Dude Cervantes and his Panchos are tear- the-joint-down bar band brawlers. The Southern California band's latest, The Ride or Die of Dude Cervantes and the Panchos, on Cervantes’ own Blind Owl label was recorded live at the Hotel Café in Hollywood two years ago. The performance showcases Cervantes on vocals and guitar, with Ryan Grenda on bass and vocals, Dylan Donovan of Sacri Monti on guitar, and drummer/percussionist Justin De LaVega of punk/metal trio Warish banging out a window-rattling set. Cervantes is the songwriter for five of the six songs, and Carlos Santana's “Samba Para Ti” the only cover.
The opener, “Lesson Learned,” sounds like a punky version of Doug Sahm blended with some hard core-rockin' Black Crowes bombast stirred in. But its not all wham-bam, out go the lights rock. Cervantes shows off a dreamier, more sensitive side covering Santana's “Samba Para Ti,” from their 1970 release Abraxas. Cervantes told The Grateful Web that his take on the Santana classic came from a chance encounter with a copy of the record left in a hotel room he was staying in, jogging his memory of the tune. But Cervantes felt that Santana bailed out of the groove too soon on the record, so he and the band did an expanded eight minute live jam of the tune for this outing.
