Celebrating 20 years with eclectic Café Tacvba

Café Tacvba are celebrating their 20 year anniversary and stopped in at the ‘live music capital of the world' to play La Zona Rosa on Nov. 29. The City of Austin was one of the stops the quintet chose to play before ending their 2009 tour of the Americas.

Café Tacvba began playing in 1989 and they now have extended their fan base worldwide.

The band changed their name from Café Tacuba to avoid legal issues with a coffee shop in Mexico.

The Latin Grammy nominated Mexican rock band has had the same members it had 20 years ago, they are: Ruben Isaac Albarran Ortega (vocals and guitars), Emmanuel del Real Diaz (keyboards, programming, acoustic guitar, piano and vocals), Joselo Alfredo Rangel Arroyo (electric guitar, acoustic guitar and vocals) Enrique Rangel Arroyo (bass guitar, upright bass guitar and vocals) and Alejandro Flores, who plays the violin and maracas. Flores has played in every Café Tacvba concert since 1994.

Tacvba energized the crowd and had them singing the lyrics of many of their songs.

They played "Las Flores (The Flowers), "Esa Noche (That Night)," "Como te extraño (How I Miss You)," "Eres (you are)" and their most known song of all "Ingrata (Ungrateful)." They also rocked the audience with some of their newest songs and had the fans begging for more. They played a diverse set spanning many genres of music, such as ska, Latin house, rock and folklorico.

The show lasted about an hour and half. But, that was not enough for the throngs of fans thirsty for more of Tacvba's rhythms. The fans screamed "more Tacvba" for ten minutes and no one budged from the dance-floor until the band came back on stage for an encore.

The crowd was hysterical. The stage was illuminated with light panels behind the band that displayed patterns of colors and moving figures. 

The energy that Café Tacvba transmitted was amazing. \

Vocalist Ortega used lots of Mexican slang to entertain the audience in-between songs that had the crowd laughing.

Their 30-minute encore was even more electrifying than their slated set. The fans were exhausted, but satisfied.