Ahh, Copal Fest. A Fest of Copal. A gathering of various types of music and musicians all performing for a crowd that should be just as diverse to bridge the gap between genres, generations and cultures. What time did it start? Its hard to say. People assumed 3 PM, others just took a guess and showed up after 5 PM. The flyers said nothing about the time. Who's playing? B Real of Cyprus Hill, Tony Touch, Thieves of Always, Aisling, Fall of an Empire and MANY MORE! If you pay $20, that covers you for BOTH days! What a deal! But, if you only want to go one day, well, it's still $20. Unless you are a guest of one of the performers, then, no wait, you still have to pay the $20. So you get the flyer for Copal Fest and you go to the web site for it. It claims to have all sorts of fun activities. Rock climbing even!
So, I arrived at Copal Fest at Hiney's in El Paso about 3 PM. They were still setting things up. I went inside, and waited and had a drink of water and talked to Tito Diaz of Eye II Eye Productions and Jesus Reyes of Golden Rule Records. Finally, I see things happening, and Charles Hurley has shown up and is armed with his video camera.
I went in search of the rock climbing, it was nowhere to be found. So I busied myself by standing on a big pebble. The challenge was lacking. Around 5:15 PM I started looking for the other activities listed on the site. Art exhibitions. Well, there were a few guys doing piecings on plywood. People glanced at them so yes, that qualifies as an art exhibition. Mural paintings, the site said. Well, piecings are murals. Of sorts. For those who don't know, piecing is when a "modern day" artist takes spray paint, uses various types of tips (the things you press down on to make it spray the paint) to create intricate pieces of art on a surface.
I was really excited about the paint-ball quick-draw shoot-outs. But I never found them. Never saw anyone covered in the gooey drippings of impacted paint balls. They never had a paint-ball quick-draw.
Body art, now that had to be good! Then, I realized, what ever show you go to has body art. People have tattoos and piercings. There's your body art. Jumping balloons. They didn't have any. Concerts. I would hope they had these, after all, they are saying performances by B Real and Tony Touch. But yes! Concerts they did have! Well, not concerts. Performances. That's the right word for it.
The flyer also said "and more" as far as activities went. You could buy little trinkets from vendors placed around the lot. You could stand in the sun and work on your tan. There was also food and drinks available for a price. Should none of these interest you in the beginning of Copal Fest, you could step inside Hiney's, enjoy the air-conditioning, and catch a fishing show on ESPN or the golf tourney on another channel.
Finally, the performances began. First up was Castle Recordz. Before anything else, I have to give it to these guys, coming out, performing around 5 PM in the heat on the stage. While limited for space on the stage because Castle Recordz proudly boasts 8 or more guys, they still went on and gave their hearts.
Now, don't confuse El Paso's Castle Recordz with Pennsylvania's Castle Records. There's a big difference. Ours spells their name with a "z" and Pennsylvania's covers country, mostly. I believe the only complaint as far as Castle Recordz went was their sound. Their beats were reminiscent of mainstream songs and whispered subtle hints of artists like Snoop Dogg, Nelly, and Jay Z. They took a lot of catchy lines from songs and incorporated them into theirs, such as saying "drop it like its hot" and "mo' murder mo' murder mo' murder" into the mics. That was basically the only complaint I had about them. They were great guys when I spoke to them off stage, and had a great sense of humor.
After Castle Recordz was a rock band, and since disorganization seemed to be the theme at the show, no one had any idea who they were. So I can't comment on them. Aisling, however, took stage after the unknown band. They had beautiful vocals, and the small crowd who showed up early stood by, braving the blinding sun to enjoy their sounds and give them a give them a huge resounding round of applause. After Aisling wowed us with their heart throbbing sound, they cleared the stage and Russel, one of the guys running sound, went to help clear the stage and check the speakers and whatever else a sound guy does. James Hetfield's voice wafted through the speakers and I turned to go and once more seek out the listed activities.
After about 15 minutes, and coming up empty handed, I heard the familiar voice of Hash from S.W.A.T. I turn to look and see S.W.A.T. taking the stage and I, once more, make my way back to go watch. They put on an amazing performance and drew the now-growing crowd in to listen to their tantalizing lyrics and brutal beats. Gatrin's deep voice combined with Tresio's commanded everyone's attention while Hash jumped off stage and kicked everything up a notch. After a few songs, Gatrin swayed Hash to freestyle, and freestyle he did. Hash's freestyle was so fast it could possibly rival Bizzy Bone and Twista, the twist to it, he did it in Spanish.
After the performance, the crowd was shouting "ENCORE!!" and an encore they gave inside of Hiney's about an hour later. Though I had to catch Metatron's performance from the patio of Hiney's, since I was interviewing S.W.A.T., everything I heard from them was great. They have a sultry mix of rock, rap and jazz. They brought the crowd forward and, at the end, cheers, applause ensued and Hash turned to me and said "these guys are killer!"
Next up came The DirtHeadz. A hard hitting hiphop trio from Albuquerque, NM drew in more people that were just mingling around waiting for B Real and Tony Touch to show up. Glancing around, I saw even the vendors bobbing their heads to the intense beats, and people on the patio crowding the gate around it to watch them. Lyrics so extreme you feel them deep down inside your soul, the beats can put anyone into a zone. Well done, DirtHeadz, have a drink.
El Paso's very own The Giantz performed, featuring Amoni Scarsayzie, Alpha Sigma, Semantics, Nameless and Smoke Screen. A mind-boggling performance was given and they all kept the crowd on their feet (so to say) and outside listening and enjoying the show instead of retreating to the cool confines of the insides of Hiney's. D.A. and Bless 1ne represented The Giantz (minus Arkatak) and kept the crowds spirit alive. Bless spinning dangerously on the 1's and 2's with D.A. tearing up the mic. Nameless, Amoni, Alpha Sigma, Semantics and Smoke Screen tried to fill the void left by the ever-working Arkatak. Nameless wowed the crowd of at least 100 people with his freestyle causing people to laugh or to say "oooo!"
Amoni performed one of his songs when the group was told to get off stage. They were cut short! "Why?" they demanded. But no answer was given. The crowd showed the immense disappointment when our local hiphop heroes left the stage.
After The Giantz, a dance group performed in matching outfits of army camouflage pants and black shirts. The Giantz gave way for them to dance for about 45 minutes and after that, nothing but silence ensued from the stage area. No music, no performances. People were worried.
Was B Real even going to show up? What if he wasn't? Others got antsy and left figuring that, since an hour of silence from the stage, the show was indeed over. B Real and Tony Touch finally showed up and I got the privilege of hanging out "backstage" with B Real.
Back stage was nothing more than a corner of the stage area blocked off the by the "murals" that were painted earlier. I was ushered back stage to speak with B Real and interview him.
He was getting a little annoyed, so it seemed, with all the Hiney's waitresses asking for autographs on their butts, their chests, and pictures galore. I was tempted to ask who was serving the customers that were waiting for a beer, or burger. B Real gave an outstanding interview and though a look of disappointment clouded his face when he stepped on stage, he still put on a city-rocking performance.
The crowd had lessened, most upset by having to pay an EXTRA $5 to get close to the stage. All in all, the performances were wonderful. B Real and Tony Touch kept their promise and showed and played and gave it their all.
The organization of the whole event could have been better, and charging an extra $5 to get closer to the stage was really, kind of shady. It should have been mentioned earlier when paying to get in. Kudos to all who showed and performed, and to everyone who paid the $20 (plus and extra 5 to go to the "VIP" area) to hang out at Hiney's for a day and supported the local music scene and got to enjoy the shows, thank you.
~Malice
