A Concert-Wise Look Back at 2014

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2013 has been outstanding concert-wise but who would have guessed that 2014 would be even better? Of course that’s what I had hoped but knowing that it wasn’t an easy task I was slightly reticent. But then came The Liberation-Indie Nation (indie-nation.org), a website of indie culture based in Geneva, which sent me to loads of concerts and festivals as a free-lance journalist. This was all I ever dreamed of! Thanks to The Liberation I also had the chance to do my first interviews with artists and bands, needless to say that I had a blast, but let’s look back to what happened in order.

I started off the year by seeing Poliça at Les Docks in Lausanne, it was mine and my sister’s coup de foudre of the previous summer and proved to be amazing once more. Then in February, The Liberation sent me to cover Haim‘s concert at Härterei in Zürich, new venue for me and a great band which I was glad to see once again. On March 23^rd I saw Bastille again in Malley, another memorable performance by this great band. Then off with some good old rock n’ roll, dancing all night with The Baseballs at Les Docks on April 30th, an incredible show topped with 77 Bombay Street as a surprise guest. At the end of May I flew to London to see my beloved Arctic Monkeys at Finsbury Park along with Miles Kane, Tame Impala and Royal Blood. I made amazing discoveries and I finally saw The Last Shadow Puppets live as Alex Turner and Miles Kane joined to play “Standing Next To Me”. I had also a taste of a British open air festival, with sunshine and rain, of course.

Once back in Switzerland I started covering the summer festival season for The Liberation-Indie Nation with Caribana Festival in Nyon. A small but really good quality festival featuring big bands like Queens Of The Stone Age and Pixies. There I had the chance to interview, among others, Blood Red Shoes and Kodaline. After Caribana Festival, on June 9^th, I headed to Zürich to see Kings Of Leon at Hallenstadion. A beautiful gig despite the fact that the band seemed to be rushed and barely talked to the audience. While I was working at the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, on Saturday 28 June I attended the Nuit des images, a big event organized by the museum. Besides photography and other great activities this event hosted also a double performance by Duck Duck Grey Duck. In the afternoon, they delighted the public with an acoustic set in the gardens and later at night they released all their energy, spreading their colourful notes into the pouring rain.

Kodaline & me after the interview at Caribana Festival, 5 June 2014

At the beginning of July I ventured myself to the huge Roskilde Festival, in Denmark for my very first festival outside Switzerland. It was an amazing experience and luckily I went with a Danish friend who knew it well and enjoyed my time with the locals. There I saw many music icons like The Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonder. Not to forget the mind-blowing surprise ending with Jack White and his band! Roskilde was immense in every way.

When I made my way back to Switzerland my long festival marathon continued. I went to see The Animen, an amazing Swiss indie-rock band, at the Festival de la Cité, in Lausanne where also Reptile Youth, a Danish rock band was playing. I saw Babyshambles at Montreux Jazz Festival with their unpredictable frontman Pete Doherty. Their opening act Von Pariahs was one of the greatest discoveries of my music summer. The day after, I went back after three years to one of my very favourite festivals in Switzerland: Gurtenfestival in Bern. Being back there was like finding myself at home again, I was familiar with most of the bands as well, I saw Kodaline and Bastian Baker for the second time in a few months. One of the most memorable gigs at Gurtenfestival was that of Franz Ferdinand, as the Scots’ energy was incredibly contagious at the point that the audience started entertaining the band by sitting down and doing the wave. I also saw Family Of The Year and Mighty Oaks which were part of the indie-folk soundtrack of the summer.

Bastian Baker & me after the interview at Caribana Festival, 6 June 2014

A few days break and then The Liberation sent me to cover the six days of concerts at Paléo Festival in Nyon. I’ve been going to Paléo every year since 2008 but this time I had the full experience of it as I could have a glimpse of the backstage as well. I saw 30 Seconds To Mars, The Black Keys, Stromae, Elton John, Cats On Trees and many many many others! I also interviewed Cats On Trees and Polar. On the 9^th of August I went for the first time to Heitere Openair in Zofingen, where among others had a fun time seeing The Vad Vuc, an Irish folk band from Ticino, and the brilliant Stromae once more. In the mid of August I went back to Open Air Gampel after 6 (!) years, there I saw an outstanding performance by Mando Diao which I had seen 6 years before in the very same place. Like back then it was memorable! I also made some great discoveries like Hozier and Clean Bandit; and enjoyed some hard rock and metal with Skindred and Volbeat. In Gampel I also had fun interviewing two great Swiss bands: YOKKO and Pegasus. I topped the bill and ended the summer with yet another new festival for me: For Noise Festival in Pully, where I interviewed Siôn Russell Jones and saw Beirut. A great end to an amazing summer of festivals. But I must admit I could barely stand at a concert after this long series of festivals.

On September 6^th I headed to Bern for NRJ Air a free (yes free!) event held at the huge Stade de Suisse hosting Kodaline, Jan Oliver, Pegasus and other artists. It was really cool and colourful. From the 19^th to the 21^st of September I attended the 6^th edition of Label Suisse, a free festival entirely dedicated to Swiss music which takes place every two years in the beautiful Lausanne. It’s pretty cool because it’s the city in which I live so the festival is right next door! This year it hosted more than 100 bands across seven venues: D!Club, Le Bourg, Les Docks, Le Romandie, EJMA, Church of St. François and last but not least the open-air stage on the Place Centrale. I saw some new acts like the talented Anna Aaron and danced a lot to the addictive rock n’ roll sound of Mama Rosin. Robin Girod, the singer of the latter band also happens to be the singer of Duck Duck Grey Duck, that I saw earlier in the Summer. Both bands are really cool! I saw The Animen again and I had a blast as usual, they even played some new songs for their next album that I’m really looking forward to!

Jan Oliver & me after the interview @ Caribana Festival, 7 June 2014

After the summer festivals it wasn’t over as I spent the autumn covering concerts for The Liberation, mostly at Les Docks, where, among others I saw The 1975 and The Notwist. On November 11 I ventured myself to yet another new venue, Ebullition in Bulle, where I interviewed and saw Maybeshewill, a mind-blowing post-rock band. Their support band Flood Of Red was also a great discovery! I also had the chance to see the mighty Ben Howard once more, this time at X-Tra Club in Zürich supported by the very talented Jack Garratt. Ben Howard presented his last album I Forget Where We Were and his gig was an absolute treat! I ended the year by seeing a mind-blowing performance by Mighty Oaks at Les Docks and with two tiny but great gigs at La Cave du Bleu Lézard in Lausanne featuring Samaris, Evelinn Trouble and Jordan Klassen. Check them out if you don’t know them yet!

I’m curious to see what awaits me music and concert-wise in 2015… I hope there will be lots of new and old bands, and of course more interviews and concert coverage with The Liberation! Thanks to my newer and older concert buddies who shared with me these great moments, here’s to hope that you’ll be up front with me also in 2015 🙂

ARCTIC MONKEYS live @Finsbury Park, London (UK), Saturday 24th May 2014

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This was a huge special outdoor concert by Arctic Monkeys, held at Finsbury Park in London over two days 23^rd May and 24^th May. I got the tickets for the second because I like to follow Billie Joe Armstrong’s motto that “The second day is always better than the first”. However, I’m sure that both nights were pretty awesome, as are the headliners as well as the support bands. Indeed, Royal Blood, Miles Kane and Tame Impala were the opening bands, so a pretty exceptional line-up what do you reckon?

Queuing when the rain was pouring down was perhaps not that nice, but oh well, this is England and we all know how quickly the weather changes… Luckily the sun came out at times! Once me and my friend had crossed the gates we found ourselves in a huge park full of food stands and such. Turning right there was the stage in front of us, with a big screen on each side of it and the pitch in front divided by horizontal barriers. We went for the front pit which could host 10’000 people, yes no kidding, the rest of the pitch would have to fit the remaining 40’000, I told you this was a HUGE concert. We got a cool red paper wristband with “Arctic Monkeys-Front pit” written on it. We were all set and excited for the bands to start playing.

17h25-17h55

Royal Blood

The first act of the evening was Royal Blood, a young British duo playing a power rock which can remind you of the early Biffy Clyro as well as The Black Keys. To sum up: drums and a bass guitar, this is all that this band needs to astonish the listeners. They did it pretty well, getting everybody jumping on their songs and sing along to one of their most famous songs: “Little Monster”. They played for only 30min but their set was certainly intense. Remember their name and their songs because you are going to hear about them a lot!

18h30-19h10

Miles Kane

Miles Kane is one of those persons who seem born to be rockstars. When he is on stage, he owns it along with the audience. In his, unfortunately, rather short set he still managed to get everybody dancing and singing along to his rock n’ roll tunes like “Inhaler” and “Come Closer”. Miles Kane is, as usual, super engaging and amazing with the crowd, thanking everybody at the end with a “Thank you Finsbury you’ve been amazing. See you soon!”. This was the 6^th time I saw him and I truly can’t seem to get enough because the next appointment with Miles Kane will be at Caribana Festival next week. I’m looking forward to get my body shaken by his great music once again.

19h40-20h30

Tame Impala

For those of you unfamiliar with them, Tame Impala are a psychedelic rock band from Perth, Australia. Lots of guitar riffs and instrumental interludes in which your mind can wonder in whichever direction it wants. The screen on the two sides of the stage translated their psychedelic sound into images, which rendered the concert experience more complete. Their music, although being of high quality and great was perhaps not the ideal one to be played to such an audience. But, of course, it depends a lot on people’s tastes. However, they were super cool during “Elephant”, where they got the audience jumping and screaming and during “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” in which they were echoed by the audience’s choruses.

21h05-22h40

ARCTIC MONKEYS

Between the end of Tame Impala’s concert and the beginning of Arctic Monkeys’ set, a rather weird video was shown on the screens. The first thing to come to mind was that it had the same style of the “Do I Wanna Know” video, which suggested that it was made on purpose for the concert and to introduce the band. When the Arctic Monkeys‘ hour approached the video went back to its origin: a straight line which by different moves transforms itself into the oscilloscope of the AM album.

This is when the strangely empty stage turns by 180° and unveils the instruments, the black curtain is dropped and behind it the AM oscilloscope formed by small circular lights is ready to shine and  Jamie Cook, Matt Helders, Nick O’Malley and Alex Turner make their entrance. The 50’000 fans who are still standing on their feet scream and welcome the Sheffield lads.

Meanwhile, the opening notes of “Do I Wanna Know” set on Finsbury Park kicking off the concert with a great beat. The constant drums on that song are hard to forget as are the lyrics which go with them. If I were to describe this song played live with one word I would just use – WOW. It is under all aspects a WOW song, from its beat which drags you along the entire song, to the guitar slowly coming in and Alex Turner’s voice appearing after that, the rhetoric questions and the lyrics. It is a constant build up which leads to a feeling of awe in the audience, which is faithfully singing along to every single word.

“Do I Wanna Know” is followed by two other songs taken from their masterpiece AM, “Snap Out Of It” and “Arabella” which are both great live and to which the audience sing along. Afterwards Alex screams “We’re Arctic Monkeys from High Green” (a suburb of Sheffield), as if they needed to present themselves… When he announces that the next song to be played is good old “Brianstorm” the crowd goes crazy even before the bursting of the drums. For this song the mosh pit is pretty much all over the place. Well, how can you stay still with such a banging tune?

Further on, they take the audience through a selection of songs taken from Suck It And See and Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not. They then play an amazing “Crying Lightning” from their album Humbug. Then, back to AM with the hip-hoppy “Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High” which gets the crowd imitating rappers’ antics as well as sing along.

The lights on stage turn orange and red for “Fireside” as to evoke the perfect atmosphere for the title and the theme of the song to reflect reality. To introduce the next song Alex asks “How are the ladies?” at which, the ladies in the crowd scream very loud. Then he says “This is for you baby!”, as the notes of “I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor” set in. Finsbury Park transforms itself in a huge dancefloor with some mosh pits here and there and lots of jumping.

Alex Turner is increasingly more confident and completely different if compared to a couple of years ago when he was all shy on stage. Now the man has an attitude, rebellious and certainly cool! In between songs he turns towards Matt’s drums where he has is brush and adjusts his Elvis quiff because well, when he gets to songs like “I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor” even his strong hair wax cannot hold is hair in place.

After this burst of energy, the band as well as the crowd need some rest, which comes with the beautiful flow of the following three songs: “She’s Thunderstorms”, “No.1 Party Anthem” and the epic “Cornerstone”. They are all perfect songs to sing along, being rather quiet and slow. “No. 1 Party Anthem” is the antithesis of its title, it is beautiful on the CD but hearing it life is just marvellous, with Alex asking the audience to sing the refrain “Come on, come on, come on” with him. After that, they play a semi-acoustic version of “Cornerstone”, a proper treat. After all they couldn’t have left this song out, one of the bars at the concert was named “The Parrot’s Beak” after its lyrics.

After these brilliant and rather quiet songs Arctic Monkeys pick “Knee Socks”, for which the lights on the AM oscilloscope brighten up in different places to the beat of the drums and for which Nick’s chorus can be heard. Up next is one of the band’s milestones: “Fluorescent Adolescent” that with its catchy rhythm and witty lyrics is one of the fans’ favourites to sing along and swing to.

Arctic Monkeys announce that “505” will be their last song and bid goodbye to the audience. There is no Miles Kane joining them for this song, as he usually does when he is on tour with the Monkeys. They leave the stage, thanking the audience. However it is not over yet because the band is to return after the encore!

Or better, after five minutes or so Alex and Miles Kane come on stage, it’s just the two of them. The first thing that comes to mind is that they are going to play a song by The Last Shadow Puppets, the band they formed together. Indeed, this is it! Alex, with a cigarette in his hand, asks the public: “Do you like that Last Shadow Puppets record?”, screams of joy coming from the audience can be heard, at which Miles answer “I think there was a song called ‘Standing Next To Me’” and then adds “I think we should give it a go” and then he starts singing. Hearing this song live was a dream come true for me, I had been waiting to hear it for years! And finally there it was in all its beauty and intertwining Miles’s and Alex’s voices in a perfect melody. Once the song is over, Alex says “Mister Miles Kane” to which Miles answers “Mister Alex Turner” and then the two friends hug each other before Miles leaves the stage and the other members of the band come on in.

Up next are three different songs all taken from the last masterpiece of the Monkeys. The first song is “One For The Road” that with its choruses is a great sing along. The second is the ballad “I Wanna Be Yours” taken from a poem by punk poet John Cooper Clarke. Its notes caress the listener touching his heart. The audience sings back the song to the band making this a special moment for everybody.

Throughout the concert Arctic Monkeys played mostly song from their last album AM, playing almost all of them! This was a good choice, these songs are captivating and fantastic live! It also gives the band an occasion to test how the new songs work live and how the audience responds to them. However, the fans who don’t like the last album they made (is this even possible?) may have missed a few old ones like “Mardy Bum” or “Old Yellow Bricks”. After all we probably would all love to hear their entire discography in one night, but unfortunately it would be a bit difficult.

Last but not least, Arctic Monkeys decide to bid goodbye and thank the audience with an electric and extended version of “R U Mine?”, to finish on a high note and also metaphorically to ask the audience if they are still there. I guess the response is pretty clear, one last mosh pit, 50’000 people jumping up and down and singing along just for this great band.

 

 

Setlist:

Do I Wanna Know

Snap Out Of It

Arabella

Brianstorm

Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair

Dancing Shoes

Library Pictures

Crying Lightning

Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High

Fireside

I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor

She’s Thunderstorms

No.1 Party Anthem

Cornerstone (semi-acoustic)

Knee Socks

Fluorescent Adolescent

505

Encore:

Standing Next To Me (The Last Shadow Puppets song, Miles Kane and Alex Turner)

One For The Road

I Wanna Be Yours

R U Mine? (extended outro)