Last
weekend, on Friday the 16th and Saturday the 17th of December, the city of
Ghent was the stage for the first edition of Glimps. Glimps is a brand new
international showcase festival for professionals and the public. A total of
fifty-one bands performed at ten indoor locations in Ghent.
Glimps wants to introduce rock and pop talent
from all over the continent to professionals (bookers, managers, record
executives, programmers, journalists, ...) from the Belgian and European music
industry. The focus is explicitly on groups from continental and new Europe,
most importantly from regions that are rarely addressed. The festival is not
only intended for professionals: Glimps is open to the public as well.
I visited Glimps
last Saturday. Unfortunately, the concept was better than the groups
performing. The idea of using ten different locations was fine. The locations
were quite cosy and close together. The groups themselves, however, were not
exactly excellent. The Belgian groups still stood out the most.
Glimps was
also the centre of some mild controverse even before it started, because the
festival was organised by two management offices. These management offices were
of course more preoccupies with putting their own groups out there than setting
up a neutral music festival.
Last week
Spotify launched their long-awaited Belgian version. Many people believe
Spotify to be the future of the music industry. The concept is simple: access
to a huge catalogue where the cloud provides any music you want. If you dont
mind some advertisement you can stream music for free, if you do, you just pay
five or ten euro a month. For five euro you arent bothered with any
advertising and for ten euro you can also play your music offline. Spotify is
legal, but that does not mean the artists can get rich of it. The artists get only
a very small amount of the turnovers. It is, however, better for an artist to
get played on Spotify than for example Youtube, where he would get nothing for
his efforts. Spotify is currently available in Austria, Belgium, Denmark,
Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the
United Kingdom and the United States. Whether Spotify will be the success it is
expected to become remains to be seen.
Last week, I went to Brownswood night. Brownswood
is the label of the famous radio DJ Gilles Peterson. Three artists were
performing that night. The first one was Sarah Mcfarlane, a 28-year-old singer
based in London. She is mostly celebrated for making some memorable appearances
with musicians who are known to not choose their collaborators lightly Denys
Baptiste, Orphy Robinson, Soweto Kinch and Jazz Jamaica All Stars, to name a
few. She played a quiet, jazzy set, which did become a bit tedious after a
while. The second act of the evening was Owiny Sigoma Band. This band exists of
a handful of London-based musicians who travelled to Nairobi in Kenya to
collaborate with local musicians. Their act at the Depot was therefore quite
multicultural as well, with two guys from Kenya and three from London. This
show, although interesting at first, was also not able to mesmerize the crowd
for very long. They did have very nice merchandise with handmade necklaces and
masks. After the two performances, DJ Lefto closed the evening with a party
with a fantastic set and a great diversity in music.
At the
moment, Het Depot has a temporary venue in Leuven. Since they are rebuilding
their normal venue, they had to look for another location. This new venue in
the Kapucijnenvoer has a smaller capacity: they can only accommodate about 450
people. Last Monday, The Shoes played in a quiet, empty venue. Only 45
tickets were ordered in advance. Understandably, it was not exactly a case of
the crowd going wild. The evening started with a DJ-collective from Leuven
called Mindwarp, followed by another DJ called Shindu. They were both quite
redundant because there was no audience and they had to play for an almost
empty venue. But then The Shoes started. The classic rock band- formation (four
guys on a podium) still seems to work. Two guys playing percussion, two guys on
electronica and guitar. From the beginning of the show they were excellent.
They had an outstanding set list of ten songs that was quite short, but despite
of the small turnout they were able to stir up the audience. With a good light
show and a perfect sound, the technical aspects were first-class as well.
And So And So I Watch You From Afar âVk Concerts
Last week I
have been to a show in Molenbeek, by Brussels. The show had been organised by
true Vk Concerts in a venue called The Chocaleterie. It was the first time I
came to this very small but cosy venue. The group that was playing was ASIWYFA,
one of my favourite bands. ASIWYFA is a North-Irish four-man formation that
plays instrumental rock. They are known for their energetic and powerful
actions. They began in 2005 and since then they made two excellent full albums
and three EPs.
The show
The show
was amazing. Like I said before, I am a huge fan of this band so my
expectations were really high. However, ASIWYFA did not let their audience
down: my expectations were met and even exceeded.
In total
they played ten songs, two of which were encores. They started with the
powerful song BEAUTIFULUNIVERSEMASTERCHAMPION. In the beginning, the audience
was a bit unresponsive and quiet. However, after two or three songs ASIWYFA was
able to wake up the crowd and get everybody enthusiastic, especially the people
at the front row (where I was standing). They played songs like 7 billions
people live at ones, Search:part:Animal and Lifeproof, to end with a bang
with Voiceless and Set guitar to Kill.
Last
Saturday, I went to Play festival. Play festival is an indoor club festival in
the Muziekodroom. The festival has five stages, some with quite funny names
like Fuzz and Bleep. The line up mostly consisted of Belgian acts.
The bands I
saw were:
-Quarterback:
Unfortunately, I only saw them perform their last song. I was very pleasantly
surprised and I am dying to see more of them in the future.
-Rape
Blossoms: Noise bands are not really my area of expertise, but as far as I
could tell they did a good job.
-The
Allophons: Without a doubt the most interesting band of the evening. This
DJ-duo did a cut- and paste set. It was clear that they enjoyed themselves on
stage, which is always a fun sight to see.
-Intergalactic
Lovers: I already saw them a few times and they did not really bring something
new, so this set could not hold my attention for very long.
-Benny Zen:
The worst band in the world.
-Psycho 44:
This band was one of my personal favourites that evening. Instrumentally very
good and an absolutely amazing singer with a flawless voice: their sound was so
astonishing that it completely blew me away.
-Balthazar:
Like Intergalactic Lovers, I already saw them a few times. However, I enjoyed
Balthazar a lot more this evening. As always they were very good.
-Steak
Number Eight: The best band of the evening. I had never seen them before and
Im normally not into metal, but they were fantastic. A great sound, great
front man, great light show and a great performance all in all.
-Hickey
Underworld: Also a really good show. Free beer, plectrums and sweat of the bass
player soaring through the air gave a nice touch to it.
Sunday the
22th of may I have been to the Cirque Royal in Brussels. There were three acts;
two support acts and one main act. The worst band of the evening was the main
act, Mercury Rev.
The first
band of the evening was Royal Bangs. Royal Bangs is an American music group
from Knoxville. This trio played energetic pop songs from their last album.
The second
band was The Walkmen. The Walkmen is an American indie rock band, with members
based in New York City and Philadelphia. They have several good tracks but I expected
more of this show; the numbers were rather slow and boring. Only the last track
was a bit energetic.
But still
was The Walkmen not the worst act of the evening.
Mercury Rev
the well-known band from the eighties was just not good. They had a royal lightning
show, with dozens of candles on the stage. They had a seven men band that tried
to create a dreamy atmosphere.
They didnt
succeed in this intent. The show was just not good, it sounds gay.
Fortunately
we didnt have to pay. We were making promo for Democrazy.
Exit
through the gift shop is a movie about the famous street artist Banksy. The
British artist lives in complete mystery. The man operates, true to its roots
as a street artist, always in secret, and appears never in public.
His first film 'Exit through the Gift Shop "is completely in line with his
work: it is a film about himself (or maybe not). In 'Exit through the gift shop'
we meet one Thierry Guetta, a Frenchman with his camcorder. For years he filmed
the most famous street artists of the graffiti scene in LA and so also learned
about Banksy. Exit through the Gift Shop" is a clever and funny
mockumentary.
But the big questions are: Is the almost caricatured French Guetta real?
Is it not just the art of Banksy? Was the big opening in the warehouse not just
put in scene?
We will never know the answer to this question. I think we dont kneed to know
them. Mysteries are fun!
Next week there
is a special festival in Ghent called Berlinaire. Berlinaire is a two day
Berlin festival that will take place in Vooruit Ghent on 8th and 9th April
2011, for all those that want to be blown of their feet by the totally unknown.
A festival during which various art forms flow into one another. The visitor
will get music, expressive arts, visuals and film. And of course, the
underground character of the German capital will be put into focus, thus making
the festival a very unique event. Berlinaire will simply give all visitors a
Berlin weekend in Ghent. In the field of music, the public will encounter a
total concept of electronic music and innovative sound and light effects. The
expressive arts and visuals will be shown continuously during the opening
exhibition as well as during the musical performances. The movie nature will be
done like a real film festival for which young moviemakers have already been
invited to participate and compete for the first prize. The artistic team only
consists of Berliners and Berlin lovers. The
versatility of what will be offered can even be found in the number of halls
which Vooruit puts at the festivals disposal: the ballroom, the concert hall,
the theatre, the antic loft and even every single corridor.
Last week I
have been to Barcelona. Barcelona is a city in Catalonië, the east of Spain.
Barcelona
is perfect for a city trip. We have been there for a couple of days. We stayed
in a hotel in the centre, at plaza Catalunya. During the days we visited the
most typical, touristic spots. La Rambla is one of the most important streets
in Barcelona, for me it was a nightmare. It is just a street with a million
tourists on. There is nothing to see. One of the better things we saw was Plaza
Reial, a small square in the middle of the old centre. Here you can sit and
relax in one of the nice bars.
Guadi is one of the famous architects from Barcelona. He is everywhere present
on the street. You have some big houses that he designed but off course the
most important church in Barcelona is the Sagrada Familia.
Beside
Gaudi, there are many interesting museums in Barcelona. My two favourites are
the museum of contemporary art and the museum of modern art. The both of them
are amazing buildings.One of them is on
a hill with a panorama of the city.
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