CRUZADOS Time For Waiting
Cruzados fit together so well, you’d think they were a product of central casting. There’s the riveting, reflective leader (Tito Larriva), the wisecracking, tough-guy drummer (Chalo Quintana), the steadfast bass player (Tony Marsico), and the enigmatic lead guitarist (Marshall Rohner).
CRUZADOS Time For Waiting
Bud Scoppa
Cruzados fit together so well, you’d think they were a product of central casting. There’s the riveting, reflective leader (Tito Larriva), the wisecracking, tough-guy drummer (Chalo Quintana), the steadfast bass player (Tony Marsico), and the enigmatic lead guitarist (Marshall Rohner). The alignment is so perfect that it’s nearly a cliche. So is the line—borrowed from a review in Billboard—that Arista has stickered on the shrinkwrap of the Cruzados’ second album, After Dark: “They play like their lives depend on it.” Come on, people, get real.
As the Plugz, Larriva, Quintana and Marsico toiled away on cramped L.A. club stages for the better part of a decade before landing a record deal—and all they had to show for it was the prevailing misconception that they were an East L.A. band a la Los Lobos. (“We have nothing to do with them,” Larriva insists.) Ironically, the Plugz’ showstopper was a punkedup, high-speed version of “La Bamba,” more recently Los Lobos’ biggest hit.