You should try to see Lido Pimienta next time she plays Austin. Here's why.
Lido Pimienta is a fiercely political vocalist who blends influences from her ancestry with globe-trotting modern sounds in order to create hypnotic electro pop.
Let's hear how the Colombian-born, Canadian-based singer describes her subversive and loud work herself. It’s “the lubricant that you would use to penetrate the patriarchy and white supremacy,” as she told Austin City Limits Music Festival onlookers Saturday at the Barton Springs Stage.
Basically, her performance was non-subtle, expertly minimalist, bilingual and terrific. Here are 5 reasons you should try to catch her next time.
Like any great hip-hop performer, she only needs one mic.
Pimienta’s captivating set was built on two people: Pimienta, dispensing backing music herself via sampler, and Nicaraguan-Canadian percussionist Brandon Valdivia. But dang if it wasn’t also engulfing. Backed by a screen showing drone footage of her gorgeous, coastal hometown of Barranquilla, Colombia — and one of those shrubbery green walls that you see locally at brunch spots like Irene’s — every minute was both a celebration and an indictment of colonialism. She will take rhythmic cues from Caribbean Bullerengue music and chant in both Spanish and English about how the police don’t protect her, but her girlfriends do.
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Lido Pimienta speaks her mind candidly and most will vehemently agree with her concerns.
On institutional control of artistry:
“Thank you to Austin City Limits for treating us with respect,” Pimienta said, saying that musicians are finally pushing back en masse on an industry that historically “exploits” them.
On the need for people to cleanse their lives of fake friends — and in particularly how to spot one:
“Take a photo with your friend, take a selfie, and have them pic which photo goes online,” she zinged.
On pushing back at insensitive descriptors of her work as “devilish” or “guttural”:
“You’re trying to tell me that my ancestry, my indigenousness is devilish?” she clapped back.
“You still have time to download the Rosetta Stone app,” she also deadpanned to curious watchers.
Yes, she’s a big personality. So much that Canada’s CBC just built a streaming children’s TV show around the Polaris Prize-winner.
As Pimiento told the Toronto Star recently: “When someone tells you to go back to your country as many times as they’ve told me, there are two choices, you either humble yourself or you empower yourself.”
The Star praised the series for satirizing the edutainment genre and telling difficult stories about topics like hate, beauty standards and feminism.
Onstage, she will discuss abortion rights with vigor and by calling out hypocrisy. Again, her fans will loudly agree and that’ll fuel enthusiasm.
If abortion is murder, she argued, then why aren’t people mad about the “babies” that are “ejaculated outside of the holy womb … into a sock?”
She added that the United States was not living up to its “branding” as “the land of the free,” and said it felt especially “surreal” because Colombia expanded abortion access just this year.
Lido Pimienta will play hurt.
“Last week I was very sick,” she said of ACL weekend one. “This week I’m just a little sick.” She clarified that it wasn’t COVID.
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OK but again the music is so crisp and well-written.
Set-closer “Eso Que Tu Haces” (“That Which You Do”) is a heartbreaking love song. “Nada” is stirring, written about her pregnancy, wherein she sang about “Todo lo que sufrí … todo lo que aprendí.” (“All I suffered. All I learned.”)
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Lido Pimienta at ACL Fest: Colombian-born, Canadian-based singer soars
