Reflective Roberto Carlos Resists Chest-Thumping

Universal Amphitheatre has developed quite a knack for packing the house by booking big-name Latin pop stars, many of the saccharine crooner variety. Fortunately, Brazil’s Roberto Carlos did much to resist the chest-thumping sentimentality and “My Way”-narcissism of his peers during his show there on Friday.

Carlos’ better love songs transcend mere retelling of the heart’s loses. Instead, like Garcia Marquez’s eternally lovesick Florentino Ariza, Carlos invokes a balancing femininity; a sensual and moral ethic for facing life and death. His rendition of Gardel’s classic tango “Volver,” and “Detalles,” an exceptionally poignant song in which Carlos accompanies his dense, reedy, vibrato-less voice on solo guitar, illustrate this deeper side.

His mostly female audience, however, didn’t seem ready to accept the reflective, older, more domestic fellow Carlos seems to have become. Rabid females, soaring over Carlos and his formidably loud 16-piece band, repeatedly screamed amorous declarations. He also indulged in some sing-song trifles (“Mis Amores”), and the easy moralizing of “Apocalipsis,” a slightly acid-rock tune condemning abortion, drugs and violence in one breath.