Drinking With Clowns performs on flatbed Saturday

Drinking With Clowns brings its Latin funk dance party to Carson City Saturday as part of the Brewery Art Center’s Flatbed Concert series. The band hopes to spice things up with their first performance since the pandemic.

“We want to make people dance; we want to make people laugh, and we want to make people smile,” said guitarist and founder Baldo Bobadilla. “That’s always our goal.”

Bobadilla said it is important to give the people of Carson City entertainment in these times.

“We want to create a bubble where everybody can think about fun and live in the moment,” he said. “They can forget about their worries and dance.”

The Reno band blends thumping sounds of Afro-American drums in the streets of South America, to the smooth and funky soulful beats of the North American urban landscape. Also mixed into the sound are Latin rhythms such as cumbia, samba, salsa with reggae, rock and other musical genres.

Bobadilla started Drinking With Clowns with his drummer, Kristias Trujillo, around 2007.

“We’ve been around for a long time,” he said.

They have been a staple in the music scene around the area and Carson City for a while, often playing several events a year. They have been booked for Levitt AMP Concert series shows, TEDx Carson City and many bar gigs.

The band brings Latin flavor from all over, with members from different corners of Latin America. Bobadilla comes from Paraguay and plays guitar. Drummer Kristias Trujillo comes from Mexico. Alejandro Jimenez is from Columbia and plays percussion. Joel Stevens plays saxophone and Fernando Flores will be on bass guitar.

The band is looking forward to playing in front of a live audience.
“It feels good to get out. Everybody is excited to play,” said Bobadilla. “We haven’t been playing for a while. It’s good to have a chance to do so.”

With no live shows, Drinking With Clowns is staying busy during the pandemic by writing music. Bobadilla said he’s been busy. He said there are two tracks they’ve been working on that they would like to release soon.

“We need to get them on record,” he said.

Bobadilla said the band’s long-term goal once they can get to playing regularly is to record new music for an album.

“We basically have another album ready,” he said. “We just have to have it recorded.”

And when the pandemic is over they are hoping to tour internationally. With bandmembers from different countries, they each have roots to return to. Bobadilla hopes to tour these places and play music.

“We all come from different countries and we like to get to know each other’s country.”