NELLY FURTADO
Schubas Tavern
August 28th, 2000 : Chicago

The narrow stage of Schubas, a Victorian-era bar and club in a hip neighborhood on Chicago's North Side, was hardly enough to contain the centrifugal energy of Nelly Furtado.  Shouting, twirling and dancing barefoot across its tiny expanse, Furtado more than once nearly landed in the lap of her drummer.  She was making a point.  Opening with two thumping, Carnival-style party grooves - "I Will Make You Cry" and "Baby Girl" - the waif-size singer showed that even thought she may be shoeless, she can still kick some ass when she needs to.  With that business taken care of, she could relax a little.  But it wasn't until midway through the set, when she strapped on a guitar, planted herself front and center, and launched into  "Hey Man," that Furtado, 21, revealed herself to be an extraordinarily well-developed songwriter, easily a match for the gusts of hype that have swirled around her since she performed a few Lilith Fair dates last year.  Furtado's songs exude a tropical sensuality rooted in Brazilian samba and Portuguese rural folk music - as she explained, she is a Canadian born of Portuguese parents.  Yet they are recognizably pop and irresistibly catchy, song after song.  The gorgeous "Legend" and "I'm Like a Bird" mapped out common ground between the tough-girl folk-pop of New York City and the exotic sway of Rio de Janeiro.  The brassy ring of her surprisingly powerful voice gives her music heft.  And there were odd, strangely fitting echoes - of Philip Glass on "Hey Man" and of TLC on her supercharged "Turn Off the Light."  Glaring out with cool green eyes, Furtado was a riveting presence for whom it was easy to imagine far bigger things.

- David Thigpen

page 42 of Rolling Stone magazine
Issue 851 >> October 12, 2000