Cumbia the New Punk

After an excellent day spent in Williamsburg celebrating coming home by drinking way too much (and fuck Andrew Huberman), laughing the precisely correct amount, listening to some live music, meeting Outer Banks star and W&M Class of '87 member Chip Esten, and watching exactly zero football, my wife and I headed to Richmond on Sunday.

The purpose of our trip to the capital of the Commonwealth was to spend time with our kid, who turned 21 on Saturday. The timing of that celebration aligned nicely with the final day of the Richmond Folk Festival, a nice little intersection of interests.

We got there towards the end of the day, owing to the kidlet's dance rehearsal schedule, but we got to hear some imbube from South Africa before heading to the main stage for the finale. Which blew our minds.

Son Rompe Pera is a collective from the suburbs of Mexico City. They play a mesmerizing mix of traditional marimba, cumbia, punk, funk, and rock music. NPR called them "psychobilly marimberos". The nearest analog my feeble brain could conjure was that of a Mexican Red Baraat, a similar melding of traditional and modern wrapped in a high-energy body-moving package. They got alllll the white hippies on their feet in Richmond's gorgeous Riverfront Park.

Here's a taste of the band from an NPR Tiny Desk feature:

And here are a handful of poorly-filmed videos from our vantage point. In particular, the clip of my kid and her roommate Erin rocking out gave me some serious joy.

And you gotta click the link to see my kid get her groove on.