Dec 19, 2010 - After a decade since last touring the United States, the Cuban group Los Van Van performed in Los Angeles on Tuesday and Wednesday (Dec 14 and 15) at the Conga Room in downtown LA. The venue buzzed both evenings with hundreds of fans present to see this group, considered one of the best representatives of contemporary music out of Cuba.
Mixed in the crowd were dozens of Los Angeles Salsa musicians, plus sports and entertainments VIPs of the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jimmy Smits, Cuban soccer player Maykel Galindo, and artist Michel Mirabal. The latter painted on stage while Los Van Van performed on Wednesday evening. An empty canvas later turned into a Cuban flag outlined in barbed wire. Drips of red, blue, and white paint (the colors of the Cuban flag) ran down from different places, as if the colors were being poked out of the flag by the wire’s sharp edges. It appeared a representation of Cuba behind a fence that made the very colors of its flag bleed.
Los Van Van alternated old hits with new music, opening their set with “Arrasando,” the song that shares the title of their latest CD. Wednesday’s concert began around 10.30 pm and continued non-stop until 12.30 am.
There was greatness in Los Van Van’s music, in their energy and their voices, and just as artful was the way they worked the audience, elevated its spirit, involved it in the music, and made the night more than just a spectacle – an experience.
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