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.

Day three of Le Guess Who? involved a bit of box-ticking and a trip down memory lane. Wire, sporting a nice line in mint green guitars, were the first act to be checked out in the Tivoli-Vredenburg. Displaying great energy their set was pretty much as expected in terms of recognisable songs, given that I’m a devotee of their classic output from the Seventies and hazier on the later stuff. Add to that the fact that they’re still very much an active entity (new songs ‘Blogging’ and ‘Swallow’ were keenly received, as was the first live outing for a track that may be titled ‘In Manchester’) and you'd be foolish to expect only the 'hits'. 'Map Ref 41 Degrees N 93 Degrees W' was though a welcome inclusion. Technical issues appeared to dog the second guitar but those didn’t get in the way of the performance, which even inspired a small pit at one point. Anyone heading to see the band at their DRILL :Brighton event will be well entertained.

Local boy Binkbeats, who we had the pleasure to see honing his set in the ex-Tivoli-Oudegracht the day before, was given the honour of playing in the Grote Zaal tonight and the Kytopia member pulled it off pretty well. Whilst his tunes brought to mind Aphex Twin, Orbital and Jimi Tenor at various points and he’d a fantastic though too short spell utilising hand bells there were other periods when he was a tad dwarfed by the setting. A more intimate room is probably the best place within which to see him, for the time being at least seeing as his ambitions point to his sound managing to fill large spaces in the not too distant future.

A quick look in at Mac Demarco is best glossed over as his cod reggae and dungarees were highly suspect, popular though he obviously was seeing as it was standing room only even on the balconies of the Pandora room. What was called for now was a walk down through the city centre to the de Helling venue to step back in time with The Vaselines.

Entering as the band were getting into ‘Monsterpussy’ it was immediately clear that those there to watch were fans rather than just stopping by as part of the overall festival experience. Frances was in a very vocal mood, describing the audience as being compiled of three types – rowdy, quiet and those at the bar who were “just masturbating”, whilst later announcing she’s not gender biased (Eugene apparently is though) and generally keeping up a better level of chat with the crowd than witnessed anywhere else over the weekend. ‘Jesus Don’t Want Me For A Sunbeam’, Sex Sux’, ‘One Lost Year’ and ‘Son Of A Gun’ whipped a small section of the audience into a worshipful frenzy whilst the rest of us were rather more restrained but nevertheless appreciative of one of the stand-out performances of the four days. Long live The Vaselines.

The fourth and final day of the festival began with a return to Ekko to catch Brooklynites PC Worship. Delivering a tight and uncompromising set (of their tight and uncompromising sound) theirs was a performance in which you could virtually see a physical representation of the coiled energy they so obviously contain and feed off & then so spectacularly let loose when the pressure reaches its peak. Staying around Ekko we caught one of the weekend’s enticing collaborations (of which Le Guess Who? had a number this time around) as PC Worship and Parquet Courts teamed up to perform as the jazz-infused PCPC. Alternately wailing and brooding the saxophone was a welcome inclusion in the marriage of the two band’s punk energies and those that had stuck around for this little step into the unknown were well rewarded for their curiosity.

 Punk of a different flavour was next on the bill as a visit to the far flung dB’s venue to catch Thee Oops and The Monsters was in order. Take it from me – you need to take the rail option when hitting this place, particularly at this time of year. Thee Oops hail from Sardinia and delivered a fast, rough & ready set that epitomised the healthy state of garage punk worldwide right at this moment in time. Theirs is a loud voice that deserves as wide an audience beyond the confines of the scene as possible.

Lightning Beatman and The Monsters rounded things off for us this year in a multi-lingual performance that nicely brought things full-circle. Plus they were sporting those same mint green guitars (okay, one was a bass) as Wire so clearly a seal of approval. With their two drummers pounding away on their combined one and a half kits, Lightning Beatman growling and howling away (all the time resembling the confused.com character with his minimal combover flailing about) and all four members sweating cobs in their maitre’d-like outfits this was a vintage performance of raw, primal, foot-stomping urgency and the dedicated crowd loved it. Cramming in 18 or so songs, including a rendition of ‘Blow Um Mau Mau’ you could feel in your gut, the boys from Bern laid it down as few others can and, once they’d disappeared from the stage, there was no chance of keeping the high going so catching a train back to town and heading home was the obvious option. A great end to another great event in Utrecht.   

Many thanks to Inga & Max for being fantastic hosts and to Jessica and the LGW? team for their help and assistance throughout the weekend. Cheers too to Stef - good to finally put a face to the name.