Perth Festival review: Calexico prove border-hopping force at celebration of breakthrough album, Feast of Wire

Hello, is that Border Force? Yes? Good. I’d like to report some border-hopping musicians. Their name? Caltex? No, no … Calexico! On Wednesday night’s Perth Festival appearance, six of ‘em skipped from the United States to Mexico and back again like it was a childhood game of jump-rope. They’ve been doing it for years! In fact, most of the music they played at the Rechabite was from 2003 album Feast of Wire. Music pundits regard it as the breakthrough release for the songwriting nexus of the group, Tucson, Arizona locals, singer and guitarist Joey Burns and bespectacled drummer John Convertino. All I know is that live on stage, Feast of Wire is a far more vibrant specimen than on the original recording. Calexico leapt from Californian rock’n’roll epics like Not Even Stevie Nicks… to Spanish cumbia-style songs such as Guero Canelo — an ebullient fiesta led by trumpet maestro Jacob Valenzuela — and jaunty widescreen instrumentals like Pepita. As if punching holes in Donald Trump’s bedraggled wall wasn’t enough, Calexico beamed the packed Rechabite hall to Manchester for a singalong to Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart Again in the middle of Stevie Nicks and also stepped back in time for a rousing rendition of Arthur Lee’s Californian band Love’s Alone Again Or — given a Tex-Mex makeover, of course. I must confess, I’ve witnessed these recalcitrant musos before. However, I can’t recall hearing Burns in a finer or more robust voice, even if he didn’t know which day it was. “We’re in Melbourne tomorrow and my family is in yesterday,” the singer drawled after completing Feast of Wire with the woozy No Doze. In case he’d be accused of whinging, Burns added: “It’s a gift to be playing music, it feels more and more like that these days”. Speaking of gifts, Burns and Convertino surround themselves with superb players. Valenzuela proved again he’s a trumpet player par excellence, guesting with local accomplices and support act Sunshine Brothers along with long-serving keyboardist Sergio Mendoza, and blasting the big refrain of Quattro (World Drifts In). His horn adds cinematic flair to tracks like Black Heart, a noirish spaghetti western with Clint Eastwood cast as Jaime Bond. The other trumpeter in Calexico, German multi-instrumentalist Martin Wenk starred on Close Behind, an instrumental Burns rightly described as being perfect for a big screen adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy novel. Wenk also played accordion and whistled on this number, which only needed a horse to neigh and whinny to complete the imagery. Across the Wire, an album highlight and tale of brothers “dodging the shadows of the border patrol” and coyotes as they seek a better life, was a glorious waltz with Valenzuela hooting and hollering in Spanish to spice up the drama. At the end of the three-song encore featuring Valenzuela singing horn-driven cumbia of Inspiracion and the surf rock instrumental Minas de Cobre, with the trumpeters in front of the microphones to show off their unamplified chops, bass player and sparkly shirt aficionado Brian Lopez sang a final cumbia, Flores y Tamales. “Keep up that hope,” Burns declared as the united nations of Calexico stood six wide and accepted rapturous applause. Muy bueno? Super chido! PERTH FESTIVAL Calexico The Rechabite Wednesday, February 21 4.5 stars