Three Shows to See This Week in Rio de Janeiro

By Chesney Hearst, Senior Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Three international acts; Michael Bublé, Farnaz Jahanbin and Teenage Bottlerocket, will perform live in Rio between Wednesday, September 17th and Sunday, September 21st and their concerts will bring a variety of music to the Cidade Maravilhosa this week, including everything from big-band crooning to Persian classical and folk music to punk rock.

First on Wednesday, September 17th, Grammy-Award-winner Michael Bublé will play live at Barra da Tijuca’s HSBC Arena. Well known for his songs; “Home”, “Everything”, “Close Your Eyes”, “It’s A Beautiful Day”, and “Haven’t Met You Yet“, among others, Bublé was last in Brazil during 2012.

The Canadian singer returns to the country this month for four shows as part of his ongoing ​​world tour entitled, “To Be Loved”. The tour takes its name from his eighth studio album; “With each record, I started to get more power,” Bublé told The New York Times during an interview in April last year, adding, “and with more power I started to become myself.”

Known for making female audience members swoon and entertaining male attendees with talk of his love of hockey and goofy humor, Bublé’s first Brazilian show on the tour will be in Rio on September 17th, followed by three shows in São Paulo on the 19th, 20th and 21st.

Who: Michael Bublé
When: Wednesday, September 17th, gates open at 10PM.
Where: HSBC Arena, Avenida Embaixador Abelardo Bueno 3401, Barra da Tijuca
Entrance: R$90-R$750

Next on Sunday, September 21st American punk rock band, Teenage Bottlerocket will debut at Lapa’s Teatro Odisséia during the band’s first-ever tour of Brazil. Formed in 2001 in Laramie, Wyoming the four-piece band is fronted by twin brothers Ray and Brandon Carlisle.

Influenced musically by bands including The Ramones, Misfits and Screeching Weasel, the band features Ray and member Kody Templeman on vocals and guitar, Brandon on drums and fourth member Miguel Chen on bass.

Teenage Bottlerocket have released five studio albums and recently announced signing to Rise Records, a U.S.-based label home to other artists including Bouncing Souls, Memphis May Fire and Of Mice and Men.

Before the Rio show, the group will also play Curitba on the 19th and São Paulo on the 20th.

Who: Teenage Bottlerocket
When: Sunday, September 21st, 6PM
Where: Teatro Odisséia, Avenida Mem de Sá 66, Lapa
Entrance: R$65

Finally on Tuesday, September 23rd, Iranian singer and artist Farnaz Jahanbin will present a much smaller but nonetheless notable performance of Persian classical and folk music, as part of the Iran-Rio Art Connection. “I started [singing] ten years ago,” Jahanbin explained to The Rio Times. “I have had some private concerts in my country, but only for women and as you know if we want to play for a mixed audience [men and women] as performers, we should go abroad. This is the first time that I [will] to sing for a foreign audience outside of my country.”

A partnership of Largo das Artes with the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development, the Iran-Rio Art Connection involves four young Iranian artists participating in a month-long residency at the Largo Das Artes in Centro.

During the residency, Jahanbin along with artists; Shadi Ghadirian, Amin Aghaei and Ali Zanjani, is involved in various events including panel discussions, a final exhibition which will open on September 25th and Jahanbin’s invitation-only concert on Thursday.

“I choose some Persian folk songs that I want to sing on September 23rd,” Jahanbin continued, “These songs are mixed traditional and pop works and the poems are about simple Persian people who lived around five or six decades ago in the villages and had a very simple life. Their poems tell us about their happiness, their sadness and their desires.”

“By these songs [in my concert] I think I can show foreign people nice melodic Persian music. And I would like to help form good lines of communication between Brazil and Iran through this […] This is my goal.”

Who: Farnaz Jahanbin
When: Thursday, September 23rd, 8PM. Date and time of concert subject to change.
The show is invitation only, see the Largo das Artes website, here, for more information.