Day 2 – Thursday June 5

This is pretty much the second rock day at Caribana! From Kodaline’s indie-folk to the Queens of the Stone Age stoner-rock passing through Miles Kane’s pure rock n’ roll. A night to remember!

 

18h30, Scène du Lac

Aliose

Aliose is the first band to play on the second day. The band is formed by the female singer Alizée Oswald and by Xavier Michel as well as other musicians. They play chanson française but with a touch of rock as well. She plays the piano beautifully sitting on the chair, barefoot. Their rhythm is at times slow and at times faster, this intertwining of the two renders their music entertaining even if you do not know the lyrics. The voices of the female singer and the guy vocalist form a nice harmony.

 

19h30-20h30, Grande Scène

Kodaline

 

Kodaline have different influences in their music, in the one hand pop tunes in the other hand that Irish folk which is what they grew up with. In fact, their music brings a taste of Irish sound with the mandolin and folky tune reminding Irish popular songs.

At Caribana they go through their 2013 debut album “In a Perfect World”, playing it almost fully. Harmonica in mouth, they play “Dirty Old Town” to introduce the folky and friendly “Love Like This”, with its unmistakable spoken phrase “I don’t mind at all”.  They play also the heart-breaking “High Hopes” along with “Big Bad World”. Their songs have emotional lyrics and when they play and sing live they put all their efforts in what they do in order to convey true feelings to the audience. And they do, causing chills to go done your spine when you hear those lyrics, the music and the voice all together.

Kodaline are great with the public, asking whether the weather in Switzerland is always this good and Steve (the singer), smiling, says many times “Caribana you’re awesome” at which the audience happily cheers.

Steve is able to drift his voice up and down, rendering it perfect when it’s low as well as high. Besides having an incredibly beautiful voice he is also a great piano player, touching the keys delicately.

They bid goodbye with the touching song “All comes down”, where they ask the public to help them sing, which they do adding to the great chorus formed by the other three lads in the band. Then they leave the stage, but it is not over yet because, very much acclaimed by the audience they come back for an encore. They end the concert on the notes of “All I Want” with the public singing with them.

I said it in December and I’m going to repeat it, keep an eye and an ear or two on them, you wont be disappointed! They will be up with the best indie bands in no time, look where they are after their first album was released.

20:30-21:30, Scène du Lac

George Barnett

 

The British George Barnett is an eclectic musician. He plays pretty much everything and in his albums he does all of the singing and plays all the instruments. However, here at Caribana he is with his band so that he gets some time to jump around and entertain the public. He has a great voice, which can be as high-pitched as he wants, reminding the audience of Prince and Michael Jackson. He plays the piano at times seated and at times standing when it gets all too shaky and groovy. Very tall and thin he impresses, besides his music, he impresses for his dance moves on stage.

 

21:30-22:40, Grande Scène

Miles Kane

 

Miles Kane, the “Wirral Riddler” himself, is entertaining and rock n’ roll as usual. Black and white striped skinny pants, the same he wore at Les Docks in Lausanne last November, and a black shirt.

Miles is a bomb of energy and friendliness, always smiling on stage and making the audience rock n’ roll and shake. On the side of the stage you can see Josh Homme watching Miles and peering upon the crowd for a quick “Hello yes it’s really me!”.

Seeing Miles Kane never gets boring, he always manages to render his songs catchy and make you shake. No matter if he has 50’000 people in front of him like at Finsbury Park or if he plays to a smaller crowd at Caribana. He does what he loves the most and he does it well. He plays songs from his first album Colour of the Trap as well as from the second one Don’t Forget Who You Are. From the latter he plays the homonymous song, which makes everybody shake to its catchy rhythm and guitar riffs. Miles also goes into a guitar solo, showing that he indeed knows how to play. At one point during the concert Miles presents his band, going round and telling their names to the crowd. When he gets to his guitarist he says his name several times in order to advertise his image. The guitarist has a quiff that reminds a bit that of Alex Turner, did he boast himself for this notorious resemblance?

He also covers a bit of The Rolling Stones’ song “Sympathy For The Devil”, you can’t be more rock n’ roll than that can you?

The last song he plays is “Come Closer” with its unmistakable “AAAAAAAAA OOOOOOOOO” audience answering and cheering. Miles claps for the audience than plays the notes of the song once again on his guitar before intoning the “AAAAAAAA OOOOOOOO” once again. When leaving the stage he hugs Josh Homme, friendship rocks!

 

23:50-1:05, Grande Scène

Queens Of The Stone Age

Here we are waiting for the band who probably attracted most people tonight at Caribana: the Californian rockers of Queens of the Stone Age, captained by the blue-eyed ginger of rock: Josh Homme. For the five mates of Queens Of The Stone Age the stage set up is massive and full of special effects and lights, so their late coming on stage is excused. The lights on stage darken and there they are, a screen in the back lights up unveiling a countdown, which the audience speaks out: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 … and let the show begin!

They are really engaging live, going through old tunes as well as newer ones and playing hard rock tunes as well as ballads, a perfect festival blend to make everyone happy. They open the concert with “Millionaire”. The second song they play is the addictive rock tune “No One Knows” which once you ear it, with its guitar riffs and Josh Homme’s attractive voice and coolness never gets out of your head. He dedicates “Smooth Sailing” to his friend Miles Kane, saying that he rocks. The lights change colour with the change of rhythm in the songs, which gives the spectator an amazing visual experience on top of the acoustic one! They play instrumental solos with guitars as well as a drums solo when the rest of the band leaves before the encore. For the last song, Josh Homme lights a fag, which he holds with the right hand while playing his guitar like crazy.

Josh Homme is a pretty awesome front man, he plays it cool with the audience and is truly engaging. At times he makes you laugh when he comes out with phrases like “We are going to have a fucking party tonight” or when he makes funny comments jokingly presenting his band mate as a “true alcoholic”.

At the end of the gig Josh Homme hugs Miles Kane who had been watching him from the side just as he had done earlier! It’s nice to see friendship on stage!

Simona @TakeMe2aConcert