I showed up at Chicago’s City Winery in plenty of time to get a good free parking spot a block away and order a Right Bee cider before the show started. The City Winery is a nice, small venue not much bigger than a couple campground pavilions, and Brazilian siren Ceu was playing that night. I’ve been a fan of hers since stumbling onto her self-titled first record back in 2005. I’d missed all her previous Chicago dates, and now I was seeing her from about twenty feet from my table while I munched braised duck tacos.
Her opening band was an electro two-piece called Kauf from Los Angeles. They got the show off to a fine start with a groovy set that had people nodding their heads and drumming on their tables. One man behind me said, “They’re like an 80’s synth kind of thing.” That’s true, but a bit of a simplistic description. Add a bit of dark wave and Caribou and you’re there.
By now I’d learned that the couple across from me (named, I kid you not, Tom and Jerry) were seeing Ceu for the fourth time and hadn’t missed one of her Chicago dates yet. This was the first time they’d seen her with a guitarist in the band. We had a great time being wowed by her and sharing flatbread pizza.
She came out in a dark orange dress with light sparkles throughout it and a pair of bad-ass silver sequined high heels. It was at this moment that I realized Ceu looks like Jane Russell, and I about fainted in my chair. I almost fainted again when she started singing and her gorgeous voice filled the room.
She played a lovely, intimate set with her sharp as a tack backing band. They played many cuts from her fine new album, Tropix, as well as cuts going all the way back to 2005. She was dancing by the second song, “Perfume Invisibel,” and people were already breaking the “candle rule” to stay quiet during the show (Tom, Jerry, and I included). They were dancing in one corner by the end of her main set and all through the encore.
She and her band spanned multiple music styles. They played stuff ranging from bossa nova, electro dance songs, reggae, and modern disco cuts to early 80’s synth tracks you might hear on a Berlin album.
As good as her voice is on her albums, it is even better live. I won’t miss her if she comes through the Midwest again, and neither should you.
[Thanks to Andre Bourgeois for making press pass arrangements for me for this show. He rules.]
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