We were all impressed that the late, great Leonard Cohen was playing huge venues as he approached the age of 80. But not even dear old Len could have competed with the similarly aged Brazilian icon Elza Soares.
Sporting a huge purple wig, a figure-hugging leather dress and a disturbing amount of plastic surgery, Soares starts this gig by being hoisted into a metal throne as lights strafe the auditorium, accompanied by an ominous sci-fi soundtrack. By the time she starts her opening song she is raised 15ft above the stage on a pyramid, as if wearing a giant metal skirt.
And, fittingly, this is a truly space-age take on Brazilian music. Together with two guitarists, a bassist and a drummer, Elza plays most of her latest album, The Woman at the End of the World – futuristic samba spiked with squelchy electronica, junkyard jazz and art-rock.
On Pra Fuder she purrs about the joys of sex over a riot of spiky, postpunk guitars and Moog basslines, like Eartha Kitt backed by Public Image Ltd. On Benedita she sings about a crack-addicted transsexual, performed as a duet with bearded actor Rubi Waf, while her band knit together spidery Gang of Four riffs and Afrobeat rhythms.
Even an old samba favourite, Bis – an encore that gets the Brazilians in the audience out of their seats and dancing in the aisles – is revisited as an icy slice of gothic funk, while Soares’s version of the old Elton Medeiros bossa nova Pressentimiento is taken down an octave and performed in a Grace Jones growl.
In support, London singer-songwriter Eska performs songs from her remarkable Mercury-nominated debut album, transforming sweet soul into spacious, Hendrix-style wig-outs. It’s an evening of outrageous sonic transformations from two defiantly maverick women.
