Ratos de Porão + Dead Fish (09/03/2014)

Yesterday I got to take part in a historic moment of the Brazilian Punk-Hardcore scene. Still being alive and still playing on the road after 33 years of existence is an accomplishment that few bands have in their repertoire. Ratos de Porão recorded their first album in 1984, and this year they are celebrating its 30^th anniversary. To commemorate, the band put up two shows, bringing back the original line-up that recorded “Crucificados pelo Sistema”.

I got to the venue right before Dead Fish started playing. This band dates back to the early nineties, and coincidently this year they are also celebrating the 10^th anniversary of one of their most well succeed albums – “Zero e Um”. I am not the biggest fan when it comes to punk-rock or melodic hardcore, but I gotta give it to these guys, this was a pretty damn good show. The vocalist was unstoppable during the entire show, and the drummer really is nothing short than amazing. The band played the album from the beginning to the end, making the crowd go insane. A crowd with a lot of young blood that was able to boost the band with their sing-along and unstoppable moshpits. It was a great opening for Ratos, which surprised me at all levels. The only negative point to mention was the sickening teenagers and posers taking selfies with their iPhones during the entire show. Or maybe it is just me getting old and grumpy.

Now to Ratos! Back in February 2013, I had just arrived in Brazil when I got to see Ratos for the first time playing at home(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6oKHkJm_yQ). That was simply an amazing and brutal show, which even surpassed the one I’ve seen from them 7 or 8 years ago in Portugal. I knew this wasn’t going to be the best show I would see from them, but it was also not supposed to! This was supposed to be an historic and fun show. And it was!! Jão, the current guitarist went to the Drums, Mingau came back from the dead (1984), left the bass with Ultraje a Rigor and took the guitar for the night, Jabá also returned and took the bass and João Gordo assumed his front-man position. As expected, the setlist covered “Crucificados pelo Sistema” but it also included some other early 80’s classics that you hardly get to see at any Ratos show. Hell yeah, old school style!!!! I missed those usual classic punks and more of those die-hard Ratos fans in the crowd, but still, the moshpit was insane - old school pogo, no fancy dancing, beer and sweat in the air, and memorable singalongs. Given the songs played, the setlist hardly had any song with more than 2 minutes which allowed the crowd to keep the energy during the entire show. A Ratos show is simply CHAOTIC, and you got to love that! After one encore and several Ratos chants from the crowd, it was time to go home.

In the end, everybody left the place smiling. It was a different show from Ratos, a show in which you could see the guys having fun going back in time. I take my hat off to Ratos de Porão, not only as Brazilian classic band, but as an international classic band! Oh, and from what I heard, a new album is coming! “RATOS! RATOS! RATOS!”