I’ve wanted to see the lovely Bebel Gilberto for many years. I’ve always missed her past Chicago dates due to work, but I finally got to see her in a great venue at the Ann Arbor Summer Festival – a nice summer arts and music festival that takes place over two weeks on the University of Michigan campus.
The show was at the Power Center theatre on campus, and the onstage set-up was simple.
“That’s an impressive [drum] kit,” I told my wife. It was a full kit combined with hand percussion instruments. There was an acoustic guitar, a laptop computer, and a microphone for Ms. Gilberto. That was all she and her two-piece band needed.
Ms. Gilberto owned the stage as soon as she walked onto it. She was full of pep and had the crowd in her hands within moments.
She sang a good number of songs from her latest album, Tudo, including the title track, “Nudo Nao,” a cover of Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon,” and some of her classics like “So Nice,” “Bring Back the Love,” and “Aganju” (a personal favorite).
She closed with two cuts from Tanto Tiempo – the always stunning “Samba Da Bencao” and “Close Your Eyes.” She had every Brazilian woman in the audience (and a few kids) dancing in the aisles by then.
This show has gone to the top of my list on my favorite live performances of 2016 so far because it’s the first show to bring me to tears. Ms. Gilberto’s drummer left the stage for a few numbers and I gasped when her guitarist played some familiar chords on the second percussion-free song. They were the opening chords to Radiohead‘s “Creep.”
My eyes misted as soon as she sang the first line. A few people in the crowd cheered as they recognized the song, jaws dropped as she dropped the f-bomb in the chorus, and my wife and I were wiping tears from our eyes by the end. It was gorgeous. Bebel Gilberto’s voice is nothing short of hypnotizing, and hearing her sing this song about longing and heartbreak was an unexpected surprise.
The crowd cheered when they’d finished the song. She said, “Thank you.”
“Thank you,” I said loud enough for the whole auditorium to hear me.
She laughed and then said, “We’re thinking about recording that. Some people don’t like it, but we like it.”
Please do, Ms. Gilberto, and please come back to the Midwest soon.
Keep your mind open.
[Thanks to Vickie Starr for getting me a press pass to this show. She rules.]
[Don’t be a creep. Subscribe to us.]
