Friday 16/04/04, Calexico @ The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

After negotiating your way past a surly box office assistant, who looks shocked to see a paying customer younger than 65, taking a seat in the note perfect surrounds of the Bridgewater, you quickly realise that this is not your typical gig!  Playing the Roadhouse down the road off Piccadilly little more than 2 years ago, it’s both of testament and detriment to the burgeoning alt country scene that this Tucson collective have come so far so quickly.

A rich Creole of influences, Calexico are your original border town troubadours (CAL-ifornia, mEXICO) and for the most part this cultural cross-pollination works well.  ‘Ojitos Traidores', with its mariachi style horns from Jacob Valenzuela and Martin Wenk, is bursting with a raw Latin passion as you start to wish for confines a little more suited to the "good times" atmosphere that Joey and his band generate.  The acoustics are undoubtedly great, but you start to hanker for a slightly grittier, rough n’ ready sound where John Convertino’s beats could whisk you away to Tijuana on a hot summers night.

Although some of the lo-fi country prowls around the dustbowl don’t always work in their attempts to conjure up the spirit of Paris Texas Ry Cooder, there’s always a ‘Black Heart’, where Calexico manage to cram the Coral, Errino Morricone and Nick Cave into four wondrous minutes.  Departing on a rousing note with ‘Crystal Frontier’ to prove that they do classic singles nicely as well, this was a reserved concert hall performance when all you really wanted to do was stumble out in a hot and sweaty fuzz pissed on Sol and Tequila.