Kid Wise is a band from Toulouse, France. As the Montreux Jazz Lab darkens a member of the band comes in and plays a classic violin intro. He keeps on playing while the rest of the band (6 members in total), comes in and, each playing their own instruments, create an outburst of sounds. The singer plays the keys really fast, something like a fugue which gives the impression of running around. The violin is sometimes played as a guitar whereas the guitarist plays his guitar horizontally creating metallic-watery sounds.
Most of their songs are characterized by instrumental bits which develop into psychedelic sounds and post-rock. These sounds are topped with synths, pre-recorded sounds and vocalizes.
The singer introduces “Ceremony” saying that it’s a song which invites to psychedelic dance and he starts his own psychedelic dance on stage. During the song he jumps off the stage and runs around the public just to make them move a bit.
Kid Wise leave the public with “Hope”, a song which starts slowly and after a little break towards the end of it bursts out in an instrumental crescendo and a beautiful mess of sounds. The band say they are honoured to be playing at Montreux Jazz Festival.
10:10-11:15pm
Foals
Foals‘ entrance is announced by some electronic sounds joined in by riffs. The first member of the band to enter the stage is the drummer who powerfully starts banging on his drums. The rest of the band enters the stage and they all join in playing. The audience is straight away catapulted into their peculiar indie-rock sound. Their sound is really clean, the riffs are determined and clear-cut. The first song they play is the new “Snake Oil”, taken from their upcoming album What Went Down (set to be released on 28 August 2015).
“My Number” is the third on the list, it has become an indie-rock party anthem and the public sings along to it and dances. Its refrain sticks in your head like glue without being boring.
One of the best moments is when they play “Spanish Sahara”, starting quietly with singer Yannis Philippakis modulating his voice a bit rendering it higher but not quite like a falsetto and singing quietly. Nobody even dears to whisper, afraid that it’ll break the special atmosphere created by the music and the melodic voice.
Their guitar riffs have an incredibly cool and sexy sound, so determined that you wish you’d be one of the chords they’re picking! They also let themselves go into some pretty impressive instrumental bits which show the vein of experimental rock in their blood. Every sound they produce seems to be at that particular time for a reason, and what they manage to create is amazing!
They end the concert with “Two Steps, Twice”, an old song taken from their first album Antidotes (2008). A pure and constant build up of sounds, rumbling drums and vocalizes. Topped with Yannis’s voice beautifully breaking in into the sounds. The singer even bravely gets off the stage and climbs the barrier getting literally on the audience, who holds him with their hands in the air. Not a super comfy emplacement but he still manages to sing and play from there which is quite cool!
A rather short set but extremely intense!
Thank you to Kid Wise, Foals and Montreux Jazz festival 🙂
Setlist:
Snake Oil
Balloons
My Number
Olympic Airways
Blue Blood
Spanish Sahara
Red Socks Pugie
Late Night
Providence
What Went Down
Inhaler (encore)
Two Steps, Twice (encore)
Simona @TakeMe2aConcert
The Liberation 