La Lección De Hoy: Ozomatli at SLLIS school, May 14, 2010

Ozomatli, in a rare still moment.

Tonight at the Duck Room, the Los Angeles-based multicultural, international, trans-everything act Ozomatli will do their thing for a grown-up audience. But they were also up bright and early this morning in their guise as music educators to play at several area schools. And the first stop on this mini-tour couldn't be more appropriate: St. Louis Language Immersion Schools, a charter school where kids from a variety of backgrounds learn in Spanish or French all day long. As you can see in the following photos and videos, the kids were ready to rock...

Since my daughter attends the Spanish school at SLLIS, I was privileged to gain entree to this exclusive gig. It started like any other school assembly: the kids, natty in their blazers and ties, filed into the auditorium and took their seats. But no sooner had the teachers settled them down than Ozomatli riled them right back up again with a propulsive, merengue-flavored opening number.

Jason Toon

Check out those sharp-looking kids. Attack of the Incredible Shrinking Mods!

The pandemonium on the dance floor was typical for an Ozomatli show, except that the dancers were all half the height of the band. Excuse the crappy pics: I'm no photographer, my camera's lousy, the lighting in the auditorium wasn't like your typical show venue, and those kids were crazy. If it looks like a blur in the pictures, it was kind of a blur in real life, too.

Jason Toon

Waving his hands like he just DOES care.

Spontaneous conga-line outbreaks were reported throughout the auditorium.