Last night I went to see Brazilian Girls play a free show at Prospect Park as part of the Celebrate Brooklyn concert series. The Brazilian Girls were great, though I can't say my concert-going experience was all that positive. Like I've always said, the audience can ruin a good concert, and this was one of those situations. The first two bands that played were lame and not even worth mentioning (and they played freaking forever), though I would like to share the fact that apparently Miranda!, the second band that was supposed to play, broke up like on their way to Brooklyn... At least that's what the Celebrate Brooklyn woman said. I find that kind of funny.
Brazilian Girls were awesome. They played for almost an hour and a half (and they got cut off - they were going to perform Jique for their finale but Celebrate Brooklyn shut them down. It was a bummer). Sabine really knows how to work the audience. She even brought a bunch of people up on stage for a brief dance party (see left). She also really knows how to dress - I loved her crazy dress that she was wearing and I wish I had the penache to pull something like that off. It was one of those dresses that you usually only really see on runways, but she pulled it off beautifully. They played a few new songs, which were good. And they played lots of old favorites. Except for Jique, which they started to play as their finale to their encore but then were cut off by the Celebrate Brooklyn people who were basically like "you're out of time." What?! It was ridiculous! They wouldn't let them do one more song? We thought they were kidding at first and were just messing with us. But no.
And now, I apologize, because I must go on a rant about the horrible people sitting behind me at the concert and general concert etiquette. You may find the story amusing, but if you don't want to read it, simply scroll to the bottom for your mp3. So, story: Brazilian Girls are clearly a band that make people want to dance. So naturally, when they went on stage, a lot of people stood up (there are seats at the bandshell). So since the people in front of me were standing, and since I wanted to dance, my friends and I stood up too. It's a concert. That's what people do. But that threw the people sitting behind me (particularly the 4 or 5 girls sitting directly behind us) into a tizzy. People started yelling at us to sit down. One girl tapped me on the shoulder and was so condescending too. I'm normally pretty non-confrontational but I was getting pissed off so I was like "It's a concert. If you want to sit, go to a movie" and the girl goes "This is Celebrate Brooklyn. It's different. People sit down." Excuse me? I have been to many a Celebrate Brooklyn concert and have almost always ended up standing for the final band. When I told her that, she responded "yeah, well I've been coming here my whole life." Ok, that's great but the people in front of me are standing, so therefore you must be wrong. Then they tried to tell us that we had to sit down because elderly people behind us couldn't stand up. Though I was just ignoring them at this point, I was thinking to myself "if they're too old to stand, they shouldn't go to dance music concerts because people usually stand at concerts and that's part of the experience." That might seem insensitive, but really it's not. I'm not going to go to concerts when I'm too old to stand. Or if I do, and I can sit, I'm certainly not going to expect other people to sit down just for me. Especially if it's dance music. If it's the philharmonic or something, that's different. But Brazilian Girls? No sitting during that. I felt especially bad for my very tall friend, who they singled out. The thing that made me the most angry about this was that these girls clearly had no idea who Brazilian Girls were. They just came because it was a free concert and then had to ruin it for those of us who actually like the band. One girl behind me actually said "I didn't think they'd actually be from Brazil. But her accent sounds Brazilian." *Shudders* The ignorance! THE IGNORANCE! Actually, little missy, they're from New York and her accent is a mixture of European accents from the various places she's lived. And those foreign languages she's singing in? None of them are Portuguese! I don't even speak any of them but I could still pick out the French, Spanish and German and tell that they weren't Portuguese (partially because I listen to a lot of CSS, haha). When the girls behind me finally gave up and stood up, it took every fiber in my being not to turn around and yell "SIT DOWN!" But I resisted. Then they proceeded to talk through the entire show, which drove me nuts. It took every other fiber in my being not to turn around and say "if you're not going to watch the show, please go home or at least shut the f*** up so those of us who actually like the band can enjoy the concert." The only other time I have been that pissed at a concert was when those two drunk bitches shoved me at The Kooks concert. Moral of the story, if you go to a concert, you're going to be standing so shut the hell up and watch the show. And just because a concert is free doesn't mean you have to go. If you have no interest in the band, don't go ruin it for their fans. Ok, rant over.In honor of the song that got cut off:
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