Indie Rock Festival

After excessively writing about the European summer fests, we have finally got a Brazilian festival to talk about. The Indie Rock Festival happened on July 25^th and 26^th in Rio, and on July 26^th and 27^th in Sao Paolo. Besides the headlines –The Magic Numbers and The Rakes – the festival also had some wide acclaimed national bands. The first day had Lucas Santtana & Seleção Natural and Hurtmold (both Brazilian) opening for The Magic Numbers. For who have already seen fans queuing all day before the concert in times of Franz Ferdinand in Brazil, Circo Voador (the venue) was even quite empty. Lucas Santtana & Seleção Natural got on stage with a third of the people that would watch The Magic Numbers later that day. The concert was exactly what is expected from an almost alternative-MPB band: calm, simple and quite satisfying for the few fans that were present. Hurtmold concert, which happened right after, really cheered the part of the audience who already knew them and has been appreciating their work from other times, but also annoyed the other part that could no longer stand experimental and instrumental music and were eager to see The Magic Numbers on stage.
Due to Mombojó flautist’s death, there was a change in the line up of Thursday 26^th. The almost-Strokes-cover-band was substituted for Nação Zumbi that ended up opening the second day of festival in Rio. Sometimes it’s quite difficult to understand why Brazilian festival producers love to have national “politically correct” bands opening to the main attractions. Maybe the organization of the Indie Rock Festival is forgiven this time because the substitution was extremely sudden, but even so more attention should be paid to the relation between the headlines and the opening bands; if they don’t match people will certainly get bored. When Nação Zumbi concert was over, Móveis Coloniais de Acajú went on stage, surprising all the audience with their brilliant performance. It has already been said in this blog that the main problem in Brazilian bands is that they try to make perfect copies of the international acclaimed groups and that a new element is always lacking. Well, it could be said with no hesitation that Móveis Coloniais de Acajú does have this new element that generally lacks in other bands.

Móveis Coloniais de Acajú - Pic By Thais Gallart

The concert impressed a lot not only for the technical quality of the band but also for their creativity and irreverence. Their performance is a bit theatrical, with the musicians’ disorderly running from side to side on stage making the entire thing seem a carnival party. By the end of the show everybody got surprised when André Gonzáles (vocal) got off the stage and asked the audience to form a circle. While some musicians were playing in the centre of the circle, André asked the audience to follow his movements. That was a good warm up for the Rakes’ concert that was about to come.The line up in Sao Paolo was a bit different. It didn’t have Lucas Santtana & Seleção Natural, Moptop (almost-Strokes-cover band) played instead. Maybe the festival was a bit harmed in Rio due to the fact that it happened on week days, but even so the general opinion is that it was quite successful.

Track 1 (The Strokes - You Live Only Once)