On Friday at SXSW, we were invited to a meet and greet with the band Bomba Estereo by Sonia at Cornerstone Promotion. As the guy who programs music at Mevio, I get a lot of invites like this. Most are just links to the band’s album, etc with hopes that you will write something good about the band or play them on the show. So we were at the Levi’s Fader Fort anyway and since there was free beer and Southern Comfort provided , we figured we might as well hang out backstage and avoid the crowds.
So we go to the press line and give them our names. There are about 10 or so press people and we are all met by a nice woman named Sonia Aneja. She walked us all backstage where there was free alcohol. We hung around there for around an hour. While backstage we pretty much just drank and people watched. I noticed an attractive latino girl wearing knee high gold lame Converses and commented to my friend Jasper who does Good Clean Fun with me that I liked the girl’s outfit. 2 minutes later she was on stage rocking out with Bomba Estereo. Her name is Li Saumet and she reminded me a little of Annabella Lwin from Bow Wow Wow. The band was probably the only band of the day that actually had the hipster Fader Fort crowd dancing.
After their set, we were led to a room where the band was meeting the press and doing interviews. Also in the room was a huge spread of great Mexican food, beer and gift bags for everyone containing free Levi’s, free meal tickets and lots of other great swag. We planned on interviewing the band but their manager didn’t think we were a big enough outlet to interview the band. I don’t care. The amount of great treatment from Sonia and the people at Cornerstone more than made up for it.
And, while not the type of rock I am usually into, the band were very good despite their manager. If you like good Latino flavored dance music, go buy their record. You will probably be hearing a lot more from this band and you heard it here first, friends.
So let this be a lesson to ALL pr companies out there: Take lessons from the fine folks at Cornerstone Promotion. Treat the press well and they will love your bands.
PHOTOS BY PHILLIP ANGERT – WEBSITE
