The 5 Most Memorable Gigs I Went To In 2014

Thankfully, this was yet another year in which I saw loads of amazing bands play and where I had loads of great experiences at gigs, festivals, and club nights. This was my first year at the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona (which was awesome! Even if it did drown one pair of my shoes), and this was the year two excellent new pop venues opened close to where I live. The new Doornroosje at a stone throw’s distance looks wonderful, and the new Tivoli Vredenburg with all its different rooms on different floors is just perfection. I saw new and upcoming bands like Years & Years and Thomas Azier (2x), people at the top of their game like St. Vincent (3x) and Spoon (2x), and old dogs like Morrissey (almost 2x, you know how that goes...) and Giorgio Moroder. Oh what a year, and the following five gigs were the ones that stuck out of that whole pack of great experiences for me for one reason or another. (vids not from the gigs listed below)

1. WhoMadeWho @ Ekko

These boys, when they’ve got it on, they’ve got it on. In the small venue Ekko in Utrecht these guys were really doing their thing, with those soulful vocals and those melancholic-yet-dancey sounds they create. Add to that the fact that these guys, whilst playing an instrument, still manage to add some theatrics in there as well, and you’ve got a live show with great music plus some good entertainment to boot. Not to mention that it does seem like they are having fun, which in turn spreads to the audience like a virus. Thus live they both sing and play their instruments expertedly, they add theatrics, and they put the joy in the experience as well. Plus just that little dash of mayhem when they end it in the audience with ‘Satisfaction’. What more do you need, really?

2. Blood Orange @ Primavera Sound

I vividly remember this young fellow sitting right in front of the mic stand by his lonesome self a good half hour before the show. After the gig, I knew why. Blood Orange, the funk outfit led by the prolific Dev Hynes, really turns up the groove live. The sound at the start of the gig was a tad dodgy, but that ship was righted after about a song and a half or so, and then it’s all fabulosity from there on. You’ve got the funky guitar of Hynes, the female vocals, the horns, the tight rhythm section: it all just works. Add some good, groovy tunes in there, a Solange cover, and Hynes busting a move like he’s Mr. Jackson himself, and you’ve just got this deliciously fun & funky show on the “small” Pitchfork stage at the Spanish Primavera Sound festival.

3. Darkside @ 05 Days Off

I would remember this show only for the girls trying to squeeze their way through the audience a minute before the start. Getting loads of dirty looks as they push their way up front, one of them agitatedly remarks “why the heck are they looking so angrily at us. It’s not like they reserved these places or something”. Ehrm, yes we did, the moment we arrived at the place an hour before kick-off time to make sure we’re close to where the action is. Oh well. I already loved the album by the duo of Dave Harrington and Nicolas Jaar, and what they do live so well is that they just add a bit more oomph to the beats to get a bit of a dance vibe going. Add that to the fact that they are craftsmen in their respective fields, and that they nail the vibe perfectly, and then this show maybe epitomizes the year 2014, if only because apparently the lads have (at least temporarily) retired the Darkside moniker.

4. Future Islands @ Melkweg

Next to the fact that I just love the album and the songs, live they do add exactly those things that you want a band to add. Extra emotion, extra theatrics, extra effort, and this whilst still performing the songs as tight as on album. Frontman Samuel Herring really takes over. He looks like a real proper bloke, and sometimes he almost grunts as if in a metal band and nearly charges into the audience aggressively. Moments later though, he is shaking his booty or is doing that leg thing those girls in Western saloons always do (though slightly distorted, slightly more manic). And then he suddenly tries to touch the sky with his finger as he is almost teary-eyed. The guy really knows how to perform. Luckily the lads back him up in as solid a way as possible, so if you just love the songs, you’re not getting short-changed on that either. A must see live band, if only because next to all of this, they also do seem genuinely grateful and humble that they can perform for whatever audience is in front of them.

5. Slowdive @ Primavera Sound

Two major blokes just fainted during this show! True story, though I’m not sure if that’s because of how much they love Slowdive or whether something else was in play (probably the latter, though it was in the open air, so it wasn’t a shortage of oxygen or whatever). Slowdive have reunited for a string of gigs (and, next year, an album apparently), and they didn’t make a mockery of their former selves, performing as tight as a band with so many guitars can possible perform. Dreamy shoegaze performed to perfection, the band just weave this intricate web of guitars and other sounds, with on top of that these dreamy male and female vocals. From the word go they managed to completely mesmerize me, and as someone who missed them during their first go around I’m happy they’re not only back, but that they have matured rather than aged (not that they were teenagers when they stopped or anything, but you get my drift).

This list is Stef Siepel’s, writer of, amongst others, the Weekly Froth column that goes live every Friday. It does in no way reflect the collective Musos Guide opinion.

The Weekly Froth! A weekly take on six tracks, most of which have recently popped up somewhere in the blogosphere. Bit of a mixed bag with a slight leaning towards house, disco, and remixes, but generally just anything that for some reason tickled the writer’s fancy.

Track of the week: ‘Love Don’t Wait’ by Ron Basejam

That start, just freaking love it. Just starts out with all the funk it can muster, and when the vocals come in after about eighteen seconds so comes the beat. Thirty seconds in you get all those disco funk sounds of the '70s in their full glory. The vocals go “love don’t wait”, and neither does that bass, which together with the drums and that little guitar riff steal the show here. After the little drop at about 1:20 we get the female vocals starting to sing the verse, and she gets some help from those classic horn and string sounds that are just so characteristic to the genre. After the verse she sassily says that love just don’t wait for nobody (so honey, if you want to hop on, hop on, ‘cause I’m leaving thats whut aim sayin’, hmmm-hmmm). There’s a nice drum build-up in the fourth minute of this track, where Basejam just adds all those percussion sounds on top of each other until there’s no more percussion left, after which he adds a bit of piano to balance it out a bit. He rides this full sound out for a long while, though when he nears the very end he kind of tones it down a bit, though he keeps the drums up high in the mix until about 20 seconds before the very very end. It’s got all the goodness of the genre, and he just knows how to get the most out of things like this. Another ace tune here.

‘All For One’ by Bottin feat. Rodion

I like the cheeky way this one starts, with those synths and that talky voice. There’s just something a bit naughty to it, I feel. And spacey, especially when it enters the second minute and it gets that higher spaced out synth sound going. At 1:30 there’s the first real change-up, basically taking the rhythm synth out of there. After that period Bottin throws in a faster paced synth with a bit more of an italo vibe, though despite the change of pace he makes sure that the original sounds and vibes keep oozing out of there. Next time up there’s a bit of a change with a nice little bass, after which he ups the pace again to keep that dancefloor going. Throughout the song you have that mysterious, deep voice whispering in your ear, which I love. Just a really nice track that’s huge in its spaceness.

‘Take Me’ by Buzz Compass

This one starts out nice and deep, and within that deep core he starts to build-up some lighter sounds to get the tune more in balance. The deep rhythm is the heart of the track though, and within those city limits he plays around with some sounds that never veer away too much from that deep center. Just before the second minute mark there’s a nice, slight change, though at 2:30 he really changes it up for a moment. The track instantly steers away a bit from the deep rhythm (to return to that at around 3:20), and starts exploring the jazz clubs a bit with some more experimental sounds. As said, after that Buzz Compass returns to that deep rhythm again, which has been the heart of this track from the start. He then rides that one out until the very end.

‘You’ by Monsoon Season feat. Evelyn Joyce

I love the vocals that come in at about the forty second mark. Just full of strong, sensual femininity. Those vocals sound really full and solid, but still have this womanness that cannot be denied. In the mean time, since the start, there’s this disco loop going on in the background that is catchy and that one cannot sit still too. It is this nice marriage of that disco sound and those strong female vocals that are so very classic. What makes it stand out a bit is that, to me, the vocals aren’t necessarily very disco diva like, but more like someone whose been doing the rounds in Parisian nightclubs. It kind of has that jazz like quality to it, as she croons that she “never ever thought I would have something to lose”. In the mean time, that disco line is being looped silly, and that surely is the way that everyone likes it, with some minor changes on top of the main instrumental sound to keep it all interesting enough until the very end.

 ‘Conscious’ by Soul Clap

Right from the start it is abundantly clear that Soul Clap is aiming for the dancefloor with this one, with that dubby beat getting the full work-out here from the get go. The track really starts at about 35 seconds in, when Soul Clap starts putting the flavour of the original in a bit (mostly thanks to that bass sound, which isn’t really used as rhythm here as it is so low in the mix compared to the beat). They make you very, very aware that this is an edit, as they put the  bass on loop and make it very clear when they add in other sounds (and they sure make you know they don’t put these things in in their natural order). At about 2:50 they smoothen things out a bit, as they loosen the chain on the vocals somewhat. So if the artificiality hadn’t tipped you off enough, yes, this is an edit, and yes, it’s from that Womack & Womack track. I love the middle part of this tune, as Soul Clap has this rhythm thing with the percussion and bass going now, and it lets you enjoy way more of the original at this point in. By now, it has turned into a delicious groover with loads of the original elements to give you the full punch out. So suddenly, now no one is minding its near ten minute running time anymore. Just before the seven minute mark they break up the groove for a minute, coming back with a more looping, modern part to put this one to an end.

‘Consolation’ by The Helen Hollins Singers (Nicolas Jaar edit)

So the World Cup soccer, at the time of writing, is still in full swing, and by now loads of fans have already been in need of some serious consolation. And wunderkind (writing this just minutes after the 7-1 whopping Germany gave the Brasilian side) Nicolas Jaar was so kind to release an old edit of his after his home country was knocked out. There’s something thrilling about the win-or-go-home format, and though sports and disco have sometimes been on opposite sides of each other (who doesn’t remember the burning of disco records during a baseball game, sports fans showing off all of their masculinity and burning the effeminate side of “man” ), it is nice to know that in 2014 we can enjoy sports and, when your team has lost, you can grab this disco tinged edit someone made specifically for this purpose. You get the full 80s soul goodness from the Helen Hollins Singers with some extra rhythm, percussion and haunty synths to make this edit a worthwhile addition to sit next to the original track.