Mariposas Galácticas
Dahlak
4708 Baltimore Ave.
Philadelphia
Dec. 11, 2025
It’s impossible to pick my favorite thing about a Mariposas Galácticas performance. From their stage presence to the content of their music, Las Mariposas are consistent in their ability to bring the house down and give their fans the night of community and release they’ve been needing. At Dahlak on Thursday, the band also gave their fans something else they’d been yearning for: an EP.
After being together as a band for over two years, the octet has put together a physical manifestation of their work, entitled “Asi Se Goza con Las Mariposas.” To celebrate, they embarked on a mini-tour, on which the first stop was their beloved West Philadelphia. It may have been below freezing outside, but inside Dahlak, the room was packed, sweaty, and energetic.
I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen Mariposas Galácticas live in concert. I was even present for their music video shoot in North Philly, where their close friends, biggest fans, and family members showed up for a day of singing and dancing. For a while, we even joked that the fans who’d been following them for a while could easily get on stage and perform the set from memory.
But at Dahlak, the band performed several new songs that flowed perfectly with their usual hits, including the debut of “La Soberanía,” written by the band’s lead singer, María Paz Ordoñez. Even with an injured finger, Ordoñez gave the crowd everything she had in order to honor her dream of performing in a band.
Their sound is truly one-of-a-kind: a blend of kumbia, klezmer, and punk. The band’s singers perform in English, Spanish, and Yiddish. They not only have uber-talented musicians playing the kinds of instruments people are used to seeing on stage (think guitar); their sound also includes accordion, clarinet, saxophone, and congas. For almost three years, Mariposas Galácticas has remained the most interesting, vibrant, and warm-hearted band in Philly, and I keep coming back for more.
The content of the music is, I believe, what brings the Mariposas community together. On this night, they performed songs about the Catalan independence movement, the breaking down of borders from Palestine to Mexico, empires falling, and the necessity of supporting immigrants. Fans were treated to an Eagles chant (E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!) with a Mariposas twist: “No human being will ever be illegal!”
For over an hour, the band exuded an impressive amount of musical stamina. Each member of the band got their solo moment, and Ariel Goodman – on vocals and clarinet – ran into the crowd to start a chain of people running in a circle, jumping up and down to the beat. Near the end of the set, they welcomed two more musicians, who parted the audience like the sea and graced us with even more brass instrumentals. The crowd, rightfully so, lost their minds.
Mariposas Galácticas closed their set in a way that was authentically them: with a cover of the Arthur theme song, “Believe In Yourself,” by Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, which went right into “Bella Ciao,” an anti-fascist anthem. The merging of these two songs is an in-your-face, punk-as-hell metaphor for remembering the children at the center of the fight against the various indignities and massacres happening both here in the U.S. and across the world – from Palestine to Mexico, as the band would say – and the crowd ate it up, throwing their fists in the air and screaming at the top of their lungs.
As the night settled down, I thought again about what my favorite thing about a Mariposas show might be. It comes down to this: it’s all of the above, and their unique sound, message, and talent shepherds the communities their music speaks to together. The way the members support one another on stage is the cherry on top. Mariposas Galácticas meets the moment, and I believe they have the guts and passion to keep at it.
