I've loved Brazilian Girls since my DJ friend turned me onto them. Their sound is great - seductive, groovy and danceable. I was excited to find out they were playing in Boston and at a reasonable price, so I hopped on the tickets.
The show promised an opening act playing from 8:00-10:00, which would have been a nice way to warm up the crowd. Unfortunately this act was a no-show. Bummer.
Brazilian Girls came on a bit late, not terribly so, and this is always sort of expected so it was no big deal. Their set started strongly, with the group meshing well and getting everybody moving. I had the pleasure of standing behind Amanda, the super-drunk and enthusiastic chick who kept getting up on stage, stumbling around and doing an awkward rendition of twerking. It was funny and welcome at first, but it got old as she kept getting on stage and derailing the act. The bandmembers seemed to be at odds as to whether Amanda should be allowed on stage. I side with the keyboardist, who tried to usher her off after her 3rd or 4th cringe-worthy appearance. From the audience members around me, it seemed obvious she was no longer welcome on stage and we'd rather focus our attention on the band we paid to come see. Instead, we got a faceful and earful of Amanda.
Aside from sub-par crowd control, the set itself started to nosedive after their first few songs. The singer disappeared, and the band took an impromptu intermission - this was only maybe 20 minutes into the set. They gathered back together, but from this point on the singer would sporadically leave the stage every 10 minutes or so (often mid-song) for several minutes. Who knows what she was doing in the back room, but it affected her ability to perform. This prevented any continuity from developing, and would negatively interrupt the flow of the set. It really bummed me out when she was gone for "Don't Stop" - the band seemed to deal with it, jamming for a few minutes, until she finally reappeared. Instead of working off the lead-up and properly kicking off the song with her vocals, Sabina simply proclaimed "Stop!" and the band stopped playing. Major buzzkill.
In all, I don't regret having gone and still had fun. Drinks were fairly priced, the sound and volume was good, and the grooves that they held together were solid. I just wish it hadn't fallen so flat and nosedived into the realm of the underwhelming. In all, the set was just over an hour - disappointingly short. This band could be so good.. hopefully they get their act together!