This past Sunday, we went to see Caetano Veloso, living legend and then some, at the Lisner Auditorium at GW. We shelled out 70 dollares a pop for the tickets and while I am not necessarily the one to pay that much for ANYTHING, it was worth it.
And this is why (prepare yourself for this to be more of a sentimental education than a review per se, ok?)
Also, I promise to heavily youtube this for ease of digestion.
I grew up in a house where my father accumulated massive, massive amounts of vinyl. It was everywhere: by the record players, inside the lliquor cabinets, in the closets…everywhere, overflowing records. Lots of jazz and lots of guitar. Both traditional and electric. He used to cook breakfast for us on weekends and we’d listen to Los Lobos, Os Mutantes, Compay Segundo, Joao Gilberto and Caetano. My parents loved it, and my brother and I even endured (I use the word “endured” mainly because we are so tone-deaf) several years of classic Spanish guitar training.
It never led to anything.
But, I did spend my 21st birthday not getting drunk at some “around the world shots” place but instead seeing Joao Gilberto at the Barbican (I am obviously making up for this classy period of my youth now) and now with this Sunday and Caetano’s visit to DC, me and my Brazilian guitarists have come full circle.
Anyway, if you didn’t know, Caetano Veloso who along with Gilberto Gil is the man that definined Tropicalia, has been making music for over 40 years now, almost non-stop at that, and has been so influential that most of psychadelia or newer folk (Devendra, we’re looking at you) owes his some royalties. We saw Erik Hilton in the crowd, and trust us, this was no coincidence.
The most amazing thing about the show, amazing musicianship aside, was his sheer energy, his almost impossible zeal for both music and life and seriously, how today, jeans, red t-shirt and red laces on, he almost seems more youthful now than in some of his earlier clips. (though if you are in the mood to see some flamboyancy that was almost Bowiesque check out his 70s work like “Araca Azul”)
He also has a new, young accompanying band (Cale was visibly dissapointed that we were not faced with an army of 60+ guitar masters)
He ran, he danced, he high fived and blew kisses into the audience, he even showed us his belly once or twice during some sassier samba movies and the audience was there with him every step of the way. He mainly played his newer songs (his latest album was released last year) but he did sit down with an acoustic guitar for a few songs and through “Coracau Vagabundo” and “Cucurrucucu Paloma” you could feel the emotions in the room swelling to burst (he sings the latter song in Almodovar’s “Talk to her” and my mother spontaneously combusted to tears the first time she saw that scene)
It was wonderful.
If I close my eyes now, I can almost relive it.
Almost.
If he ever comes again, go see him. No matter what. If you never listened to him-listen now.
Also, to close this out, with somewhat of a bang, Cale mentioned, as we were leaving that we need to post his (amazing) cover of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”. Ladies and the occasional gentlemen, this is how it is done:
it was on the byt calendar.
November 6, 2007 at 12:40 pmYour musical upbringing sounds pretty cool to me. We had a lot of Abba, Boney M, The Beatles and Slade in my house, if that counts for anything…..
November 6, 2007 at 5:54 pmi’m not quite sure this will ever be read since it’s an old thread, but:
i was browsing this site (which i really enjoy, as you might guess since i comment like a motherfucker) and i wanted to look at all of the music stuff, as far back as i could go, anyway.
i think svetlana and cale have great taste in music, and this reminds me how jealous i’ve always been of my friend ira’s musical upbringing. his mom is a singer from the philippines and his dad is a musician who grew up in spain. his influences are also heavy on jazz and guitar (and lots of brazilian music, as well as spanish).
anyway, i think veloso is great. i had my own music-crazy father who used to constantly have the record player going and he listened to just about everything under the sun, but not as much jazz, classical and flamenco guitar and the like, so i have developed this taste in the last few years.
thanks for all of the music reviews, listening parties, music *whatever* that you guys do. i love it.
i will go ahead and admit that i liked some nelly furtado before her last hip-hop efforts and i really thought that her duet “island of wonder” with veloso was strange and enjoyable (and strange). like i said, i love that guy.
so, again, thanks if this is ever read.
ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz……….
January 10, 2008 at 12:03 am
arggggggh. i didnt see this show advertised anywhere. so this is the first i am reading about it. bummer.
November 6, 2007 at 12:38 pm