My concert experience: Lamb + Plaid

Day 3! Blessed be this day! Park Live Fest reached its final, which was spectacular and put to sleep all my dissatisfaction with the previous two festival days. Despite all the preparation I was taken by surprise and enjoyed myself as never before. The final three acts blew our tops and on my way out of the venue I didn't want to come to terms with the sad reality - it was over. To me Lamb was the festival's culmination and the reason I bought the ticket at first place. Hats down for Tricky's achievements and the originality of Roots Manuva, but the Manchester duo of Lou Rhodes and Andy Barlow was my personal highlight!

Before I continue with the praise I should mention a few things about the other acts that I got to watch. I was quite late for evening number three and had missed out Gaz Cobain from Future Sound of London and the Bulgarians Phuture Shock, but the rest was to come. I admit I missed for most of their performance the Brits from Crazy P (the P stands for Penis), but manage to catch the last few songs and get a proper idea of their stage presence. Crazy P had already heated up the venue with some groovy dance tracks and the astonishing magnetism of their lead singer Danielle Moore. There was chemistry between the audience and Crazy P and and no doubt people actually wanted them to keep on rocking.

An act away from my "meeting" with Lamb the weather took an unpleasant turn and as soon as Plaid began their set heavy clouds were lazily making themselves comfortable above out heads. After a few tracks rain started pouring down, but this made us come together closer to the stage and give in to the rhythm of IDM. Shame on me, shame, shame! I made no effort to check Plaid's music beforehand and felt really dumb being there first row and shaking with all the guilt on my mind. The guys turned out to have plenty of cool stuff and the positive vibes were in the air despite the heavy cold drops and lightnings in the distance. The weather condition perfectly matched with the essence of Plaid's music and the constantly changing backdrops. I have never expected to enjoy that much something I heard for the first time in my life. Even if I never get to listen to them home they can count on my fan support. My first, and hopefully not last encounter face to face with Warp members (fingers crossed for Aphex Twin).


The moment of truth! One of the most influential trip-hop bands was just about to perform. I've awaited them since I've been interested in the whole scene, going back as further as the end of the 90s. Lamb is one of those bands that I fell in love with the first listen. Nothing could ruin the evening, neither the rain, nor the technical problems they experienced. For the record Lamb had the same sound-system problem as Tricky and Roots Manuva previously: blasting bass beats. Just a few moments before they were due to come on stage their bass broke, which meant additional twenty minutes of wait. The audience applauded every chance of the concert to begin, which after half an hour of clapping and cheering seemed like forever to take.

Darkness. Lou Rhodes, Andy Barlow and a support live member (I think they called him Jeff) covered us with the dark serenity of their music. "Darkness" was their opener! Followed immediately by my personal favourite "B Line", which came to my brains as a rush of warm blood. Despite all the technical difficulties they had with Live Park's equipment live Lamb were amazing! They topped my expectations with the perfect list of songs they chose to perform live, as well as with the fine harmony between Lou's distinctive voice and Andy's music renditions. Going back to the concert the setlist continued with a string of greatest hits among which "Heaven", "What Sound" and "Angelica". "Heaven" was the first song to be sung by the audience, which went nuts as soon as Lamb came to stage.

Andy Barlow was amazing! I have never expected him to be that energetic and jolly, with a wide smile on his face, jumping all around. He was so excited that he even jumped in the crowd, which could have easily torn him apart. Don't worry, we kept him alive just for the sake of other fans around the globe. Andy is the coolest dude I have seen in concert! Definitely! Lou Rhodes on the other hand held back a little, but her constant smile on the face and the cute way she was saying all the time "Thank you" in Bulgarian made the distance always invisible. I think that they were very pleasantly surprised by the warm welcome and the way we appreciated their music. I am not being judgmental but I had the feeling that they didn't expect Bulgaria to be best place to find such an excellent audience, which in fact was fond of the duo's music.

Lamb's highlight was the performance of their highly anticipated song "Gorecki", which was virtually sang the by everyone. But the big surprise came with "Gabriel", which I should admit made me cry. So touching and so real, the whole atmosphere just made the tears come out on their own. It was raining, one could feel the warmth of the crowd and with Lou heavenly singing
"I can fly
But I want his wings
I can shine even in the darkness
But I crave the light that he brings
Revel in the songs that he sings
My angel Gabriel"
create a whole that words fail to describe! My personal favourite!

Lamb had two encores, putting an end of their concert and the open-air part of Park Live Fest 2009 with "Stay". A poetic promise that this performance will always stay in their hearts and I can promise them that Lamb live in Sofia will be long remembered by everyone who spent the whole rainy evening with this amazing band! If you still haven't seen them live hurry up, cause you never know what will happen with them after the end of their tour.

"God bless", they shall return!

Video courtesy of YouTube user finmelchen:



Video courtesy of YouTube user iF0Pi:



Video courtesy of YouTube user opiuma:

My concert experience: Roots Manuva

The second day of Park Live Fest in Sofia was definitely the lowest point in the whole program. First of all the line-up was less than intriguing. Another thing was that the audience was definitely less than for Tricky, the previous day. The headliner was the British-Jamaican rapper Roots Manuva, who mixes hip-hop with electronica, reggae, dub and even gospel. I admit that just a couple of weeks ago I knew him only by his moniker, but spent enough time getting to know his style. The mere fact that he mentions that many various styles and extensively concentrates on social issues made me attend his gig, drawn by the charm of a rapper who has something to say for real.

I guess, I should start from the very start which was given by the Gypsy orchestra Karandila, which as I was told had to play for over two hours. Don't worry about the poor guys, they are used to the prolonged performances and I assure you that Karandila could have been on stage all night long and beyond. The orchestra was followed by DJ Lord from Public Enemy, who had a few surprises on his turntable. His set was dominated by pop and rock tracks, which was kind of surprising as we expected him to bury us deep in the sands of black music. He made the audience boogie-woogie and still he showed more passion than we did...what a pity. DJ Lord and Karandila tried out to improvise together, which didn't end up as well as expected. Anyways, the last performance before Roots Manuva was of the band Ruth & Unlimited. In one word: L A M E! Their whole performance was absolutely annoying and nerve-racking. They sounded if they played together for the very first time: unorganized and distorted.

After being tortured to the maximum with Ruth's constant pleads to come closer to the scene and dance to the rhythm, and waiting some more twenty minutes for the main act to begin, finally Roots Manuva made his appearance. He was backed up by two DJs and a side singer, whose name I didn't get to hear (understand to be more precise). Honestly I felt wrong while watching Roots, because it turned out that the majority of the people there actually listened to him and they did know the songs. Still, this didn't ruin my fun and I got my groove on.

Due to problems with the police (I never got to find out exactly what) the program had to be rescheduled and pulled back with almost two hours, which after all ended up in no more than an hour suspension. It was announced that Roots will appear on stage at 21:00, which caused havoc among his fans as many of them expected him no sooner than 22:00 and they were rushed into the venue, although he didn't appear on stage earlier than 21:30. I am saying all of this, because the organizers had to push the rapper to shorten his performance and drop a few songs, which brought addition tension to the atmosphere, which was going down the spiral after the dubious warm-up performance by Bulgarian band Ruth & Unlimited. The rescheduling almost ruined Roots Manuva performance, but the management obviously managed to win extra 45 minutes.

Rodney Smith, Manuva's real name, played it safe and entirely backed his gig on his most prominent stuff, which was eagerly and passionately appreciated by hip-hop fans. Even I managed to distinguish at least a few of his songs, although they were slightly rendered. Talking of rearranged versions I should say that not the changes made it difficult for me to recognize them, but the horrible sound system the organizers had provided. The bass was so heavy that for most of the concert I couldn't hear any proper singing and at certain moments there was nothing but blasts and distortions. Among the performed songs were "Bashment Boogie", "Witness (1 Hope)", "Sinny Sin Sins and, "Dub Styles", at least those I managed to distinguish.

His back-up had parts on all of the songs, even those which on the albums were solo performed and he was more passionate than Manuva himself. There was chemistry between them and they proved to be a good combo, although we didn't really care about anyone else but Roots. At 22:00 they announced that the gig was over as they were forced to put an end to it. Umm, yeah, but we did already know its a hoax and nobody bought it. The more the concert neared its end the more annoyed I was feeling. It felt like forever until the last song. I don't know why, but the second part of the performance was blunt and tedious with an uncertain pace and lame improvisations. I have never been happier to hear "Thank you and goodbye". I couldn't stop clapping my hands as I was doing it to make sure this was the very end of Day 2. Indeed, it was.

The videos are courtesy of YouTube user superchiko

My concert experience: Tricky + Little Dragon

Park Live Fest is the first festival of its kind in Bulgaria, bringing together names from the electronic scene and reviving the true trip-hop vibe. Introducing such a concept for the first time on the Balkan music scene definitely meant a lot of risk for the organizers and less to no impact. Luckily, there are still plenty of people fond of the good old 90s when MTV was the pedestal of diversity and music was not all about boobs and trunks.

Day 1 was highlighted by the essence of the Bristol scene and the subtlety of the Swedish improvisational expressionism. Tricky on the prowl with his distinctive half-singing half-rapping distinguishable singing and Little Dragon with their surprisingly original performance attitude, brought freshness to the rather stagnant Balkan alt fields. Nevertheless, I should mention that the two main acts were preceded by three other performances, but they did go rather unnoticed. Although Tricky, real name Adrian Thaws, was the one who we all expected I dare say that Little Dragon made the best impression for the whole evening.

Little Dragon began rather vaguely, carefully testing the crowd and after just a couple of songs Yukimi Nagano and company gained confidence and slowly began heating up the audience. They took me by surprise with more up-beat versions of their sole album's tracks, which were rearranged especially for a fast-paced mind-blowing performance, which was entirely based on improvisation. I guess they did realize that Tricky being after them puts the stakes quite high and still they did their best to reach the level of required quality. The audience definitely appreciated Nagano's intriguing voice and her stage presence, as well as the passion Little Dragon's music had in store. Perhaps, people who would rather stick to their genuine style weren't very happy with the significant changes, although this was no wrong move at all.

Tricky...one of the pioneers of the trip-hop genre, who paved the way for the mid to late 90s alt electronic wave, was the one who was expected to blast the scene and be the bad boy of the festival. Indeed, he spent the whole evening doing spliff and passionately gulping drinks, probably heating up for the grand show. So far, so good. Lights off, a sudden turmoil on stage and there you go - Tricky in flesh and bone, performing in front of some 3 thousand people.

The closest link to the godfathers of trip-hop Massive Attack was there for us ready to kick some ass. Hooray! Have I ever told you how much I hate musicians doing drugs and eliminating immense quantities of liquor? I do! Tricky reminded me why! I guess I should excuse him, as this probably is part of his performance, but it poked out my eyes...they were sore and bleeding. What could be more pathetic the singer stoned as a dumb ass or the audience aggravating the situation with their horrific passiveness. I'd go for number two, please. Tricky might have had to struggle through his artistic inadequacy, but the audience obviously needed to cheer up. Sadly chemistry was absent and the vital connection performer-audience was based just on Tricky's reputation. Definitely there were people who went bananas seeing him live on stage, but the majority was there standing coldblooded and clapping as if taking part in a senior fund-raising campaign.

What made things even worse was the apathy that Tricky demonstrated, which made the show look as if he was there for himself and the rest could just fuck off. I, personally, had difficulty swallowing his annoyingly endlessly improvisations, which brought the majority to the edge of patience. In the setlist, probably on purpose, were omitted a great deal of his most famous songs, which brought more tension and dissatisfaction with the audience. Although trying to compensate with several new song arrangement it all crashed and burnt when technical difficulties abruptly interrupted the show. Afterward, Tricky had lost interest and in no time the concert came to its end. His performance ended with Motörhead's "Ace of Spades" and fans invited on stage to rumble with him. Applause! No requests for an encore. We all went home.