Dates & Venues: September 10, 2012 @ Nublu and September 12, 2012 @ Bell House

Concert reviews by Matt Cole

After announcing their breakup in 2011, the multi-lingual, multi-genre band Brazilian Girls has reunited and is working on new material and playing some shows, to the delight of their rather devoted fan base. In early September, they played a pair of weeknight surprise shows in New York City: on Monday the 10th, they tore it up at Alphabet City’s Nublu (where they first came together 9 years ago), and on Wednesday the 12th, they rocked the house at Bell House in Gowanus, Brooklyn.

For a band that is often described as “(insert at least 2 adjectives) pop,” Brazilian Girls’ music is quite sophisticated and complex. They are among the best at integrating loops, computers, and live performance; rather than playing along with the loops, they bring them in an out like an extra instrument. This was apparent at both shows, as many of the (non-new) songs were stretched out from their album versions, with keyboardist Didi Gutman doing a masterful job of weaving loops in and out of the rest of the mix, and drummer Aaron Johnston laying down essential beats with, not over or under, the loops. Bassist Jesse Murphy manages the neat trick of playing bass lines that are both solidly propulsive and interestingly fluid at the same time. Singer Sabina Sciubba‘s wonderful jazzy voice, fluent in five languages, completes the sonic picture; and her quirky outfits and intelligent, tongue-in-cheek demeanor add to, rather than distract from, the band’s vibe. Though from disparate backgrounds, musical and otherwise, these four make up a unified whole which is greater than its already talented parts. As the enthusiastic crowds demonstrated at both shows, it’s very difficult not to dance (or to not dance?) when Brazilian Girls is playing.

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