Gypsy kings bassist & Variax

[FCM3]

I had the opportunity last evenin to sit thru 2 sets of the gyspy Kings. Beside them letting hot houston gals dance on stage, I was underwhlemed by the bass contribution to their music. I know the gypsy kings are about rhythym and spainish-inspired themes, but the bass did little to contribute to the feel. They had a very prominent keyboard sound for this tour though.
The bass player did get his 30sec to shine during one of the encores, and he showed he is talented and a very musical soloist, but overall for me, the bass didn't do much.
Of interest was the bassist played a variax bass the whole nite, his tone varied betwen and EBO (mushy indistinct booms)to a thuddy P-bass, and during his solo he immediately popped it over to a tricked out fretless, complete w/ nonstop mwah. it was so cool to see silver frets on the bass and hear fairly convincing mwah. He was even able to coax out mwah filled string slides, and mwah filled string bends.
Afterlast nite it was a pretty convincing display for using the variax- at least live.