop band with a lively upbeat sound of their own, the crowd was primed and ready for some good old fashioned face-melting and booty-shaking. From the first beat of the first song to the band parading through the crowd and vanishing backstage, the show was one funky dance party. Opening with a spirited La Gallina, off of Don’t Mess with the Dragon, from 2007, Ozomatli made it perfectly clear that they were taking no prisoners. Dance or get out. The setlist was a good representation of their work spanning nearly fifteen years, with not one slow song in the bunch. Sprinkling in a few from their first LP, 1998’s Ozomatli, to their most recent, 2010’s Fire Away, the set was equally saucy, funky, brassy, and all around functioned like the tight, experienced burst of life that is Ozomatli. One could tell the band was more than pleased to be rocking in our Emerald City.
