CIBO MATTO At: Brighton Music Hall, Wednesday
Ten years is a long time to wait, so it’s no surprise that the
sold-out crowd for the first local Cibo Matto show in a decade was
anxious to get the party started. At Brighton Music Hall Wednesday
night, fans were yelling out the names of songs from the New York
Japanese-American duo’s era-defining 1990s albums before they even took
the stage.
They didn’t leave disappointed. Yuka Honda, whose
reserved demeanor contrasted with the noisy squalls of horn blasts and
thick bass and beats she manipulated from behind her keyboards, and Miho
Hatori, the brash, stylish exemplar of both hip-hop swagger and
romantic crooning, ran through an hour and change of their greatest
hits.
But it wasn’t until the gorgeously romantic “Spoon,’’ with
its funky drum-roll loops and spy-film guitar riffs, and a drummer and
bass player joining mid-song, that their energy matched expectations.
New material proved they are as adept at genre-splicing as ever,
stirring hip-hop, electro, samba, and jazz into short servings of
exuberant joy.
Soon afterward came the swooning slow dance of
“Moon Child,’’ with bassist Jesse Murphy providing a nice upper-register
harmony. Superstar drummer Yuko Araki made it hard to stand still, and
it’s doubtful there was anyone in the crowd who wasn’t pogoing along
with the band, at least in spirit, for the joyous “Birthday Cake.’’
Altered
arrangements for fan favorites like “Sci-Fi Wasabi,’’ played here as a
dub track, and “Know Your Chicken,’’ with a less herky jerky approach
and a new melody line, showed that the band is still willing to take
chances, and that the lengthy hiatus was well worth the wait.
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