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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2008 > March > 10 > Entry
Grupo Fantasma rocks the Long Center
It didn’t take long for Austin powerhouse band Grupo Fantasma to get the near-capacity crowd rocking Sunday night at the new Long Center for the Performing Arts.
The cumbia-funk favorite clearly brought part of its devoted fan base with them for the free show, the finale to this weekend’s Long Center open house. But there were converts aplenty after just a couple of songs and the aisles of the 2,400-seat Dell Hall filled with the dancing hordes. People in the balconies and the box seats couldn’t sit still either — the Dell Hall was dancing top to bottom.
Grupo Fantasma sounded leagues better than the Antonie’s All Stars did a couple of weeks ago at a public ‘sound check’ concert. Here’s the thing to remember with the Dell Hall — the place is acoustically perfect. You don’t need to crank the volume to be plenty loud and extremely clear.
Making their second appearance this weekend, Long Center namesakes Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long got a standing ovation from the crowd after center executive director Cliff Redd introduced the Austin philanthropists. “This is your center, Austin,” boomed Joe Long. By the way, the Grupo Fantasma concert was the only show the Longs took in Sunday.
Also netting a rousing round of applause was Long Center architect Stan Haas. After all, what’s not to love about a groovy new building that’s not only ecologically smart, but honors the past while looking ahead to the future?
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