Thursday June 7

If Caribana Festival on Wednesday was rock ‘n’ roll, on Thursday it was more on the side of indie-folk smoothly moving towards rock at the end of the night.

6:30pm-7:30pm, Scène du Lac

Wintershome

Wintershome is a group of six friends from Zermatt. They play an amazing and laid back folk. Composed of three girls and three guys the band sings employing harmonies, which recalls the three-part harmony in Mighty Oaks. It’s enchanting especially because the female and male voices are intertwined and superposed.

They play a beautiful cover of the song “Hopeless Wanderer” by Mumford and Sons, a band they love, which features a chorus of the two female singers in the refrain.

Since they come from the most renowned mountain village in Switzerland a song about ski like “White Lines” could not be missing!

Lead by the sounds of the acoustic guitars and the sweet voices, Wintershome manages to gather the Caribana audience together, creating a chill and happy atmosphere.

Check out their debut album Around You I Find You! (2018).

7:30pm-8:30pm, Grande scène

Wildwood Kin

Wildwood Kin is a British indie-folk trio composed of two sisters, Beth and Emillie Key and their cousin Meghann Loney. At the beginning the band was mostly doing harmonies with their three voices combined and slowly started introducing instruments.

On stage at Caribana the two sisters, playing bouzouki/keyboard and guitar are wearing striped trousers whereas their cousin in the middle, on the drums, is wearing a striped shirt.

Wildwood Kin play songs taken from their debut album Turning Tides (2017) such as the sweet “Circumstance”, in which the harmony of the three voices caresses your soul.

They play a beautiful folk cover of “Dakota” by Stereophonics, with whom they toured in London in 2017 where they had to create this cover for a radio show. The cover differs from the original in that there’s a great part dedicated to vocal harmonies and the result is pretty amazing!
In the beautiful “Steady My Heart” the piano acquires a greater importance to set the rhythm on which the three voices build up.

They bid goodbye with “Taking a Hold” and its powerful drumming.

8:30pm-9:30pm, Scène du Lac

The Gardener & the Tree

The Gardener & the Tree is a Swiss indie-folk band from Schaffhausen. On stage they are pretty energetic and singer Manuel Felder has a powerful throaty voice. The six members of the group take the audience into a wild trip on the folky guitar notes lead by the singer’s voice.

They make the audience sing along with some “eh oh”, dancing the night away and reminding somehow the folk of The Lumineers.

Check out their new album 69591, LAXÅ, which was freshly released on June 8th 2018!

9:30pm-10:30pm, Grande scène

Passenger

Passenger is a story-teller per excellence, whether in his songs or during the concerts. He does not need any presentation anymore. Every time he plays he likes to remind people that he was a busking musician for five years before starting to tour and become famous, he doesn’t take anything for granted.

He takes the audience by the hand on a walk through his touching song writing accompanied only by his acoustic guitar. He somehow always manages to catch the audience’s attention and create a special moment. For “I Hate” and “Let Her Go” the public joins in singing loudly and very emotionally.

He also plays a beautiful cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark”.

10:30pm-11:30pm, Scène du Lac

All Them Witches

To smoothen the transition from the indie-folk of the previous bands to the ‘80s rock of Simple Minds, here are All Them Witches! The Nashville band plays a powerful and magnetic blues-rock, often patterned by accurate instrumental bits. The audience is totally deepened in the psychedelic but yet grounded sounds of their music.

The band released their fourth studio album Sleeping Through the War in 2017, from which they present some songs. An explosion of riffs and drum beats that go to the edge of experimentation in some of the tunes.

11:30pm-00:45am, Grande scène

Simple Minds

A screen displaying colourful patterns is set on stage. Scottish rock band Simple Minds also features some young females: a vocalist, a drummer and a pianist, all very talented. The band released a new album Walk Between Worlds (their 18^th!) in 2018.

Simple Minds, lead by charismatic singer Jim Kerr, go through their repertoire playing songs such as “Don’t You (Forget about me)” and “She’s a River”. Despite their age they can still keep an audience pretty well. The public claps and sings along happily. The girl drummer gets most of the attention during the concert as she plays crazily!

One of the best songs of the evening is “Dolphins” sung by pianist Catherine Anne Davies, who has a very nice and deep voice. The audience is in awe!

What to say about this night at Caribana? An adventurous walk through the indie-folk world passing by some blues-garage rock to reach a ’80s rock ending.

Simona @TakeMe2aConcert