Sara Tavares at the Blender

Sara Tavares and her band took to the stage on 9/26 at the Blender Theater (formerly the Gramercy), presented by S.O.B.’s. Although Tavares’ performance and charisma were stunning, she spent a good part of the show trying to get the audience as pumped about the music as she was. The very real culture clash in the room was made apparent when Sara took a poll of Portuguese speakers (who cheered and sang in response) and English speakers (who politely raised their hands). Awkward. It was almost more awkward when everyone clapped along to the music. Again, while the Portuguese-speaking segment of the audience clapped along with the music’s very precise (though not very difficult) drum patterns, the English-speaking segment couldn’t keep up and reverted to the very normal 4-to-the-bar pattern.