Money Chicha

Photo courtesy of Chris Carrasquillo / Austin Vida

Money Chicha doesn't talk much. Headlining Stubb's the first Friday of Free Week, the locals zipped through 90 minutes of cumbias laced with sinuous guitars and quick-handed bongo and conga work. Last year's charged debut, Echo en Mexico, followed six years of the group polishing its footloose Latin psychedelia.

Sans singer, Money Chicha boasts musicianship by the pound from veterans of Black Sabbath worshippers Brownout and funk orchestra Grupo Fantasma. Reverb buzzed and hi-hats rattled as the sixpiece drew horsepower from a monstrous timbale drum set and pounding congas that churn out Sixties chicha music from Peru, a tapestry of acid-tripped fretwork, Colombian dance floor stomp, and Latin beats. Low bass rumbles, twanged riffs, and heavy percussion on "Quieren Efectos" culminated in an extended jam that coalesced into a Pink Floyd-like space sweep of organ swirls.

"Chicha Negra" hip-swayed metallic timbales cut with rambling surf guitar. A circus organ pulsed in "Animalitos" as discordant and shrill plucks gave way to distorted humbucker strums, its reverb-cloaked guitar suspended in air above the percussive powerhouse's corporeal flail barreling through Latin rhythms. Cumbias bloom loud and proud in the juggernaut that is Money Chicha.