21,000 fans in larger venue invigorate Mana

It’s a rite of passage for artists to move up from playing smaller venues to headlining larger ones as their popularity expands.

But in Latin music, most acts in the U.S. graduate to the box-office big leagues with an English crossover hit -- witness Julio Iglesias, Ricky Martin and Shakira.

Mana, the Mexican pop-rock quartet which has had no English-language U.S. crossover hit, is an exception here, playing a sold-out show Friday at the new Home Depot Center, the open-air soccer stadium in Carson.

What a difference 21,000 seats can make.

Compared to its lackluster 2002 performance at the 6,000-seat Universal Amphitheatre, the band seemed to gain stature, assurance and conviction from the sheer scale of performing.

Friday’s show was enhanced by a much-improved production and by the voltage of a mass audience singing passionately in unison, warming the chilly night with its collective body heat and unabashed enthusiasm.

Critics discount Mana as a lightweight pop act masquerading as a rock en espanol band with grave social and ecological concerns. Its simplistic, earnest idealism at times rings like a beauty pageant contestant promoting world peace.

What redeems Mana, aside from its apparent sincerity, is that it puts its money where its mouth is. The band announced it will donate $1 for every ticket sold on this tour to a variety of causes, including ecology and hunger projects under its own Fundacion Selva Negra.

But social causes alone can’t account for the band’s huge popularity. (It plays again Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 at Universal.) It’s a safe bet that many young fans more readily recognize the Terminator than the historic figures -- Zapata, Gandhi, Mandela, Menchu, El Che -- portrayed on a jumbo screen during its battle hymn, “Justicia, Tierra y Libertad” (Justice, Land and Liberty).

The band strikes a chord, especially with Mexican masses, because it blends its populism with appealing melodies, aching love themes and a touch of folklore. It proved a winning formula in Friday’s seamless, flowing set.

The band, plus two guest musicians, unveiled only one new number, the driving “Te Llevare Al Cielo” (I’ll Take You to Heaven), that displayed a surprising musical maturity. It was a signal that, artistically, Mana now aspires to more than just filling arenas. It also seeks big-league respect.