Not since I went to Brazil have I been surrounded by 90 per cent Brazilians singing along word for word and shaking their hips like they’ve got a fever. It’s a humbling experience to knowing that even if I tried, I could probably never ever move like that. So… It’s the Brazilian night at Beck’s Festival Bar and it’s been given to Uber Lingua to host. For those of you who don’t know, Uber Lingua is a mutlilingual crew born out of Melbourne and run my bP (known by his mother as Brendan Palmer). Backing him up are Stuart Buchanan, the man recently voted as having the best global music blog in the world. Add to this Mashy P, who has been at the forefront of Australian underground music scene for a number of years and currently playing some fine African techno.

Enough of the introductions though: as per usual the Hyde Park Barracks was packed from early in the night giving the place a real carnival buzz. Its was the sounds of the Uber Lingua Sound System that first got the crowd moving to the sounds of the MC/DJ fusion. But it was Brazilian band Monobloco that crowd had come to see. As Monobloco took the stage it was a close to Rio’s Carnival that Australia will ever get: so many drums, so many hips shaking and so many people singing along. As we watched the craziness unfold we pondered comparisons, maybe The Cat Empire playing in Brazil to a room of Australians? What ever the answer to experience is surreal, with call and responses missing their mark with the non-speakers, but with everyone’s hands in the air on time. It was impossible not to get caught up in the moment, trying to sing along and look for someone in the crowd whose hips you can mimic. So as Monobloco blazed through their tracks we were treated to samba, funk, rock and pop in an almost unruly fashion. With eight or so drums on stage it seemed to get a little same same (but different), but I know this was only true for my uneducated ears.

The job of following on from the live experience is never an easy one, and this time the decks were manned by Stuart Buchanan who kept the dance floor moving despite the massive lack of volume. I am not sure why but it went from 10 to about 5 after the band finished, but it was only from directly in front of the stage and speakers that you could be moved by the mix of baliefunk and other Brazilian beats that Stuart was dropping.