Favorite for this second edition of the Smmmile Vegan Pop Festival: the recipe assured against this premature Parisian greyness.
[DAY 1] First solar evening at the Smmmile Vegan Pop Festival
Entry at 7:30 pm with Ata Kak who is already boiling. This Ghanaian, musician late, was discovered via Awesome Tapes from Africa following cassettes found from the 1990s. During the concert hour, the good mood is communicative: his smile is imperturbable and his music smells of the sun. We are amazed by the energy he gives off, chaining dance steps, he turns, jumps, fills the stage with his movements. The audience is conquered from the first notes, with its groovy and funk tones : in ten minutes, the whole audience is already dancing. When the famous song Oba Sima arrives (the feminine ideal in Twi language) the audience sings the chorus, then the clapping of hands replace the instruments and Ata Kak launches into a frantic rap. Bluffing.
Blind test interludes take place outside the Trabendo throughout the three days of the festival. Let's not forget that the festival promotes veganism and raises awareness of the animal cause while associating it with pop culture, the idea is to find names of songs or groups related to animals: The Animals, The Turtles, Jarvis Cocker, Samantha Fox and other much more advanced songs.
Islam Chipsy and his band EEK are on stage with a keyboard and two drums. Let's go for an hour of oriental techno: they set fire, the audience is in a trance! We sing choruses, the crowd rhythms the songs by clapping their hands while the fingers of Islam Chipsy run on the piano at an astonishing speed. These Egyptians followers of crazy lives and wedding parties are a bridge between traditional music and electro chaabi.
Bachar Mar Khalife accompanied by his orchestra closes the first evening of concerts. The audience suddenly becomes very calm. Paying tribute to Hamza El Din with the presentation of The Water Wheel… It offers music inviting to travel. The piano solos leave us dreaming and the room is in turmoil. This concert takes up the themes of the Nubian singer and oudist whom Bashar has admired since his youth.
For the more adventurous, a club session follows with Matias Aguayo and Sassy J headlining, the night will be long.
[DAY 2] Warm atmosphere for this second day of the Festival
Gnucci, aka Ana Rab in futuristic outfit, storms the Trabendo room accompanied by Amber Valent on the turntables. How not to take passion for this sulphurous Croatian? His rap music on dance sounds is heady: You good I'm good Let's be great launches the show. Sexual choreography, incredible energy, and committed speeches asking those present to assume their bodies as they are. The contribution of the audience gives meaning to the concert, making a comparison to a child who would be brought into the world. After inviting people who want to dance to go on stage, Amber Valent takes over with two songs, before the girls sing Ultimate Syndrome.
Everyone is already hot when Cakes da Killa appears. He jokes, tells us about his hangover from the day before and the end of his tour. No hesitation, he places himself in the center of the crowd to perform his vitamin and explicit raps where sex, drugs and exes rub shoulders as on the very good New Phone where the crowd repeats in chorus Who' say?. Involving all these themes under a raw pen, he presents himself with a very worked style.
The evening ends with the Mykki Blanco show as he takes pleasure in announcing it himself: a schizophrenic show. This committed HIV-positive man loudly proclaims the need for tolerance and equality towards patients. He gives all his energy to the service of the show, dressed in a pink tulle dress he climbs on the table, creates a circle around him and begins his Haze songs .Boogie.Life in Wavvy. A real hurricane.
To be even hotter, the appointment was a carte blanche to Acid Arab with Manfredas, Arabic by Night and Moscoman!
[DAY 3] Soft landing this Sunday
The group Hyperculte, a Swiss duo, combines percussion and double bass to create a conceptual universe. The mystical music with punk and minimalist tones combines perfectly with their texts adapted from authors such as Tristan Tzara or Douglas Adam creating wild songs: Le Feu, Résigned, Le Tyran.
Requin Chagrin, a fresh pop group initiated by singer and guitarist Marion Brunetto, plays its hits on the same tone. The chords are as close to pop as they are to garage rock. After a first DIY album in April 2016, the songs from Adelaide to Atlas stubbornly make us happy.
It seems that the Icelanders of FM Belfast are already cult : at the first notes, the audience swings and jumps in unison. Who thought that on this Sunday night we would still have so much energy? This band of five delusions offers a rough but effective pop. The concert quickly turns into a Muppet Show according to their terms: these neo-vikings bring out boas and confetti and the atmosphere is festive between slam and licked choreographies.
Here we are washed after three days of pure madness. The festival's credo rings true: Good sound and common sense!
More information on the festival website.
