Concert Review: Los Caparos

With the help of great, energetic guest performances by Balkan Beat Box and Axum, Caparos delivered a great show for reggae lovers.

By ASI GAL
Music good 88 (photo credit: )
Music good 88
(photo credit: )
Los Caparos Comfort 13 Tel Aviv January 17 "Music is the universal language of mankind." Although that phrase was coined by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in the 19th century, it has become so obvious to every music lover that it's hard to imagine someone actually had to come up with it. However, in the Israeli music world, where the lyrics usually occupy most of the space in a song, it is easy to forget the exhilarating power of the music itself. As such, it's particularly good that bands like Los Caparos come around every once in a while to remind us of the music. At the band's show in Tel Aviv to celebrate the launch of its first single, "CCCP," Caparos rocked the audience - despite many of the group's songs being sung in Russian. Although there were many Russians in the crowd, there were also many native Israelis who I'm sure, except for the occasional "spasiva," couldn't speak Russian at all. But the lyrics didn't matter. Caparos play a mix of reggae, ska, dub and jungle. With the help of great, energetic guest performances by Balkan Beat Box and Axum, Caparos delivered a great show for reggae lovers. I am more of a music-that-makes-you-jump-in-ecstasy lover, so reggae is a bit mellow for me, but songs like "CCCP" gave me my fix of what I needed. Los Caparos was even able to overcome the horrible sound system of the Comfort - the microphones stopped working twice during the set and the all-around sound was, as my music producer friend defined it, "worse than if they played in my toilet" - through great rapport with the almost-full club. It's always encouraging to see a band that hardly has any songs on the mainstream playlists fill up a place. Just one request: Next time, make us wait only an hour and a half till the show starts. Two hours were way too much. Spasiva.