Monday, April 28, 2008

Moving in, Once & some Led Zeppelin

I spent last week "moving in" to my new place. I used quotes on that, because I've only moved like half of my stuff, there's still so much at a friend's place that I've been kind of afraid to even go there. But it's starting to look like somebody's home already, and I'm really loving it. It took so long that I was kinda losing hope already. Now I just need a TV and a DVD player (I already have a stereo and my turntable), because if I can't watch movies in it, it ain't my home!
This was, all in all, a pretty busy weekend: moving, went to see a Led Zeppelin cover band, we did some cooking yesterday at a friend's place (while we watched that shameful 5 x 0 Cruzeiro and Atlético game), I unbraided my hair (which took a whole lot more than I'd hoped and gave me the chance to watch half a season of Seinfeld while I did it).
One interesting thing about BH is the music scene: they have so many cool rock bands here, even though they are mostly cover bands. I've seen quite a few since I arrived, but at least three are really worth mentioning: Sgt. Pepper's Band, Gleison Túlio and the Led Zeppelin cover I saw last friday. The first one is a Beatler cover band that is actually one of the best in the world: apparently they've been to the annual festival they have in Liverpool and have been chosen as a Top 3 band quite a few times. They are simply amazing, it's uncanny. Gleison Túlio is an amazing singer/guitar player that desperately needs a better stage name. I saw him a month ago or so and he really blew me away, playing a huge spectrum of different stuff really well, singing, doing bass and percussion on his guitar... it's really hard to describe, but basically he uses loops (you record something and it keeps looping as much as you want) to record each separate instrument (all done on his guitar) and then sings and does solos on top of it. My explanation does not do justice to his show, it's just amazing and you should check it out when you have a chance. The Zeppelin cover band wasn't quite as impressive, but was really good nonetheless: the singer/bass player was amazing, everybody else was really good too, I just didn't love it more because they were more into the hard rock side of Zeppelin and completely neglected their more bluesy stuff (Dazed and Confused, Since I've Been Loving You, I Can't Quit You Baby, etc.) Who could've guessed, BH might actually be a cool place for listening to good music.
If I've been lucky with music, I can't say the same for movies: these have been terrible times for those of us addicted to the cinema. The only thing that seemed remotely interesting to watch last week was Once, which to me felt almost like Damien's Rice biography: a busker on the streets of Dublin and how meeting an immigrant who happens to play the piano changes his otherwise beat-up self into a somewhat hopeful person again. The story is not a simplistic hollywood-style love story, which makes it all the more interesting. For people like me, who love the aching singer-songwriter stuff, the soundtrack is pretty good, very Damien Rice-y; but, even I had to admit that they overdid it a little bit, too many too long songs, too much repetition... just too much. This makes the movie a little tiresome, but it was still worth watching: the cast is pretty good, the photography is weird, but in a good way (hand-held camera throughout the movie, which adds to the whole ambiance really well). All in all, a pretty good option in the lack of something better.

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