Hot. Sweaty. Mess. Such was the scene last night (April 30) in the aftermath of Bonde Do Role’s show at Austin, TX’s Emo’s, where the Brazilian-based outfit rolled over the crowd with its mish-mash of funk, hip-hop, and deadly samples.
Taking the stage to the opening bars of the Indiana Jones theme, the quartet smacked a set of sweat-drenched, headband-sporting hipsters with a spattering of synthfunksamplehop — what else would you expect from a tune titled “Bondallica”? Strutting through a set full of cuts from their debut album With Lasers, the band, featuring new vocalists Ana Bernardino and Laura Taylor, both recruited via a competition with MTV Brasil, lit the floor on fire with low-fi drum and booty bass cuts like “Gasolina and “Divine Gosa.”
Sans a sign of awkward stage chemistry, Taylor, in all black Satin with whirling blonde-red hair, and Bernardino, a kinetic mess of sequins and blue spandex, came off as having toured with the band since day one. Bernardino let each song feel the Brazilian heat, stopping only to catch her break, or have a crowd member teach her a new word in English. Language barriers aside, the tunes, sung in Portuguese, strangely work as break beats and hair-metal guitar samples provide what your fourth grade teacher would have called context clues; the music demands you shut down your higher brain function and give in to the krumping maniac lurking just beneath your surface.
Bonde Do Role / Photo by Eric Ulhir
Bonde Do Role / Photo by Eric Ulhir
Bonde Do Role / Photo by Eric Ulhir
Bonde Do Role / Photo by Eric Ulhir
Bonde Do Role / Photo by Eric Ulhir
