Ventre
Ventre (Belly, in Portuguese) is a trio from Rio de Janeiro that makes a powerful, riff-based rock, with sinuous and often delicate melodies sung in Portuguese. A little from the 70’s and another little from the 90’s, in a nice mix of Hendrix and Smashing Pumpkins.
Singer/guitarist Gabriel Ventura uses wisely his many guitar effect pedals, plugged to an old semi-acoustic guitar. He makes few solos, at least in the traditional sense of the term, focussing on good dynamics and mood variations. I really enjoyed the tones he’s got from the instrument throughout the show. The band’s first album and also this concert got me the impression that he doesn’t explore his good voice in all its extension. I’d like to hear more melodic variations on the vocal lines, which are somehow similar to one another. This is my only complaint about this great band.
The great bass player Hugo Noguchi delivers creative bass lines, makes chords here and there and add colors to everything with effects. The monstrously distorted tones he recorded for the songs in studio get a bit lost when played live, but this almost always happens in concerts with bass players that don’t play by the book, tone-wise speaking.
Larissa Conforto is the dream drummer of any rock band with a taste for the 70’s. Her tight and heavy variations are the joy of fans of visceral drummers like John Bonham, an interesting contrast to her delicate backing vocals. If on the record she kicks ass on the drums, live she’s even more impressive.
If, individually, each one plays their role very well, their interaction during the concert shows what makes them a real band. That was a really good concert, like few I’ve seen in recent times when it comes to new bands. Good compositions, incredible arrangements and passional playing. I think it’s quite rare, nowadays, to find bands formed by young people who want to make original music and be good at their instruments. Ventre is certainly one of these bands.
I was happy to see the place — which wasn’t small — packed with people embarking with joy on the band’s vibe, singing the songs’ lyrics excitedly, especially “Quente”, one of the album’s highlights. This song has great lyrics and riffs (and also have a cool video on You Tube — watch it at the end of this review).
I left the place sure I’d watched a great band in great form. I hope they come back to São Paulo soon.
There are more pictures of this concert in the album I made for the band in my Flickr account:
Originally published (in Portuguese) at fotografistademusica.wordpress.com on February 27, 2017.
