in performance: os mutantes
sergio dias of os mutantes.
Midnight was less than an hour away when Os Mutantes took the stage last night at Buster’s to close out the Boomslang festival. But for the duration of its 80 minute set, the sunny inspiration of the band’s Brazilian homeland brought an ample measure of sunlight to the room.
Though often pinned as a psychedelic band - a label made good on when founder/frontman Sergio Dias let his guitarwork bow happily to distortion during the encore jam of Bat Macumba or fly with Zappa-esque animation on A Hora e a Vez do Cabelo Crescer (Cabeludo Patriota) - Os Mutantes unleashed all kinds of stylistic invention during the performance.
Top Top strutted to a funk/pop groove, Anagrama brought in some very Americanized pop/soul inspiration and the piano ballad Balada do Louco sailed from Hey Jude-era Beatles to crunchier guitar rock terrain.
And then there were the lovely moments where the Brazilian heritage was championed not only by the band but by a hearty pack of countrymen in the audience who waved the nation’s flag and sang along in Portuguese.
Baby, for instance, was pure pop-flavored bossa nova as well as a lyrical showcase for singer Bia Mendes while 2000 e Agarrum dizzily juggled warp speed samba, carnival-esque pop and shards of mambo.
But the show closing encore of Panis Et Circensis literally said it all. Just as the evening opener Tecnicolor introduced the band’s bright pop voice in English, so did the mantra-like chorus of the finale: “The music lighted by the heat of the sun.”
On a chilly October night, the beaches of Brazil might as well have been on the moon. But through a performance that was ceaselessly inviting and upbeat, the warmth of Os Mutantes’ music more than compensated.
I am a native Kentuckian and freelance journalist who has been writing about contemporary music for the Lexington Herald-Leader since 1980. I have not a lick of honest musical talent myself, just a pair of appreciative ears for jazz, folk, blues, bluegrass, Americana, soul, Celtic, Cajun, chamber, worldbeat, nearly every form of rock 'n' roll imaginable and, when pressed, the occasional tango and polka.