El Tri - Mexico's Rolling Stones
 Joseph Trevino - El Sol de Yakima
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| | El Tri's Alex Lora |
In Mexico, people say that if someone were to die singing rock 'n' roll, it would be Alex Lora.
Lora, considered the godfather of Mexican rock, is the front man of El Tri, Mexico's top blues and rock band. Since the late 1960s, the group has been playing hard-edged, riff-filled music and soulful rock ballads.
Lora is the first to admit that his raspy, burnt voice is far from being Mexico's best. Ah, but the band, he says, what sweet music they make!
He's right. From the bluesy love affair gone bad in "Metro Balderas" to the protest song about Mexico's kids who live in the streets, "Niño Sin Amor," El Tri has been making the best south-of-the-border blues music since, well, since El Tri showed up on the scene.
That would be Avandaro, the Woodstock-like festival in 1971 that became a hallmark for counterculture music in Mexico. For the next 15 years, El Tri (shorthand for its original name, Three Souls in My Mind) developed a loyal cult following, but because of Mexico's repressive government was forced to play in "Hoyos Funkies," the street name for underground music venues in poor neighborhoods.
Because of the band's penchant for mocking Mexican politicians and criticizing social inequality, El Tri remained on the government's bad side for years. But by the late 1980s, El Tri's reputation as Mexico's hardest-working band acquired legendary status - it averaged 200 concerts a year. Fans openly compared El Tri to the Rolling Stones - in popularity, style of music and bad-boy image.
El Tri's growing success - and political change in Mexico, when one-party rule began crumbling in the 1990s - came just in time for the arrival of rock en español.
Today, the band continues to draw crowds of up to 100,000. And this weekend, it's making its first appearance in Yakima, at the SunDome.
Whether singing to Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico's patron saint, or strumming along with Santana, El Tri just keeps rocking away. And at 57, Lora shows no signs of slowing down.
He wouldn't have it any other way.
El Tri Rocks the SunDome
WHAT: El Tri, Mexican blues/hard rock band.
WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday.
WHERE: Yakima Valley SunDome, 1301 S. Fair Ave.
HOW MUCH: Tickets - which go on sale at 10 a.m. today - cost $41 in advance and $46 the day of the show through TicketsWest, 800-325-7328. |
Vallarta Weddings
Entertainment | November 2007 
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