Ozomatli returns to the Belly Up

The Los Angeles band that grew out of a union drive plays Solana Beach on Friday, Nov. 6, with SeaPoodle opening.

Most bands start in a garage. Ozomatli started in a labor dispute. On Friday, Nov. 6, the band that came together in 1995 among people trying to organize a workers' union in Los Angeles plays the Belly Up in Solana Beach, with SeaPoodle opening.

Per the Belly Up's event page, the show starts at 9 p.m. General admission is $37 in advance and $40 at the door, and reserved loft seats are $65. TicketWeb lists doors at 8:30. The venue sends tickets to your inbox 72 hours before showtime, so don't panic if nothing has arrived by Wednesday morning.

It's a Los Angeles band playing North County, not a homecoming. But Ozomatli comes to San Diego County more often than anywhere else we track, and the Belly Up is where a lot of that happens. The venue's own billing calls it a return to the room's intimate stage, which is about right: a band that can work a festival field, squeezed into a beach-town club.

The origin story matters because the band has never let go of it. As Wikipedia's history tells it, the union effort grew into a cultural arts center, and the band took shape there. Ozomatli has been known ever since for advocating for farmworkers' rights and immigration reform, alongside a sound that runs from salsa and cumbia through jazz, funk, reggae and hip-hop. Its 1998 self-titled debut came out on Almo Sounds, and the track "Cumbia de los Muertos" helped land the band a slot on Santana's Supernatural tour. The 2004 album *Street Signs* won both a Grammy, for Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album, and a Latin Grammy, for Best Alternative Music Album, and the band's label, Blue Élan Records, bills Ozomatli as a two-time Grammy winner.

Most bands start in a garage. Ozomatli started in a labor dispute

Thirty years on, the band is still putting out records. *Marching On*, in 2022, was its first for Blue Élan, and the band's current bio says it's working on new music, though it hasn't named a title or a date. Don't go expecting an album-release show. Go expecting the catalog, played by a band that has had three decades to work out how to get a room moving.

The Belly Up is the right place for that. A Friday-night 9 p.m. start means a late one.

If you've seen Ozomatli at a festival, this is the closer version. If you've never seen them, Nov. 6 is a short drive to the band that turned a union drive into thirty years of dance music.

Sources: Belly Up: Ozomatli, SeaPoodle (Nov 6, 2026) (bellyup.com); TicketWeb: Ozomatli, SeaPoodle at Belly Up (ticketweb.com); Wikipedia: Ozomatli (en.wikipedia.org); Blue Élan Records: Ozomatli (blueelan.com); Qobuz: Ozomatli biography (qobuz.com); Street Signs (album) - Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)