Temblor Brewing Co. is going all out with its upcoming Festival El Cerrito II on March 30. Transforming into a temporary 18-and-over cantina for a day, the local brewery will serve up street tacos and $4 pints of the festival’s namesake, the Mexican-style lager El Cerrito, and feature live music and the obligatory mariachi group. But this isn’t your run-of-the-mill mariachi group; it's El Mariachi Manchester, a mariachi tribute to 1980s music icons The Smiths and Morrissey.

You don’t have to dig deep to see they share the same merry melancholy that’s earned Morrissey the nickname, “The Pope of Mope,” even if one is morosely British and the other opulently Mexican. But El Mariachi Manchester’s most important component is that they’re equally effective as a tribute act as they are a mariachi band. When they bust out a classic Smiths’ song like “Girlfriend in a Coma,” or “The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get,” you’re struck by just how well the songs and their sad subject matter work with mariachi. Lead singer “Moisessey” (Moises Baiquero) strikes the perfect balance between full commitment and tongue-in-cheek. They’re the real deal.

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