The Phoenix Network:
 
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
CD Reviews  |  Classical  |  Live Reviews  |  Music Features

Just serious enough

Os Mutantes, live at the Somerville Theatre, October 4, 2009
By MICHAEL BRODEUR  |  October 8, 2009

0910_mutantes_main32

Over the years, I’ve seen many an act try and fail to get folks up out of their seats at the Somerville (wild arm-flapping middle-aged Vieux Farka Toure enthusiast guy, you will forever dance like a crazy person in my heart). On Sunday night, all Os Mutantes had to do was play the opening notes of Jorge Ben’s “A Minha Menina” and we all spilled into the aisles like a flash flood. 

Not that Brooklyn’s DeLeon didn’t try with their opening slot. They really did. The four-piece—normally a quintet, but short their drummer due to the dominant gearscape of the Mutantes—delivered as rapturous a set of rejuventated Sephardi pop (or “15th century Spanish indie rock)”) as you could ask for; but relegating drummer Justin Riddle to both a.) a laptop next to bassist Kevin Snider, and b.) the row just behind us (from where he’d counted off a song and chirped little interband zingers) didn’t do them any favors. Riddle plays a mean space-bar, but the pre-recorded rhythms were rough, loud and a little clumsy—I wouldn’t want them moving my delicate antiques around.

Still, their material is hard to resist, and their surplus of presence largely makes up for their occasional absence: Singer Dan Saks dug deep into his banjo (somehow making it sound sensual) and stomped his leg with was wrapped in a leather strap studded with bells; co-vocalist Amy Crawford deftly typed out ghostly figures on a glockenspiel and touched the ceiling of the theater a few times with her airy, aerial voice. But even at their most frenetic, even as you heard the bolts in the seats squeaking under a spreading trend of chair-dancing, no one rose—and perhaps it was the respect shown by the band for their form that gave the set an air of homage instead of the heat of a throwdown.

Sérgio Dias Baptista’s Os Mutantes have always taken a different approach to respecting tradition: adopting it as their own and then fucking it up royally, smoking it up and taking it on joyrides. It took just 10 turbulent years for them to produce as many of the most influential and cruelly under-distributed albums in freaky pop history. Over the subsequent 35 years of relative silence (but for sporadic reissues and word of mouth transmissions), their music slowly pushed its way through the thick blanket of mainstream world music the way a splinter is rejected by the body. Now, reunited and touring with a very young band and an album’s worth of new songs (the Anti- issued Haih Or Amortecedor), Dias is taking this reunion as seriously as he’s capable of—which is, thankfully, just barely enough.

A wide, goofy smile split his head through most of the show; an effect that had the entire theatre under his spell (though his black and gold robe may have played a part). Flanked by six others, including new vocalist Bia Mendes, former Mutante drummer Ronaldo “Dinho” Leme, and a fresh-faced rhythm section, Dias assured the audience that they’d do their best, and that he expected his audience to do the same. That, and the aforementioned opening notes, were all it took to turn the Somerville into a full-fledged, spill-your-drink, stow-your-tote-bag dance party.

1  |  2  |   next >
Related: Photos: Os Mutantes at Somerville Theatre, Tropicália storm, Photos: Dirty Projectors and Vieux Farka Touré live at Somerville Theatre, More more >
  Topics: Live Reviews , Os Mutantes, Os Mutantes, Os Mutantes,  More more >
  • Share:
  • Share this entry with Facebook
  • Share this entry with Digg
  • Share this entry with Delicious
  • RSS feed
  • Email this article to a friend
  • Print this article
Comments

[ 10/15 ]   Mason Jennings + Crash Kings + Anni Rossi  @ Somerville Theatre
[ 10/15 ]   Justin McBride  @ Wolf Den @ Mohegan Sun
[ 10/15 ]   Crunkwhich  @ Western Front
[ 10/15 ]   Iron Age + COA + New Lows + Rival Mob  @ ICC (International Community Church)
--> -->
ARTICLES BY MICHAEL BRODEUR
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   LIGHTNING BOLT | EARTHLY DELIGHTS  |  October 14, 2009
    I’m not sure why people are so worried about the Hadron Collider, especially since Lightning Bolt have been tearing black holes in the fabric of Providence on a regular basis for the past 15 years.
  •   PRIVACY POLICY  |  October 14, 2009
    When last we left Bradford Cox of Deerhunter, it was November of 2008, and he was ready to put that year to bed. A couple of months earlier, an eager fan downloading one of Cox's many "virtual seven-inches" had sleuthed out a whole Mediafire folder full of goodies that Cox had posted but not protected.
  •   JUST SERIOUS ENOUGH  |  October 08, 2009
    Over the years, I’ve seen many an act try and fail to get folks up out of their seats at the Somerville. On Sunday night, all Os Mutantes had to do was play the opening notes of Jorge Ben’s “A Minha Menina” and we all spilled into the aisles like a flash flood.
  •   OUT, LOUD  |  October 07, 2009
    "Did I turn this into a big gay interview?" Given I've been folding my boyfriend's briefs throughout our conversation, I don't think Gossip's Beth Ditto has anything to worry about on that front.
  •   A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS | EXPLODING HEAD  |  October 06, 2009
    When it comes to the resurgence of all things shoegaze, only one question remains: how literal do you want it?

 See all articles by: MICHAEL BRODEUR

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2009 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group