Marisa Monte at The Beacon

I'm amazed by the amount of music out there that I know nothing about. Last night I saw Marisa Monte at the Beacon. She is a huge star in Brazil and in the Latin music world. I would know nothing of her if it wasn't for Mike at AEG, who promoted the show. I don't think I've ever seen the Beacon that packed. Day of show they put 100 SRO tickets on sale and they all sold out. That's about 2900 tickets. I read that she hasn't toured the States in 6 years, so I'm guessing fans were starved. The staging was quite elegant, like Marisa. She performed the first song completely in the dark accompanied by 9 musicians. It reminded the of the Public Image tour where they performed behind a curtain. PIL had chairs thrown at them; this was not the case last night. A solo light shone on her face at the end of the song. She was seated for the first few song, playing acoustic guitar on a riser behind and above most of her band. The other guitarists were seated next to her. Lighted panels that moved, created a cocoon for the band. Marisa has a beautiful voice, which was heightened by the instrumentation around her: ukulele, flugel horn, trumpet (according to her site, at the suggestion of Phillip Glass, she added a trumpet/flugel horn) keyboard, something that looked and sounded like a cowbell. Songs were sung in Spanish. My college Spanish failed me. My ears were opened to some beautiful music. A natural siting: David Byrne in the lobby before the show.