Music Review: Meridian Bro’s Colombian psychedelia at Tropicalia last week
By hola | Published | No Comments
If it were not for the vibrant stained glass window and mosaic tiled stairway, passersby would not notice the Tropicalia: a basement on the corner of 14th and U Streets NW, carved out into a trippy dance club. The Meridian Brothers, a psychedelic band, fit perfectly with the venue’s vibe.
On the evening of June 18th, DC’s youth filtered into the dimly lit cellar to groove of bass guitar. The opening act, Time is Fire, energized the audience with their funky fervor. The next band, Cigarette, slowed things down with their downbeat rhythms, melodic soft vocals, and ambient shimmering guitar.
By the time the Meridian Brothers took the stage, the place was packed. The young and well- dressed crowded the stage under the glow of blue and purple lighting. Latin beats pulse through the club, and dancing infectiously spread.
The band, which has been together for the last seven years, is known for its avant-garde music. Their sound is psychedelic—swirling synthesizer melodies built over a solid foundation of bass guitar and drums. The heavy synthesizer riffs blend smoothly with the lush, modulated guitar effects. Salsa and cumbia rhythms cut through everything, providing its danceable quality. Overall, the music is driven by strong instrumental rhythm and melody, rather than vocals. Though Eblis Álvarez’s and Maria Angélica Valencia’s vocals add a hypnotic flourish to their unique sound.
Despite their name, the Meridian Brothers are not brothers. The group consists of frontman Eblis Álvarez, who sings, plays guitar, and uses some synthesizers, but also writes and records all the music himself, touring with the following musicians: César Quevedo, bassist; Damián Ponce, drummer / percussionist; Alejandro Forero, the primary synthesizer player; and Maria Angélica Valencia, who sings, plays a synthesizer, Clarinet, saxophone, and several percussion instruments. After their first song, Álvarez announces they are from Bogotá, Colombia. This is the third show of their first U.S. tour, which began June 16th in Philadelphia and will take them to Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, and Minneapolis, before they head to Europe later this summer. Their set consists of original music with the notable exception of the “Colombian version” of the Jimi Hendrix classic Purple Haze.
Their pastel and neon silken shirts glowed brilliantly in the black lights as they played past midnight on a stage backed by ten-foot-tall imagery depicting a neon explosion of a kaleidoscopic rainforest. The backdrop seemed only to magnify the group’s captivating effect on the audience. The Meridian Brothers are impossible to lump into one genre, but they put on a mesmeric show.
—Oliver Garretson
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