On Saturday night, Los Mirlos wasted no time transporting the downtown Los Angeles crowd to the jungles of Peru. Dressed in green track pants and matching print shirts, the long-running band brought cumbia Amazonica to the Music Center’s Jerry Moss Plaza for a free show that kept the large, multi-ethnic and cross-generational crowd dancing for more than an hour-and-a-half to rhythms that evoke rolling rivers and rain patter.
Founded in 1973, Los Mirlos is one of the best known cumbia outfits to emerge from Peru onto the world stage. They’re the subject of the 2022 documentary, La Danza de los Mirlos. Last year, they became the first Peruvian band to play Coachella. Earlier this year, they released The World Meets Los Mirlos, a collection of collaborations with artists that include Colombian pop star Juanes, London-based psych cumbia band Los Bitchos, Puerto Rican rapper Guaynaa and American rock outfit 311. Saturday night’s concert came in the midst of a U.S. tour that runs through early September.
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