It’s usually pretty hard to get the crowds at the Black Cat to dance, but Philly/Florida mash-up DJ Diplo and two bands from Brazil, Bonde do Role and Cansei de Ser Sexy, did it pretty easily on Sunday. Openers Bonde do Role (which Google translates to something like “rolling tram,” though it might be slang) got the dancing started with their big bass, pretty obvious samples (AC/DC, Alice in Chains and “The Final Countdown”) and the trademark of their Brazilian musical genre, funk carioca (or “dance funk”). They were super energetic on stage, jumping around, humping each other, and exhorting the pretty excited crowd to dance and wave their hands. While they sung mostly in Portuguese, Rolling Stone called their lyrics “comically dirty”. “The joke is to be as stupid and cheesy as you can be,” says MC Pedro D’eyrot. They’ve found a fan in Diplo, who signed them to his new Mad Decent record label.
Cansei de Ser Sexy (which translates to “Tired of being sexy”) is a more traditional five girl, one guy dance rock band from Sao Paulo. They were a lot of dancey fun, and the lead singer, who calls herself Lovefoxx, has great stage presence, strutting and posing all over the stage. She takes the presence with her, with a flickr account of the tour (sadly, no DC pics yet). “Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above” was the highlight, making you think of other songs, but never quite figure out what they are. The blog on the band’s website is pretty entertaining too (though beware of the topless photo).
Diplo, the Florida DJ best known for his remixes and mash-ups — blending two (or more) songs together, like Afrika Baambaataa with TV on the Radio, or the Black Eyed Peas’ “My Humps” with more Brazilian funk — was the headliner. One man taking a dark stage after two high energy bands was a little disappointing at first. However, his set was excellent, with the almost completely darkened Black Cat really seeming like a hipster dance club rather than a concert venue. Everybody got down as a video screen showed various clips, some random and some from the mashed-up songs (like the video from “Walk Like an Egyptian”). Despite its high dance quotient, the set was pretty long, especially for a sunday night, and we left before hearing his awesome remix of “I Got A Woman” by Ray Charles (the same song heard in “Gold Digger” by Kanye West). In all, a good, sweaty night, and lots of folks got their exercise.
