POP MUSIC REVIEW : Electricity at Rock en Espanol

Several years before Woodstock, when rock culture was just starting to flex its economic muscles, the L.A. Sports Arena would sometimes host what were called dance concerts. Sometimes musically unrelated groups, ranging from local one-hits to national phenoms, would be assembled to feed the growing youth market.

That same feeling characterized the scene at the Sports Arena on Sunday as Los Angeles’ Latino rock culture flexed its muscles at the Festival de Rock en Espanol, which sold 10,700 tickets, according to organizers. The bill for the nearly 10-hour show had a musically haphazard quality. Acts ranged from Los Angeles’ ambitious Feel-Ix to the cheesy sex-tease of Mexico’s Alejandra Guzman to ska from Argentina’s Los Fabulosos Cadillacs to the boogie-rock of Mexican superstars El Tri.

The scene of the open floor with people dancing and wandering around, as well as such glitches as several scheduled acts canceling at the last minute (one band had visa problems), also were reminiscent of rock’s earlier, more naive days. So was the heady electricity in the crowd.

Though many in the young, overwhelmingly Latino crowd wore T-shirts commemorating their rock concert experiences, from the Stones to the Cure, this was a rare chance to experience rock that is of their culture. Asked if he was enjoying the show, one Mexican-born man in line at the food concession stood proudly and simply said of the music, “This is my country.”

“This is the first time many here are experiencing this,” said Edna Mayorga, a free-lance photographer working at the show. “They want (their own) rock ‘n’ roll, but most of what they get is in English.”

For El Tri, crowds of this size are the norm, but not in the United States. Touted as Mexico’s Rolling Stones and the pioneers of Spanish rock, the band, which formed in 1968 and has released 22 albums, has played in Los Angeles five times before, but only at a theater holding 1,200. Here the group was greeted as conquering heroes, the crowd chanting its name before it went on stage.

But for all that cultural loyalty and pride, little about the day’s music seemed particularly Latino, save for the language. El Tri’s blues-based boogie could have come from a band billed behind Grand Funk and Foghat at a 1972 rock fest.

Los Fabulosos Cadillacs’ ska ‘n’ soul (including a version of the Stones’ “Miss You”) could have come from the Untouchables or Specials 10 years ago. Guzman’s mild raunch seemed a parody of early Pat Benatar. Only Feel-Ix, with a big sound reminiscent of Simple Minds, seemed interested in setting its own tone.

But the enthusiasm of the audience showed a market ready to embrace its own artists. Perhaps soon the market will begin to flex its musical as well as economic strength.