Sour Soul, the up-and-coming indie-rock sensation from Mexico City, returned to North America for their “Laughs and Silly Dancing Tour,” paying a visit to the Rogue Bar early this month.
The band broke into the musical current with their debut album, “Liquid Sky Divers,” and by 2010 they had played 108 U.S. shows.
Although Sour Soul had its initial following in Mexico, the band said fans are growing every time they come to play north of the border and that a balance is growing between the national and international fan base. They were even named the music pick of the week at the Starbucks in Mexico while being on tour last week.
Several days after the release of their encore album, “L’appel du Vide,” they jumped right into their current tour that spans coast to coast in 70 of America’s great cities.
They chose this album title because of its meaning. It literally means “the call of the void” but is more often referred to as “the instinctive urge to jump from high places.”
Sour Soul has earned a reputation of embedding many different styles and playing a wide span of genres from rock to blues to soul, and even hints of psychedelic.
“I think it was supposed to be this way. We are not just one genre; we caught ourselves involved in a variety of sounds and we accept that,” said the drummer/percussionist Nicolas “Nico” Detta.
The four multi-instrumentalists fully delivered a tuneful promise that evening; everything they claimed to stand for was proven on stage.
Though, the band did admit their secret to the high energy when performing is “sleeping, a lot.”
A healthy state of mind served them well as they brought a great collaboration of sounds of which all of them contributed. They were as unpredictable as a fully-wound jack-in-the-box, but each surprise was intricate, alluring.
The simple yet constant instrumentation brought a balanced collective quality to the many different genres. Lead guitarist/bassist Javier “Javi” Alejandre, picked his catchy guitar parts over the solid bass and drums of David.
Their use of language in the songs also added a beautiful worldly quality to their work.
The versatility of the guys really shined as they switched instruments and traded parts back and forth, revealing an obvious chemistry between heartfelt musicians.
They typically speak in Spanish with one another. But it doesn’t seem to have an effect on their writing, and definitely not on the vocal styling of lead singer, Marco Paul.
He brought powerful strength in and out of falsetto tones while still maintaining the control of the unique melodies. (It didn’t hurt that he looks like the Latino version of Tyson Ritter from All American Rejects either.)
It’s too bad the Rogue Bar failed on turning out a crowd. The band would’ve been much better off at another location that appealed to a younger audience. Sour Soul deserves to be actually heard.
“We want to be the best musicians we can be,” they agreed was their biggest goal. The guys want to continue criticizing and pushing themselves to grow better at playing all styles and varieties of music.
Reach the reporter at ahavir@asu.edu
