By Chris Varias
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati continues to baby-step into the Latin-music experience, and Ozomatli is probably as good a starting point as any.

The 10-man group made its Cincinnati club debut at Bogart's Sunday night for a small but fired-up audience that danced for the entire 100-minute show. (In 1999 the band opened for Santana at Riverbend.)

Giving their musical vocabulary of salsa, merengue and cumbia a hip-hop and rock accent, the band put on a performance that would have been accessible enough for people who have convinced themselves they don't like Spanish-sung music. The crowd soaked up the energy of the band, whose preference in salsa leaned to burners over ballads.

Ozomatli looks like a living, breathing census report of the city of Los Angeles. A self-described "polyglot Black-Chicano-Cuban-Japanese-Jewish-Filipino crew," the L.A.-based band did Latin music as shouldn't be unexpected from a bunch of American kids: they injected it with English, MCs, a DJ, and teasers of everything from the Sesame Street theme to Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It." Anyone in the audience looking for purity was in the wrong room.

What Ozomatli lacked in chops they made up for in exuberance, especially in the merengue numbers, where they avoided the music's usually shrill tone and hooked onto relentless, driving rhythms.

The band has released two albums. They played several songs -- including "1234" and "Pa Lante" --from their most recent record, 2001's Embrace The Chaos.

The show began as it ended, with the band playing on the floor and the crowd circling around. Playing horns and percussion instruments including a wood block, a whistle and a cowbell, the band made a noise somewhere between New York salsa and New Orleans second line.

Cincinnati's Ric Hickey might have not been the obvious choice to open, but the affable singer-songwriter quickly won over the crowd.

His 30-minute solo set included covers of "Fly Me to the Moon" and Van Halen's "Could This Be Magic?" plus six originals.

The show capped a long day for Mr. Hickey, who earlier played three hours with his band the Loose Wrecks across the street at Sudsy Malone's. The final installment of Mr. Hickey's Sunday matinees at Sudsy's comes Nov. 24.

E-mail cvarias@enquirer.com