Plaza Toros

The music of Plaza Toros conjures up a seductive yet ominous feeling true to the band's name, with a deceptively simple trio arrangement belying layers of complexity, nuanced emotion and experience. In the age of digital invasions into rock music and the onstage, carnival-like chaos of multi-layered collectives, Plaza Toros is notable for its understatement both visually and musically. Their effortlessly rendered new-wave inspired rock is sometimes upbeat and surprisingly hummable as in the cryptically-named "Track Pizza" which stoically accepts the deflated sense of --perhaps on a global scale-- "way too much undone", and other times trancelike as in their fans' longtime favorite "Pulse" where lead singer Alex Perez finds himself, like the listener, "hypnotized" by a gentleness that masks a rather dangerous kind of depravity. Hailing from the streets of Brazil, Brooklyn, and the Bronx the boys of Plaza Toros are the kind you'd be slightly afraid (but not surprised) to run into in a back alley, but delighted to watch on stage. Perez's alluring vocals and entangled guitar lines are elevated by Sal Sferrazza's active and thoughtful bass and Emmanuel Rivadeneira's driving and dynamic beats. Together the trio delivers an unrelentingly evocative set, marked by an uneasy and exciting sense of anticipation and emotional restraint. With lines like "Once again we ask you kindly, go away", and "Standing all the way from across this room, I see how you look at me", and in their unusual mix of dark and compelling melodies, the band seems to simultaneously issue a warning and an invitation, and not to really care if we accept either one.