Cards on the table, I’m not at all well versed with Fado. I’ve heard a little Amelia Rodrigues and heard some stuff walking down the street and that’s the entirety of what I know. So, when I had the chance to go see some at the Castelo, I was quite excited to listen to more of this distinctly Portuguese sound and Katia Guerreiro and then Jaca surpassed all of my expectations.
Unexpectedly, the star of the show ended up being the Portuguese guitar. It’s a much pluckier, twangier folksy sound than I expected. I expected the vocals to be the center, but Pedro de Castro’s guitar work was the absolute highlight for me and the band gave him plenty of space to operate. He had some truly excellent solos over the course of the performance.
The vocal work was also noteworthy. Katia Guerreiro has a strong voice and she let it free. The first song was a little one note in the vocals, a little too inundated with the national saudade, but she brought in a lot of fun and a lot of folk in a genre often thought staid over the concert. Her third song had very lighthearted vocals and that energy brought a nice lift after two solemn songs.
They followed that with an opener that was just vocals and a single backing guitar. It was powerful singing, but the return of the Portuguese guitar was an auditory relief after the steamed up vocals. Ms. Guerreiro was able to stay on top of the emotion in her songs, but it was still very good to have the strings as a complement.
The locale also did a lot for the show. Castelo de Sao Jorge is the most iconic of Lisbon’s landmarks and an incredible setting for a concert. I could have done without the peacock’s accompaniment, but it was as good a concert venue as I have ever seen.
She followed that with a straight a cappella section and it was quite solid, but the heavy emotion of the singing needed some kind of counterbalance. The strings came in after a while to temper her voice, but by that point my ears were already oversaturated. It’s clever then that they followed up with something light and fun. I don’t know if it was actually a drinking song, but if not, it should be. It as a fun track done well and had the audience clapping along
The next song brought in the guest vocalist Jaca. It was a great surprise for me, but unfortunately his voice wasn’t quite up to scratch. There was excellent fado guitar work though and the lead vocalist kept up her strong performance.
Jaca did much better with the next song, which was much more pop. This was clearly one of his tracks but Ms. Guerreiro did well in it too. Jaca’s rapping was also quite good and the band played well off him. They even got some trap bass in there.
He dropped one of his singles next, just him and his guitarist. It was a solid track, but definitely needed a second idea somewhere in the song. It was good, but always felt like it was waiting for a small evolution.
He did better in the rapping of his second solo song than the first. He finds a bit more of his own voice with it. The production was unfortunately a little overloud. The guitars were more interesting than the beat but ended up overpowered. He brought in the fado guitar as support very well though. It really picked up the song. Unfortunately though, the song felt like a couple of separate threads that only came together right at the end and didn’t resolve cleanly there. It was still a good listen, but a little bit more work would have made it exceptional.
They went back to the original quartet for a fun folk song. Ms. Guerreira’s stage presence does a lot for these songs. She’s fun and animated for the fun songs. They followed that with a wonderful, tripping string melody. The conversational vocals in the foreground were also excellent, but those strings were nothing short of incredible. The final song was an upbeat lounge track. It honestly belonged in a tourist hotel lobby and not a concert like this. It was definitely their weakest track, but Ms. Guerreria was more than personable enough to carry it.
The encore had some fun pieces. Jaca can rap and there was a wonderful transition straight to the fado guitar. The singer couldn’t quite find the right follow up, but she warmed up to her song quickly. It was getting to be a late night and mistakes started creeping in, but it was still a lot of fun and the two vocalists mixed wonderfully and I really couldn’t have asked for anything more.
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