Live: Bebel Gilberto – Birchmere Music Hall – Alexandria, VA – June 22, 2019

We were delighted to see Bebel Gilberto again this year. In case you still don’t know, Ms. Gilberto is bossa nova royalty and has one of the loveliest voices on the planet. She played at a small venue outside Washington D.C. while we were on a trip there last month.

It was just her and her guitarist, Guerreiro Montero, playing an intimate set of some of her favorites like “Baby,” “Aganju,” “Simplesmente,” “Mais Feliz,” and her fine covers of Neil Young‘s “Harvest Moon” and Radiohead‘s “Creep.”

It was our first time seeing her without a percussionist, but she and Montero did a great job and kept everyone entertained and bouncing. Ms. Gilberto knows how to work an audience and stage and there was a funny moment when she bowed and accidentally knocked her microphone off its stand. She bent over to pick it up and the top of her dress came undone as she did so. Montero, blushing and giggling all the while, had to fix the wardrobe malfunction on stage. She handled it well and used the moment to make jokes and flirt with the audience.

She recently finished her spring tour, but don’t miss her show if she’s near you. Any opportunity to see her live should be taken.

Keep your mind open.

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