Mix together a spoonful of 60’s psychedelic rock, a generous splash of Brazilian charm and a sprinkling of melodic Wizardry and you have a night with electric Tropicalia pioneers Os Mutantes on your hands. Webster Hall welcomed Os Mutantes back onto it’s ballroom stage on Thursday night 43 years after forming to fill New Yorkers ears with the sounds of eclectic, geek rock with tales of ice cream flavors and the peril’s of texting.
Down to the sheer determination of music nerds everywhere, Os Mutantes without any management, half a band and no label backing whatsoever are touring off the back of their first album release in 35 years – Haih Or Amortecedor with a new line up apart from original caped frontman Sergio Dias Baptista.
Opening with a very brief version of Frankie’s New York, New York – they kicked off in their various 70’s Wizards guises, with their old material, dowsed with plenty of American references throughout including a seductive ‘Happy Birthday Mr. President’ from Sergio Dias and the National Anthem during the encore.
They played an impressive 2 hours set with a smattering of the old and introducing the new with plenty of commentary and camaraderie from Sergio. The pocket sized vocals of Bia Mendes brought a touch of sweetness to proceedings, and there was a childlike innocence to the whole evening. They explored something very simplistic from a yonder time despite the complexity of the various instruments, harmonies and melodies channeling The Kinks and The Beatles with some Brazilian flair.
The Ballroom was full but there was more of the ‘stepping side to side’ shapes being thrown rather than the ‘lets go nuts and stage dive’ – the hazards of having a ‘Dad Rock’ likeability to them. However there was a fair few youngsters to be spotted in the crowd which could be a result of their ever evolving line up…or just that they were with their Dad. It was a far cry from their psychedelic heyday where dressing up like aliens and throwing massive blow up caterpillars into their audience was standard practice.
There was however some definite foot tapping to the infectiously catchy ‘Minha Menina’ and some even more impressive head bobbing to ‘El Justiciero’…cha, cha, cha – but it would be very difficult not to. The new ‘Neurociencia Do Amor’ (to English speakers – The Neuroscience of Lurve) and ‘Teclar’ (To Text) from the new album were smiley and upbeat and fun – although it’s really anyone’s guess what on earth they were talking about, and that’s not because it was in Portuguese.
There was a definite distinction between the old and new material – maybe the result of less LSD during recording sessions, and although catchy, didn’t quite have the crowd humming along. But still going strong and as inspiration to the likes of Beck and Nirvana, maybe in another 35 years they’ll do their turn at Webster Hall once more with Sergio still at the helm – for more appreciative head nods and foot taps from the new breed of Os Mutantes fans.
SEE LUIZ SILVEIRA’S FULL ALBUM – BACKSTAGE WITH OS MUTANTES
