As icy urban winds swirled outside the Aragon Ballroom Saturday night, a steamy sea of white cowboy hats twirled inside to a sound that is at once purely Mexican but entirely of Chicago.
It was the music of Grupo Montez de Durango, one of our city’s hottest cultural exports: Last week, the band held the No. 2 spot on Billboard’s Latin album chart.
Only three years ago the group’s lead singer, Alfredo Ramirez Corral, was working as a greenskeeper at a golf course in Aurora, but Saturday night he and the 10-man band returned to their home base as part of a national tour behind their smash album “De Durango a Chicago” (“From Durango to Chicago.”)
Formed seven years ago by bandleader Jose Luis Terrazas, the group’s success is rooted in a distinctive sound that blends Mexican genres (including banda, Nortena and Ranchera) but fiddles with tempos and eschews tubas and accordions for keyboards. And although many on this side of the border call the style Duranguense, in Mexico it is also known as the “Chicago sound.”
Got that?
What’s more, this Chicago/Durango flava has spawned a speedy, staccato, body-clamping dance (called el pasito Duranguense or the little step from Durango) that just about everyone at the near-capacity Aragon seemed to know.
And if they didn’t, they had plenty of time to practice during sets by four opening bands, including Patrulla 81, whose Duranguense tunes had the dance floor packed well before the Montez appeared.
Despite the four opening bands, the crowd seemed to have plenty of energy left by the time Grupo Montez finally hit the stage at 12:15 a.m.
In black pants, short-sleeve shirts and their signature white cowboy hats, the band filed out and launched into its frenetic smash hit “Lagrimas de Cristal” (“Crystal Tears”), with half the crowd grabbing a partner for some pasito action and the other half cheering and singing along.
Bandleader Jose Luis Terrazas tossed posters, autographed postcards and T-shirts into the crowd between zingy exclamations (“!Arriba Durango! !Arriba Mexico! !Arriba Chicago!”) into the microphone.
A percussionists athletically walloped a huge bass drum and hand cymbal between dance moves.
Ramirez crooned tirelessly while pounding out rhythm chords on the keyboards.
And still other gruperos took on what seemed to be the full-time task of marching around the stage, signing souvenirs and flinging a stream of merchandise into the crowd.
Add the already circus-y calliope strains that infuse the music, and this November concert felt like a sweaty summer carnival.
Midset, though, the momentum slowed as members of a local radio station and community groups from Durango and Zacatecas cut in to present the band with awards of recognition for its success and recent aid to flood victims in Durango.
The energy picked up again as the band returned to reel off a string of hits, including “Otros Tiempos” “Sube Y Baja” and its current waltzy fave, “Hoy Empieza Mi Tristeza” (“Today My Sadness Begins”).
Not afraid to cater to the crowd, Montez closed the show by simply repeating its two biggest hits (“Lagrimas” and “Hoy”) to rousing cheers.
Outside the club, vendors sold steaming tamales and hot cups of chocolately champurrado to departing Montez fans, folks who clearly have an appetite for the kind of Mexican flavors that can be enjoyed via Chicago.
