Calexico tend not to forget their fans. They know how much we missed them, so they don’t need excuses and pretexts. Instead, they return the love they receive. So, they are coming to Technopolis after 22 long years! Who doesn’t remember their Dionysian appearance with Mariachi Luz de Luna in September 2000? An unforgettable experience for the Greek audience. A night of absolute musical ecstasy. In their last visit to Greece, in 2018, Calexico “scored” 2 sold-out concerts at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. In perfect coordination with the audience, they created a magical atmosphere full of images, melodies and emotions. They left us with longing and anticipation for their next visit. So much has happened, and much has changed since then. A new world is emerging. A new reality and a new hope are being born. Cities are flooded with people, sounds and light again. Music is everywhere. Love prevails, showing us the way. Calexico is here!
Named after the town of Calexico, on the Mexican-California border, the band hails from Tucson, Arizona, with a decades-long career and a worldwide following. Tucson is just a stone’s throw away from the Mexican border. It’s only natural, then, that the sounds of the guitars, fiddles and trumpets of the neighbouring mariachi would have reached the haunts of Joey Burns and John Convertino while they were growing up. In 1996, when Calexico were starting, they found musical foundations in the American tradition, the music heard in the flat towns of the American frontier, and the sounds of the vast desert and endless roads.
On April 8, 2022, their new album, “El Mirador”, the tenth in a row and the brightest, was released, featuring Sergio Mendoza, Guatemalan singer-songwriter Gaby Moreno, Spanish rocker Jairo Zavala, poet Pieta Brown who offered two of her poems, and Sam Beam of Iron & Wine. ‘El Mirador’ is a promising kaleidoscope of rock, bluesy influences, Cuban guitars and Latin American references. It was created in their regular collaborator Sergio Mendoza’s home studio in Tucson, Arizona – a haven in pandemic times. There they tested and experimented throughout the summer of 2021 to finally create one of their most distinctive and unexpected works. “I’ve been playing with Calexico for about 15 years now and admire Joey and John’s constant search for new sounds.” “After so many albums,” he adds, “I’m really proud that we’ve achieved something so fresh together. “In this one, cherished memories of familiar Southwestern settings and cheerful rowdy neighbourhoods are fused with a touching erotic reference to desolate frontier landscapes. The otherworldly ones.
Their music is a mixture of traditional Latin sounds (Mariachi, Conjunto, Cumbia, Tejano) and Country, Jazz and Post-rock. Calexico are so unique and original that the term in music “desert noir” was created for them. The album’s title refers to the Mayan culture, a large pre-Columbian settlement in Guatemala. It flourished from the 6th century BC until the 1st century. In the centre stands the monumental “El Mirador”, a tower that touched the clouds, surveying and protecting the area. This is “El Mirador”, standing tall and firm, supervising and inspecting, a beacon in the darkness. It shows us the path of inner search, the way of the heart, inviting us to reflect on our ties with the Earth and its people, optimistically illuminating the path forward. After so many years, Calexicos’ music remains borderless and romantic, looking over and beyond the horizon in search of their new adventure. With the band in full line-up, all their greatest hits in their bags and a new optimistic solid album, Calexico are realizing every artist’s dream, ready to take us on a journey to an evening of love, poetry and joyful melodies at the Technopolis City of Athens.
With open and willing hearts in relaxed and welcoming horizons!
As already been said: “in the end, no one can take Calexico for granted”.
Tickets: from € 33| Advance Ticket Sales: Viva.gr
