Viva La Metal!

Scenes From Last Night's Genre-Melding Metalachi Show at Trees.

It's difficult to describe exactly what went down during last night's Metalachi set at Trees. It's far easier, really, to simply rattle off a list of the items used during the display.

For starters, there were sombreros, guitarons and cod pieces. And, of course, there was a band — a mariachi band, to be exact.

But Metalachi is not your typical mariachi band. Metalachi, as its name implies, is a mariachi band that covers metal songs — the first of its kind, or so the band's press materials insinuate.

They do more than just that, of course. Over the course of their headlining set, the band sprinkled in its takes on such traditional mariachi standards as “Volver Volver,” “Mariachi Loco” and “La Bamba” among its expected covers of Guns N' Roses' “Sweet Child O' Mine” and Bon Jovi's “Livin' on a Prayer.” At one point, the dudes even paid tribute to Vicente “Chente” Fernandez, arguably Mexico's most famous and easily recognizable singers.

It was an infectious offering, for sure. During Metalachi's cover of Rage Against the Machine's “Killing In The Name,” even the most skeptical members of the audience were throwing their fists in the air.

The whole set was like that, really. It was as if the entire room's minds had been blown. The crowd loved every second of it.

And Metalachi, in turn, loved the crowd back. Twice during the set, female crowd members were brought on stage. One was serenaded and given a half-assed lap dance. Another received a very, uh, special margarita made by the various band members; the drink was topped with a bit of lime juice freshly squeezed from the monstrous-looking trumpet player's cod piece. “El Cucuy,” as the trumpet player called himself, was an interesting character, coming across like the lovechild of of KISS' Gene Simmons and GWAR's Oderus Urungus — complete with giant platform heals.

But, in the context of this bizarre offering, his appearance wasn't all that weird. It just felt right. Not unlike the whole night, actually.

The evening started off a set from Dallas' own Bastardos de Sancho, a luchador-mask-wearing three-piece band that used discarded paint cans and film canisters for its drum set.

Yes, this night had a little something for everyone.