Concert Review: Jenny And The Mexicats Bring FUEGO to Rockwood

I am very proud of my Latina heritage. I wear with honor my flag, my fluency in Spanglish, my obsession with telenovelas, and demand that every plate be served with rice, beans, and a side of hot sauce. In a time, when more Latinx representation is both desired and needed; Jenny And The Mexicats’ Rockwood performance felt like a “bendicion”.

Jenny And The Mexicats are pure adrenaline, and seeing them at Rockwood was like opening your costume jewelry box to find gold and diamonds. You do not expect or see, too often, premier, Latin/ Mexican artists like Jenny and The Mexicats around here. Thus, hearing their music made me want to run a marathon through every beach within the 7 continents. Their sunned rhythms stirred people to bounce, clap, and feel their energy surge into invincibility. Yet, it was a different type of concert “euphoria”; one that included my imagination.

It could be the horns that blasted as if to declare “It is time to arrive to your life!” or the rolling drums and chords that drape over you like an avalanche of “animo”, but Jenny And The Mexicats are a show to see when you want to feel a vision. Certain musics ignite our visuality; they ask us to picture ourselves as the dominant force in our life rather than the usual “participant” title we take on. “Verde Más Allá”, “Tiene Espinas El Rosal”, “Aprendimos”, and “Labios” played to the sing-along bliss of the crowd, and emanated a feeling that you can take charge of your life even if you can never take control.

To take charge means to accept that the only thing you can control in any situation is how YOU go through it, and lead singer Jenny Ball is the perfect professor of this lesson. She graces the stage with an ease from which we all should approach life. It could be why if she said jump, we did not ask how high as much as we gave her the highest leap. She may not demand excellence, but she certainly deserves it. She has a voice that sings as soft as a rose, but feels as deeply red as its petals. She emotes her notes as lightly as a spark that, somehow, caused a forest fire. Her capacity to show “owning” a room is effortless caused her fans to shed their own efforts to do so, and, instead, embrace that owning your joy is to own your space. For More Information on Jenny And The Mexicats Click Here.
Tiene Espinas El Rosal (Live) ft. Jenny and the Mexicats