Aterciopelados

Photo by John Anderson

Aterciopelados

It's difficult to convey the appeal of Aterciopelados. One of Bogotá, Colombia's best-known rock acts, the duo of guitarist/vocalist Andrea Echeverri and bassist Hector Buitrago cuts a wide swath of Latin sounds, though it's often lumped into the hackneyed rock en Español category. The trajectory from the duo's earliest punk sounds into electronic, funk, and back to traditional Latin sounds makes it one of those unclassifiable entities. Backed by a guitarist, drummer, and percussionist, Aterciopelados certainly had the large crowd under the tent at the WaMu stage rapt. The tall, gamine Echeverri, who looks like she should be in a Almodóvar movie, sang beautifully in Spanish and jerked around the stage with her guitar during the harder songs. "This is a protest song," she explained, before launching into a combustible hot plate of funky, island-tinged rock. Even their political songs sounded upbeat and uncategorizable, but the crowd sang along nevertheless. Maybe that's the appeal, universal.