Concert review: Calexico at The Orange Peel

First things first: trumpets sound amazing inside The Orange Peel. I love a horn section but hadn’t had a chance to hear any in that space since Rebirth Brass Band six or seven years ago. And Calexico’s twin trumpets from vocalists/multi-instrumentalists Jacob Valenzuela and Martin Wenk ripped through the venue like the duo were breathing fire. Kudos to the sound tech, who kept the reins on the horns without diminishing their intensity.

Sound quality was on my mind from the moment I walked into the Oct. 13 show halfway through the opening set by Canadian act Ada Lea and her band. I don’t know if it was the early emptiness of the still-filling room or something else, but the mix for the opener was terrible, burying the guitars and the singer/guitarist’s vocals in a wash of muddy bass. Lea and the band seemed like they were having a good time onstage, and some fans in the audience were responding with enthusiasm, but, for the life of me, I could not discern any lyrics. 

Fortunately, the issue didn’t extend to Calexico’s set, and when the band opened with the sly, slithering “El Mirador,” from its latest record of the same name, I could hear the intricacies of all seven players on stage as they wove their Southwestern sound and brought the desert heat of their Tucson stomping grounds to Asheville.

In Calexico’s own words, the band plays “desert noir,” and there’s not much better of a description I can come up with. Its music pulls heavily from the Latin American influences of the Southwestern border, mixing in electronic flairs and indie-rock guitar riffs. The desert is wide, though, and throughout its catalog, Calexico has covered a lot of ground, from sultry South American rhythms to danceable pop to atmospheric ambiance as the mood strikes. 

Photo by Brian Postelle

The septet picked the right set for its Orange Peel show, delivering a balance of both high energy and moody Tex-Mex tempos, swinging from the upbeat “Carinito” and “Minas de Cobre” to the more mysterious “Inspriación.” The crowd, filling a little better than half of the room, picked up the vibe, and the extra floor space was put to good use by people dancing alone and in pairs. Displaying its decades-long foray across landscapes both musical and geographical, the band laid out a mysterious and sultry atmosphere that fed off of Joey Burns’s low-key vocals and the smolder of Brian Lopez’s guitar solos.

By my count, there were seven guitars onstage played at some point by four different players (and I may have missed some). Burns even switched calmly mid-song from an acoustic to an electric for what I thought was a snapped string or technical problem, but it was just so he could move from playing rhythm to picking up the song’s guitar solo — a neat trick, for sure.

Despite its Latin American penchant, the band is never afraid to offer up some pop numbers, and Calexico’s love of ’80s beats was apparent on “Then You Might See” and “Harness the Wind.” The shanty-like fan favorite “Sunken Waltz” provided another short departure, and had people swaying and singing along.

An hour in, and to stomps and applause from the audience, the band offered up its encore, bringing Ada Lea out for a duet with Burns on her song, “Writer in NY,” with the rest of the band gradually emerging to join in. (This time, Lea’s enchanting voice came through clearly.) Then, for three more songs, Calexico held us in the ebbing light of the Arizona desert, ending on the high-energy “Güero Canelo” with fans dancing to the finish to those blazing trumpets.

Setlist

El Mirador
Cumbia Del Polvo
Harness the Wind
Across the Wire
Then You Might See
Inspiracion
Under the Wheels
Sunken Waltz
Minas De Cobre
Carinito
Caldera
Flores Y Tamales
Rancho Azul
Cumbia De Donde

Encore
One Writer in New York (w/ Ada Lea)
Alone Again
El Burro Song
Güero Canelo

(Photo by C.J. Strehlow)