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Jugendkulturfestival 2013 - 30-31 August
Basel’s Jugendkulturfestival had it all – music, dance, sports, fashion and drama. And it was all home-grown, revealing just how many creative souls lurk behind Switzerland’s often buttoned-down facade.
The English Show cherrypicked three bands to watch at the festival, starting off with Zurich-based singer-songwriter Evelinn Trouble. The 24-year-old has already released four studio albums, her most recent this year: titled The Great Big Heavy, it’s a pick-and-mix of psychedelic rock, jazzy rhythms and infectious pop.
In a live setting, it was Trouble’s powerhouse of a voice, effortlessly scaling operatic heights, that immediately grabbed the audience’s attention. Trouble and her two cohorts on stage managed to make a heck of a racket yet were able to reduce the volume just as effectively. The music revealed its multdimensional arthouse leanings during the course of the concert – a sound that’s possibly too differentiated for a festival crowd seeking simple beats on a balmy late summer’s evening. But the band’s catchy Never Came Around ignited the spark and got heads nodding and hands clapping.
After Evelinn Trouble’s set, Barfüsserplatz filled to capacity as young up-and-comers The Drops took to the stage. The four-piece have amassed a sizeable fan base in their Basel hometown, and they didn’t disappoint: the band performed the kind of shimmery summer sounds that wouldn’t be out of place at a laid-back Californian music festival. Singer Noah Kaiser had the odd off-key wobble, but this was a minor quibble – their music showed echoes of Coldplay and U2, signalling the band’s scope and ambition.
Meanwhile, We Invented Paris were gearing up on Theaterplatz. Vocalist Flavian Graber hails from Liestal; back in 2010, he gathered a group of musicians who today form a music collective that remains ever-evolving. The band mixes melodic tracks with bold sonic experiments, throwing in guitars, drums, keyboards and electronica to see what sticks.
Two years ago, We Invented Paris played in living rooms on a couchsurfing tour across Europe, caught the attention of the music press, and were soon performing at major festivals – and rightly so: at the Jugendkulturfestival, the band demonstrated considerable musicianship and playful joy at being on stage. Graber occasionally sounded like Placebo’s Brian Molko (always a good thing), particularly on the enthralling Nothing To Say. Stark set closer More propelled the singer into the crowd as everyone around him danced exuberantly.
At the time of writing, We Invented Paris and The Drops are both working on new albums slated for release in 2014. If the bands’ live performances are anything to go by, we can expect great things.