Far From Alaska
Far From Alaska formed in Natal (a city in the Brazilian Nordeste region) in 2012. Currently based in São Paulo, the band played at major festivals such as Planeta Terra and Lollapalooza in Brazil, SXSW in the United States and the French version of Download Festival. They recorded an EP (Stereochrome) and an album (ModeHuman, which has a great cover). Their upcoming second album (Unlikely, whose songs will feature titles with animal names), is due out in 2017, backed by a crowdfunding campaign.
Far From Alaska is: singer Emmily Barreto, guitar player Rafael Brasil, bass player Eduardo Filgueira, drummer Lauro Kirsch and keyboardist Cris Botarelli, who also sings and plays slide guitar. The band’s sound can be defined as stoner rock and their heavy, atmospheric and riff-based songs are sung in English.
I’d gotten a good seat in the theater, right in front of the stage, a great place to enjoy the show and take good pictures. My good fortune, however, was short-lived. Before starting to sing, Emmily Barreto called the audience to the front of the stage — if I wanted to shoot, I‘d must be in the middle of the crowd. That was ok because I was able to walk free throughout the theater and shoot the band from various angles. Their sound doesn’t call for a sitting audience, by the way.
Far From Alaska is a very tight band. The heavier parts are felt like a wall of sound by the audience thanks to the precision with which each member plays their parts. Rafael and Eduardo put good use to a lot of effects on guitar and bass. The interaction between them and Lauro Kirsch is great, which ensures that the dynamics variations have the intended impact.
They opened with “Thievery”, which was followed by more songs from ModeHuman, plus two songs from the upcoming second album. Emmily’s voice was what caught my attention when I first heard the band live, a few months ago. She travels easily between the melodious and soft singing and the aggressive moments in which the song demands more vocal power.
This concert showed me how keyboardist Cris Botarelli is also a good guitarist. Playing a lap steel next to his little synth, Cris showed good technique and a great taste for melodies on this instrument that isn’t commonly heard in heavy bands. “Politiks” is a good example of this cool mix.
I sometimes face with a certain distrust Brazilian bands that sing in English, especially if their members are very young - the risk of finding only half-baked cliches is always a possibility. Far From Alaska isn’t one of those cases, though. The quality of the compositions and arrangements shows that they still have a lot to offer.
There’s plenty of FFA stuff on the internet, including well-directed videos for “About Knives”, “Dino Vs. Dino”, and a full performance at the Estúdio Showlivre. Their EPs and albums are also on streaming platforms.
… And, for more pictures of this concert, there’s an album on my Flickr account.
