ACL Fest Live Shots

Julieta Venegas/Cafe Tacuba

Charles Attal's unflagging hunger for imported virgin talent once again produced prize performances for Austin's roadshow trophy case. The man who programs Stubb's music menu when he's not mowing down 15 acres of Zilker Park pulled two Mexico City--based acts out of the Rock en Español buzz bin, and they produced like a pair of bunnies. Julieta Venegas, besides a typically taut Latin band, possesses something all the Liz Crows in the continental U.S. don't: sincerity. Talk about sexy. That the dark-eyed, dark haired, and ponytailed twentysomething led her backing quartet on accordion was all the more unique. From her spunky stage presence and bilingual girlishness to the steely torch pop of "Casa Abandonada," via 2000's border-crossing Bueninvento, and her star-crossed contribution to the all-star Amores Perros soundtrack, Venegas was both endearing and adored. When she sang a song by Mexico's grand seducer Juan Gabriel, one biker-looking Latin male mouthed all the words to his Gothic Anglo girlfriend. Cesar Romero's pulsing guitar, meanwhile, swung the band from bossa to ragga. "We'll be back," beamed Venegas, finishing her 45-minute set. "'Cause Austin is cool." Ruben Albarrán, lead marionette for the outrageously unclassifiable Mexican indie rock institution that is Cafe Tacuba, promised the same thing the following night, Saturday. Their nitrous carnival began normally enough with the leadoff track from the band's new Cuatro Caminos, "Cero y Uno," Albarrán acknowledging in his avalanche Spanish that the four roads referenced in the album title had brought them to Austin. Emmanuel del Real, the group's musical hard drive, followed by having his ballad "Eres" matched word for word by a frenzied cluster of fans swaying in the dark down front of the midsized Heineken stage. Dashboard Confessional fanatics have nada on most mainstream Latin music lovers. Not that Cafe Tacuba's unhinged hip-hop roc could rightly be considered mainstream to North American tastes, despite the Beastie Boys-type popularity the quintet enjoys on their home turf. The minute they transformed into Mr. Bungle, however, exploding in a confetti canon of cartoonish choreography and Eighties-lit eccentricities, CafeTacuba had no antecedents or equals. Proudly pointing out members of Los Lobos watching from the wings, Albarrán lamented the short set allotment, thanked the audience, and promised to bring his circus back to town. Muchisimas gracias, Carlos Attal, get Manu Chao for 2004. -- Raoul Hernandez