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Arts & Entertainment

Show Preview: Grupo Fantasma's @ the Echoplex on 2/14

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Grupo Fantasma plays Valentine's Day, 2/14 @ the Echoplex
Make sure you get there by 9:00pm because the best band is on first

Listen to 'Mentiras':

Grupo Fantasma is coming to LA so get hydrated and they're playing a Valentine's Dance at the Echoplex.They're starting the night off so be sure to get there early (9:00pm) in order to catch their full set. Grupo Fantasma is an incredible latin funk orchestra (check out the LAist review of their sister band Brownout) with an amazing horn section and some of the best bass lines I've heard since last year's !!! release.

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Grupo Fantasma's 2006 release "Comes Alive" was sent in advance of their tour because, ostensibly, it's a live album. Generally I'm not a fan of live albums because usually the sound is either muddy or it's so overproduced that the live element is completely lost. My experience of listening to "Comes Alive" didn't fit either category - everything sounded clear but spontaneous and the energy of that evening in 2006 was so well-captured that I've committed myself to seeing their next show.

Grupo Fantasma plays an incredible mix of latin funk and rock and roll (check out the guitar solo in the track "Mentiras" above) and evidently this melange has piqued the interest of Prince who has had them play at his club in Vegas and other various parties and bashes of his in LA, Miami, and elsewhere. I can't imagine that Grupo Fantasma not being able to deliver on their live album or on what I've been reading elsewhere online and if you have the energy, there's 3 more acts after them at the Echoplex.

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