The Bronx-born bachata singer Romeo Santos had a tough job on Tuesday night: His syrupy voice, which often slides into a fragile, air-light falsetto, had to beat out the roar of screaming fans at Capital One Arena.
Rabid crowds have always flocked to Santos; it’s a combination of that drippy vocal delivery, unabashed romanticism and a dimple you can spot from miles away. But for once in more than a decade, this night wasn’t strictly about him. Most people, probably driven by the irresistible pull of nostalgia, had come for a unique opportunity to see Santos take the stage with Aventura, the boy band he and three other guys formed in New York in the mid-’90s. Though Santos left Aventura in 2011, the members reunited on a 2019 track of his called “Inmortal.” Later, they announced they were launching a full tour under the same name — their first in almost 11 years.
It’s been a while since fans have seen the foursome together, so the night started with neon-lit projectors offering a quick introduction to Santos, vocalist Henry, guitarist Lenny, and bassist Max, who all go by the last name Santos. Bachata is a traditional style of guitar-driven folk music from the Dominican Republic, but Aventura’s R&B flourishes and whispered ad-libs in English modernized the sound and sent it careening into urban-pop territory in the early 2000s. Their habit has always been to lean into the gloss, the swag and the spontaneity that made them famous, so they kept punching up production at Tuesday’s show with glowing lasers and flashing visuals.
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But particularly because bachata is designed for couples’ dancing rather than stadium singalongs, the challenge was to hype up the audience, who, luckily, wanted to boost their energy for the rare reunion. Santos and Henry led the charge onstage, launching repeated roll calls of Latin American countries to get people screaming. There was a bewildering and slightly painful interlude in which male fans joined the band to rap to “Ella y Yo,” a 2005 hit featuring Don Omar. Even though no one seemed to know the lyrics, the shtick delighted the crowd, who borrowed the call of “Fuera!” from the variety show “Sabado Gigante” to boot aspiring rappers offstage.
What excited them most, though, were songs that felt like portals back in time. When it was time for Aventura’s 2002 breakthrough hit, “Obsesión,” early Internet-era heart graphics blared on the screens, multicolored balloons sailed in the air, and confetti rained from the top of the stage, giving the night the look of a homecoming dance. Fans cheered and relished in the wistful celebration, and then begged Aventura to unite one more time as the stage faded to blackness.
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