FRENTE CUMBIERO
FRENTE CUMBIERO
Saturday, May 17
Frente Cumbiero/Mica Farias Gomez/DJ Shaki
At the Drake in Amherst
DOORS+DJ 7PM
co-presented with DSP Shows
TROPICANIBALISMO: ICONIC DANCE MUSIC FROM THE BOGOTA ALTIPLANO
What is the sound of cumbia today?
The right answer, of course, is that there is no single sound. But Colombia’s capital city of Bogota and Frente Cumbiero’s bandleader Mario Galeano, has a lot of answers. Since their 2010 debut of the trippy, synth-dense Pitchito, the world has looked to Frente for the most swinging, forward-thinking cumbia and tropical music.
Galeano is maybe best known for his 2012 collaboration with Will Holland AKA Quantic, when the two were tasked by the British Council to create a band to represent Colombia in the London Olympics. The band was called Ondatropica, and its members included Michi Sarmiento, Abelardo Carbono, and the Afro-Pacifico legend Nidia Gongora. (!!!)
Seasoned with years of touring with Quantic, as well as his other band Los Pirañas (with Eblis Alvarez of the Meridian Brothers), Mario came back to Bogota and reformed Frente as a quartet with a stripped-down powerhouse sound — a raw Colombian stew of synths, horns, and percussion. Trad genres like cumbia, vallenato, porro, caracolito, and gaita are blended with funk, electronica, and jazz. It shouldn’t work. But it does.
It’s tropicanibalismo. It’s creative dance music. It’s the past, present and future of cumbia. Frente Cumbiero returns to the Valley this Spring with a new record for you.
NU-FOLK ARGENTINO
Hailing from Buenos Aires, Mica Farías Gómez is a singer/composer/dancer and Double Edge theater performer — born and raised in Argentina but recently resettled in Ashfield. Her music explores pan-Latin folk pathways with roots foundations, layering hip-hop, electronics, and samples over candombe, murga, chacarera, flamenco and other traditional forms.
With a childhood steeped in music (she is the daughter of celebrated Argentinian folklorist Chango Farías Gómez), Mica’s life has been dedicated to the arts. She has hosted and produced her own radio show on Radio Nacional Argentino (Public National Radio) for the past twelve years. In 2025, she has resettled in the US to work full time with Double Edge Theatre as well as pursuing her own solo career. She performs on stage with her partner and fellow musician, Manuel Uriona.
DJ Shaki is Rick Omonte from New Haven, Connecticut. Perhaps best known for his role as bass player in the psychedelic groups Mountain Movers and Headroom, he also released the compilation album “Puro Tayta Shanti”. An extensive deep dive into old Peruvian folk music, it was compiled, researched, and licensed solely by Shaki. Every month you can catch him on-air at WPKN 89.5fm, broadcasting global grooves from Bridgeport, CT and reaching the far corners of this world.
