Austin360 blogs > Almost Urban > Archives > 2006 > November > 28
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Grupo Fantasma’s true Las Vegas stories
While the better part of Central Texas was focused of family-oriented gluttony this Thanksgiving, Austin’s own cumbia-funk heroes Grupo Fantasma traveled to Las Vegas to play a last-minute Thanksgiving evening gig at 3121, the new nightclub opened by eccentric pop superstar Prince in the Rio Hotel on Nov. 10. The band was informed that Prince would be in the house during their performance, but didn’t actually see the Artist until they caught a glimpse of him shaking his sequin-clad stuff on the side of the stage during their set.
After their gig, the band loitered in the green room in the hopes of meeting Prince, but eventually had to head out to catch a 4:30 a.m. flight back to Austin. The following day Grupo Fantasma received a phone call informing them that Prince loved their set. They were invited to return to 3121 as the official Thursday night house band in December. A few days later, they received a second call booking the band for the entire week of the 2007 Super Bowl.
For the past 6 years, the Fantasma boys have been grinding hard, averaging 150-plus gigs a year, steadily building acclaim. “For very little money, we risk our lives almost weekly on the crazy overnight drives we’ll take to make a gig,” says guitarist Adrian Quesada. “We sleep sitting up, on dirty couches, whatever. We’ve sacrificed a lot to keep this going so it really means a lot when you get someone like Prince to acknowledge that the band is doing something right.”
Grupo Fantasma begins their Thursday night residency at 3121 next week. The band will commute to Las Vegas every Thursday in December and return to Austin on Fridays to maintain their regular gig schedule. They are tentatively scheduled to play January 30-February 4, 2007 for the Super Bowl festivities. Grupo Fantasma’s next Austin gig is Friday, Dec. 29 at Antone’s.
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‘More Fish’
I stumbled across this new Ghostface track yesterday on Notes From A Different Kitchen. Overnight it became my new favorite song. Seriously. I listened to it at least 5 times last night. It features Amy Winehouse, a British soul/jazz singer. The link is from Spine Magazine. It will stream in your browser, but respect their bandwidth and right click then select “save target as” to download the track.
Ghostface Killah featuring Amy Winehouse - “You Know I’m No Good”
