Saturday gigs - 2013

Muziek Publique is one of my favourite institutions in Brussels. They run a venue near Porte de Namur Metro. It’s an old music hall type of place, seating maybe 500 - it has an ornate balcony (although I’ve never seen it occupied- perhaps for safety reasons). The concert hall is hidden away in a modernistic (read 1960s - or so) shopping mall. They must have built the mall around it (which must have involved a lot of lobbying from conservationist groups, but that’s another story for another time). The atmosphere is intimate, the audience covers a wide age range and the front of house is largely staffed by friendly volunteers.

They put on world music concerts about four times a week and these have become a regular haunt for me. This year alone I have been to see The Carolina Chocolate Drops (a black hillbilly band - from guess where?), two Malagasy bands (I’ve been listening to world music for twenty years or more, yet never come across Malagasy music before – I was impressed), the Bonny Men - an Irish folk band (whom I thought took themselves a bit too seriously – but this was their first European tour) and Samurai, a bunch of five accordionists (all of different nationality). That’s about one a month and every band has been so good that I have bought one of their CDs. In fact the only (paid) concert I’ve been to this year that wasn’t at Muziek Publique was Ron Sexsmith at Botanique (another more-than-pleasant venue).

But that’s not all they do: they also run music courses and every two months they hold a ball: ‘Bal Queimada’ at the Maison du Peuple in St Gilles Parvis. This is a bit like a barn dance, but so much more. Again the age group is wide (from teens to pensioners), the music is largely Celtic, the dances are frenetic and one of the highlights of the night is the ritual burning of the Queimada- a Galician(?) cocktail consisting (I think) of apple brandy, spices and coffee beans –it’s like a highly alcoholic version of Red Bull (except it tastes nice). Naturally after several shots of that no-one wants to go to home after the ball, so one inevitably ends up in another bar (the choices in and around St Gilles Parvis are quite extensive) with friends (existing old or newly discovered) and don’t think about going home until the wee hours (or later). Last Friday was one such evening – and Saturday became a non-event. It’s definitely one of the social highlights of my calendar in Brussels. Oh did I mention it’s free for members?

Here’s a few gig photos from the first half of 2013.



Malagasy band



Ron Sexsmith



Malagasy performer



Samurai