Divididos Rocks With Its Own Brand of Blues

The cancellation by Chilean band Los Prisioneros, because of scheduling problems, hurt ticket sales for Retila magazine’s fourth annual Rock Awards concert Friday at the Grand Olympic Auditorium, but there was still much to enjoy, including the noisy pop of Mexican quartet Riesgo de Contagio, the jazz-accented punk of locals 15 Letras, the gothic darkness of L.A. veterans Maria Fatal and the heavy metal pathos of Mexico’s Cuca.

But the show’s high point was the local debut of Argentina’s explosive power trio Divididos. The group--soulful, Jimi Hendrix-obsessed Ricardo Mollo on vocals and guitar, Diego Arnedo on bass and Jorge Araujo on drums--took the stage by storm, delighting the audience with some old favorites, including rocking back-to-back renditions of two Latin American folklore classics, Argentina’s “El Arriero Va” and Mexico’s “Cielito Lindo.”

While most rock en espan~ol bands spend a lot of their time reaching for hipness and stylistic diversity, Divididos stands as an example of three mature musicians who have clearly sold their souls to the blues and are quite happy about it.