Bebel Gilberto at the Spectrum
Aug. 20th, 2004 10:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petroniaI've been browsing reviews of the other shows on this tour, and the experience would appear to depend on whether your city is UTTERLY DEVOID OF SOUL (or of Brazilians, which for the purpose of this sentence is synonymous) or not. If not, dress to dance. >D
Arrived at the Spectrum at 8:15** (fifteen minutes before the start time on the ticket, which of course bore no relation to the eventual start time of the show ^^;) to find most of the seats already taken. Now the Spectrum is your general not terribly-huge club venue: everything black, tables on raised dais all around, dancefloor/pit in the middle, U-shaped balcony with more tables. In fact they filled the centre floor with tables and chairs as well, so there was really only about four people-rows' worth of standing space right at the front of the stage, and four people-rows at the back in front of the raised dais. So it was the sort of thing where one was obviously expected to arrive with a couple of friends, grab a drink, commandeer a table for the group and stay there throughout the show. Not so easy to park one's butt when one's alone, as I was. ^^; Eventually grabbed one of four row chairs tucked in a corner at the back of the dancefloor (the other three being occupied by this beautiful pouty gay boy in red pants and black tank and his lanky good-looking friends, who chatted animatedly and were amusingly/alarmingly touchy-feely with each other throughout - E maybe, now that I'm thinking about it), nursed a Stella Artois and sort of, well, dozed. XD Only about four hours of sleep the night before, and the on-stage DJ was spinning that sort of nouveau-lounge braziltronica music I find lulling.
Show finally started an hour later, to much applause and anticipation. Six-piece band, keyboard drums acoustic guitar, guy alternating between flute and sax, bongos guy in a colourful knit cap, long-haired Japanese dude on electric bass and more acoustic guitar, everyone on maracas/tambourine/other rattly percussives whenever necessary. (Several members are credited for either songwriting or playing on the new album.) Bebel centre-stage, in glittery beige top and jeans, undone hair and silver ballet slippers. I'd been thinking before the concert that I'd bet she's actually this tiny woman, and she is, rather. XD A real diva, though, sexy and confident - she's not a twig and she doesn't have legs up to here, but her speaking voice is just like her singing voice.
Two songs off the second album, "Simplesmente" and "All Around" (I think - I'm looking at the Gazette review but I'm sure it gets the playlist wrong). A couple of pretty young girls get up and start dancing in the space between the stage and the first tables, heedless of whether they're blocking the view of the wine-drinking stodgers sitting there (they probably aren't anyway, and is it a terrible hardship to watch pretty girls dance?). The rest of us sway in a relaxed manner. Then the flute and synths go off into this Andean folk bit, which resolves itself into the intro to "August Day Song" (it eventually transpires that much of the crowd can recognise the songs and sing them back just by the bongo patterns, as, er, can I). The crowd goes quietly nuts.
"Let's go," red pants boy says firmly, grabs his friends by the hand and starts down the centre aisle. I follow. A larger group of pretty young girls decide simultaneously to do the same, and we all sort of rush pell-mell against the stage and start dancing. That was the first wave - by the first encore the floor crowd had gone from 85% sitting to 85% standing. So I spent the rest of the concert between five and fifteen feet away from the mike stand. >D Should've brought my camera, really - I was afraid they'd confiscate it, but it turned out to be okay as long as you didn't use flash. I saw some people get really great pictures up front with these huge-screen digicams... OTOH if I'd brought it I would've just been neuroticking the entire time trying to frame the perfect shot, so it's probably just as well.
When the song ends Bebel greets the crowd, talks a bit about how she just received her gold album for Tanto Tempo that day, and coos thanks to the worker bees involved. Much applause. Then she sang "Baby" and "Sem Contenção", which is pretty danceable on the album, and even more danceable live with the bass and drums mixed up (most of the songs were played a bit jazzier and more lively - like "August Day Song", which I'd never really thought of as a tune to boogie to, but they upped that Towa Tei-like beat at the beginning and kept it all the way through). That was when the technical difficulties started, though. ^^; The next song she sang was "Every Day You've Been Away", more-or-less like it is on the album i.e. accompanied just by the guitarist Pedro (who wrote it), and there was horrid speaker static. While the problem was being fixed she sang the next song sitting (and eventually lying down XD) on the stage, with the bassist Masa playing acoustic guitar. That was the most intimate moment of the concert. Now the strange thing is that I don't really remember what the song was, other than it was one of those that I have the tune memorised but not the lyrics because, well, Portuguese. By process of elimination I think it was "Samba é Amor", but... funny how that works.
After that I have to refer to the notes I took on the metro home, by which point the song order was already getting mixed in my pea-sized brain. I know she sang "So Nice (Summer Samba)" in a jazzy arrangement, not so straightforwardly samba-time as on the album, and "Samba da Benção". She also talked a bit with the most enthusiastic girls up front, which is how I know they're Brazilian. There were a lot of Brazilians in general, including this one guy who was grooving front and centre carrying his daughter in his arms - an adorable doe-eyed kid who looked about five. A lot of starry-eyed girls, a lot of gay men, who all clapped along and knew the words to the songs. There was a singalong to "Aganju", which had much more minimal percussive improv than it did on the album. That went into "Bananeira", which was straight Carnival rave-up. Then Bebel introduced her band at some length, and they each played a solo bit jazz ensemble style, and then they played "Tanto Tempo" to finish off. It had a lengthy intro, during which bassist dude (who'd been sipping Stella Artois throughout) attempted to add flourishes by blowing over the top of his beer bottle into the mike. >D
The first encore was "Close Your Eyes" (red pants boy and company were chorusing along loudly to the bongos by this point) and, er, "Alguém" maybe? ^^; That's the only one I can't ID in memory at all. After that people applauded some more - the guy and girl right beside me commented cheerfully on how Montreal always wants its money's worth and demands, like, three encores - but the sound guy had come out and was starting to move things about, so people started heading toward the exits. Then the sound guy comes back out and moves the mike back centre stage, with a significant look, and we rush back into place. XD Bebel comes back out with band (and her own bottle of Stella!) and commands us to buy her second album after the show, to help her finance her house. XDD Then she sings "River Song" and dedicates to Montreal. I really like that song now, after having heard it live. Como este rio / que não se decidiu / se é rio da montanha / se é rio que vai pro mar... The guy who brought his daughter made her hold up a copy of Tanto Tempo and a pen, to ask Bebel to sign it. So Bebel took the little girl on stage and danced with her during the song. It was the cutest thing ever, and a perfect end to the show.
...So, ah, Kristin, I expect you to dance! >D It couldn't have been nearly as fun for the people who just sat around.
** And went in just behind, er, the long-haired girl who's always wearing a Chinese dress in the VIP line at Fantasia. Yeah, I've been attending Fantasia so long that I recognise not only all the organizers and ushers/crew but the press as well, though I have no idea what she writes for. XD Actually I'm sure the Fantasia door crew recognize me as well - "the Chinese girl with the thimble-sized bladder who always skips out in the middle to pee, don't bother checking her ticket when she comes back in." Someday I'll have to figure out how to use that to my advantage.
Arrived at the Spectrum at 8:15** (fifteen minutes before the start time on the ticket, which of course bore no relation to the eventual start time of the show ^^;) to find most of the seats already taken. Now the Spectrum is your general not terribly-huge club venue: everything black, tables on raised dais all around, dancefloor/pit in the middle, U-shaped balcony with more tables. In fact they filled the centre floor with tables and chairs as well, so there was really only about four people-rows' worth of standing space right at the front of the stage, and four people-rows at the back in front of the raised dais. So it was the sort of thing where one was obviously expected to arrive with a couple of friends, grab a drink, commandeer a table for the group and stay there throughout the show. Not so easy to park one's butt when one's alone, as I was. ^^; Eventually grabbed one of four row chairs tucked in a corner at the back of the dancefloor (the other three being occupied by this beautiful pouty gay boy in red pants and black tank and his lanky good-looking friends, who chatted animatedly and were amusingly/alarmingly touchy-feely with each other throughout - E maybe, now that I'm thinking about it), nursed a Stella Artois and sort of, well, dozed. XD Only about four hours of sleep the night before, and the on-stage DJ was spinning that sort of nouveau-lounge braziltronica music I find lulling.
Show finally started an hour later, to much applause and anticipation. Six-piece band, keyboard drums acoustic guitar, guy alternating between flute and sax, bongos guy in a colourful knit cap, long-haired Japanese dude on electric bass and more acoustic guitar, everyone on maracas/tambourine/other rattly percussives whenever necessary. (Several members are credited for either songwriting or playing on the new album.) Bebel centre-stage, in glittery beige top and jeans, undone hair and silver ballet slippers. I'd been thinking before the concert that I'd bet she's actually this tiny woman, and she is, rather. XD A real diva, though, sexy and confident - she's not a twig and she doesn't have legs up to here, but her speaking voice is just like her singing voice.
Two songs off the second album, "Simplesmente" and "All Around" (I think - I'm looking at the Gazette review but I'm sure it gets the playlist wrong). A couple of pretty young girls get up and start dancing in the space between the stage and the first tables, heedless of whether they're blocking the view of the wine-drinking stodgers sitting there (they probably aren't anyway, and is it a terrible hardship to watch pretty girls dance?). The rest of us sway in a relaxed manner. Then the flute and synths go off into this Andean folk bit, which resolves itself into the intro to "August Day Song" (it eventually transpires that much of the crowd can recognise the songs and sing them back just by the bongo patterns, as, er, can I). The crowd goes quietly nuts.
"Let's go," red pants boy says firmly, grabs his friends by the hand and starts down the centre aisle. I follow. A larger group of pretty young girls decide simultaneously to do the same, and we all sort of rush pell-mell against the stage and start dancing. That was the first wave - by the first encore the floor crowd had gone from 85% sitting to 85% standing. So I spent the rest of the concert between five and fifteen feet away from the mike stand. >D Should've brought my camera, really - I was afraid they'd confiscate it, but it turned out to be okay as long as you didn't use flash. I saw some people get really great pictures up front with these huge-screen digicams... OTOH if I'd brought it I would've just been neuroticking the entire time trying to frame the perfect shot, so it's probably just as well.
When the song ends Bebel greets the crowd, talks a bit about how she just received her gold album for Tanto Tempo that day, and coos thanks to the worker bees involved. Much applause. Then she sang "Baby" and "Sem Contenção", which is pretty danceable on the album, and even more danceable live with the bass and drums mixed up (most of the songs were played a bit jazzier and more lively - like "August Day Song", which I'd never really thought of as a tune to boogie to, but they upped that Towa Tei-like beat at the beginning and kept it all the way through). That was when the technical difficulties started, though. ^^; The next song she sang was "Every Day You've Been Away", more-or-less like it is on the album i.e. accompanied just by the guitarist Pedro (who wrote it), and there was horrid speaker static. While the problem was being fixed she sang the next song sitting (and eventually lying down XD) on the stage, with the bassist Masa playing acoustic guitar. That was the most intimate moment of the concert. Now the strange thing is that I don't really remember what the song was, other than it was one of those that I have the tune memorised but not the lyrics because, well, Portuguese. By process of elimination I think it was "Samba é Amor", but... funny how that works.
After that I have to refer to the notes I took on the metro home, by which point the song order was already getting mixed in my pea-sized brain. I know she sang "So Nice (Summer Samba)" in a jazzy arrangement, not so straightforwardly samba-time as on the album, and "Samba da Benção". She also talked a bit with the most enthusiastic girls up front, which is how I know they're Brazilian. There were a lot of Brazilians in general, including this one guy who was grooving front and centre carrying his daughter in his arms - an adorable doe-eyed kid who looked about five. A lot of starry-eyed girls, a lot of gay men, who all clapped along and knew the words to the songs. There was a singalong to "Aganju", which had much more minimal percussive improv than it did on the album. That went into "Bananeira", which was straight Carnival rave-up. Then Bebel introduced her band at some length, and they each played a solo bit jazz ensemble style, and then they played "Tanto Tempo" to finish off. It had a lengthy intro, during which bassist dude (who'd been sipping Stella Artois throughout) attempted to add flourishes by blowing over the top of his beer bottle into the mike. >D
The first encore was "Close Your Eyes" (red pants boy and company were chorusing along loudly to the bongos by this point) and, er, "Alguém" maybe? ^^; That's the only one I can't ID in memory at all. After that people applauded some more - the guy and girl right beside me commented cheerfully on how Montreal always wants its money's worth and demands, like, three encores - but the sound guy had come out and was starting to move things about, so people started heading toward the exits. Then the sound guy comes back out and moves the mike back centre stage, with a significant look, and we rush back into place. XD Bebel comes back out with band (and her own bottle of Stella!) and commands us to buy her second album after the show, to help her finance her house. XDD Then she sings "River Song" and dedicates to Montreal. I really like that song now, after having heard it live. Como este rio / que não se decidiu / se é rio da montanha / se é rio que vai pro mar... The guy who brought his daughter made her hold up a copy of Tanto Tempo and a pen, to ask Bebel to sign it. So Bebel took the little girl on stage and danced with her during the song. It was the cutest thing ever, and a perfect end to the show.
...So, ah, Kristin, I expect you to dance! >D It couldn't have been nearly as fun for the people who just sat around.
** And went in just behind, er, the long-haired girl who's always wearing a Chinese dress in the VIP line at Fantasia. Yeah, I've been attending Fantasia so long that I recognise not only all the organizers and ushers/crew but the press as well, though I have no idea what she writes for. XD Actually I'm sure the Fantasia door crew recognize me as well - "the Chinese girl with the thimble-sized bladder who always skips out in the middle to pee, don't bother checking her ticket when she comes back in." Someday I'll have to figure out how to use that to my advantage.
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no subject
Date: 2004-08-20 01:32 pm (UTC)But whatever! Am psyched regardless! It sounds like everything I want to hear is in the set list ("Aganju" <333!) so, eeee. Thanks for posting the report. XD
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Date: 2004-08-20 01:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-20 03:04 pm (UTC)(I had no idea she was Joao Gilberto's daughter, though not Astrud's, I see... speaking of which, I need to replace my copy of the Getz & Gilberto album. Aheh.)
no subject
Date: 2004-08-20 09:48 pm (UTC)-Ced
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Date: 2004-08-20 10:14 pm (UTC)bebel gilberto... *sniffles* why can't she tour at my part of teh world.... well, actually, i know why... <- yes i live in an entire country devoid of soul, why do you ask? T.T
is very envious of you