CLUB REVIEW : A Place for Mexican Folk Songs on Sunset’s Rock Strip

The late-night rocker hangout El Compadre is in the heart of Sunset Boulevard’s “Guitar Gulch,” but the power ballads you’re likely to hear in this Mexican restaurant and nightclub are south of the border folk songs.

The room, which has been in business for 15 years, offers live Mexican music seven nights a week to a cross-cultural group of listeners who appear just as eager to sample the club’s flaming margaritas as they are to spot Sunset Strip rock stars who pop by in the wee hours.

With its plush red vinyl booths and Mexican decor, El Compadre is the ideal setting for the music blend that guests are treated to from 8 p.m. till 2 a.m. The duo that performs there regularly, however, might want to scrap the medley of ‘50s American standards that opens the set. Not only do pianist Rene and guitarist Luis (they prefer to go by their first names) use a drum machine that repeatedly shuts down at inopportune moments, but the guests don’t go to El Compadre to hear generic jazz they could find at numerous other places around town.

When the duo loses the drum machine and begins performing such lovely Mexican ballads as “Jalisco” and “La Pistola y El Corazon,” they really begin to shape up. It’s during these numbers that the waiters begin to spend nearly as much time bringing them music requests as they do serving food.

* El Compadre, 7408 Sunset Blvd., (213) 874-7924.