Up Close and Personal: A Night with Latin Mafia

There is something uniquely contemporary about Latin Mafia. The Mexican band pull from a vast array of sonic palettes, far from their bed-room pop origins. This  project is a family affair as the band is composed of the three de la Rosa brothers, with twins Emilio and Milton on vocals with Mike handling the production. Going through their discography feels like going on a digital rabbit hole, not knowing if you’re going to get a romantic cumbia track, sentimental synth pop or moody trap. Blending their smooth vocals with genre-bending structures, their debut LP “Todos los días todo el día” (which translates to “All day, everyday”)  marked a before and after in their career. We got to check them out at their first ever headlining show in Barcelona. 

From the jump, it was clear that this concert would be different from the rest of their European tour. Tickets sold out so fast that the band saw fit to change venues into the Sant Jordi Club, making it the largest venue they’d play while on this side of the pond. As the light dimmed and a Regional song started to play, you could tell that their performance would match the technology-tinged intimacy of their music. The trio stepped out in body rigs that place one camera pointing at their face and another on their back as they ripped through their lead single, “Siento que merezco más”. Much like de la Rosa brothers, the track is kaleidoscopic in nature, morphing from EDM to a Flamenco-laced bridge that culminates in a breakbeat release. What followed was a panoramic view into what brought the band here and what’s happened since their debut. 

Ripping through early tracks like the energetic “Continuo Atardecer” and their breakthrough single “Patadas de Ahogado”, the band played exclusively singles and features during the first half of the set. Long-time fans got the catharsis of watching sister tracks “Julieta” and “Julietota” performed back to back, the first one being a rhythmic dance track and the second an in-your-face reggaeton anthem. Halfway through the show, however, Latin Mafia hits the reset button for a somehow more energetic rendition of “Siento que merezco más” as a way to dive into the meat of their first and only album. 

The guys are giving viscerally emotional performances, their sense of humour, however, comes through in the staging of their show. There’s a knowing recognition of their young, digitally native audience as the music pauses for them to play a video of an Asian businessman giving a tutorial on how to mosh pit. The timing couldn’t be better as they immediately go into the fiery “Sentado aquí”, which starts off with post-punk rage yet peaks in a synth pop bliss. The energy stayed high as the dove directly into the somber yet striking trap of “Nunca he sido honesto” as the crowd screamed it word for word. They also decided to treat their fans with a demo of an upcoming track alongside British DJ Fred Again…, a driving and eventually euphoric dance track. 

The slower, emotional side of Latin Mafia’s sound shined through as the night came to a close. The twins’ falsetto tunes cut the sharpest as they appropriately ended with the final song off the album that brought them this far, the synth-powered ballad “tengo mucho ruido”. The three brothers waved goodbye as a glitchy digital camera followed them as they ran off stage, through the hallways, and out of the venue. 

While you’re in the thick of it, there is a primal emotionality to Latin Mafía’s sound and presentation. White lights flash as handheld camera work flickers on screen. The twins run around wailing as Mike conducts the chaos. Taking a step back, however, it is clear that the young trio of brothers have a penchant for the conceptual. “Todo los días..”’s track list is constructed as a poem with the title of each song functioning as a line. Their concert starts and ends with the bookends of said record. The set list splits their singles and features on the first half and the entire album to cap it off. We can’t wait to see how they continue to capture lightning-in-a-bottle.

The remainder of their European tour is sold out, however, you can listen to “Todos los días todo el día” now on all platforms.