My Italian friend, Luca had a spare ticket to see a band from his home country called Subsonica at Kentish Town’s The Forum on Wednesday night. It’s probably the first time that a thousand or so Italians descended upon the area and, at least, the first time I’ve been to a concert with so many of them. I couldn’t help but notice several differences in the crowd such as when, in the early part of the evening, heaps of people sat themselves down on the ground near the stage (apparently it’s a habit when waiting for a concert to start on all those lovely summer evenings). I always find that strange since most venues in the UK have seen more spilt beer, empty plastic cups and (formerly) cigarette butts than they had the underside of people attending.

People also didn’t seem to have any difficult pushing their way in, or out, of the crowd without so much an an ‘excuse me’. It didn’t really bother me, with the only noticeable impact being that I was slowly moved away from the front of stage by the audience as the more energetic people shoved their way to the front. I think I ended up at least a metre or two behind where I was standing by the end of the night. This may sound stereotypical, but even being moved back, I was still amazed that I had a pretty good view of the stage since most people were not significantly taller than me for once!

It was obvious that Subsonica meant business and that they only wanted to play for the audience – they didn’t have a support act and played a decent set of around an hour and a half. I listened briefly to their stuff on LastFm, although I can’t say I recognised any of the tracks they played. Either way, most of the people seemed to know a lot of their lyrics and jumped and danced alongside their upbeat riffs. Interestingly I found they drifted back and forth between different genres, and yet it all seemed to work out. They pulled out some trip hop stuff, sounds I’d classify more jungle, some pop rock and dance tracks and even a ballad or two throughout the night.

After a bit of confusion about whether or not they should perform an encore (it’s one of those things that don’t really happen in Italy apparently), they came back on stage obviously unprepared asking the audience and talking amongst themselves about which songs to play. They played probably two or three more songs before the lights came on one more time, though this time signalling the end of the evening.

TheKua.com Rating: 7 out of 10

Luca had a spare ticket to go see this muso at Camden Town’s famous Jazz Cafe venue a couple of weeks back (I had forgotten to blog about it back then). I’d never listened to any of his music, but I thought I’d go along since I’d also never been to the Jazz Cafe. The venue itself is stunningly intimate, with an airy open stage with a small standing area and balcony views from above for diners who book early enough. It seemed to have decent acoustics, and worth coming to visit at least once.

Quaye had two support acts, the first whose name I never caught (a rock band complete with a skinny, over the top, though entertaining lead singer) and another female singer (whose name I now forget) and had to be prompted by an audience member to tell us who she was. Either way, she had a boisterous laugh, and a rich mellow voice that I thought Quaye’s songs would sound very similar to.

When Quaye arrived, replete with a band that took up all of the stage, he’s definitely not the young man that the website made him out to be. I did a bit of searching and found a comparison. As you can tell, he’s balded quite a bit since then, and even that more recent picture makes him look younger than he appeared that night. It probably didn’t help that he seemed plagued with a couple of problems such as not enough water on stage and a malfunctioning microphone and we saw an edgier, almost angry side, in a very Jekyll and Hyde moment, as he shouted at the venue help.

Having not listened to any of his music, I was surprised by the style. His current style, obviously reggae, is in such contrast to the album that most people had come to listen to him sing – one full of softer, mellow, and definitely poppier tunes. To me, not knowing any of them, it almost sounded like listening to two distinct bands playing from the same stage.

I can see where his music might appeal to some people, yet for me, it didn’t really do that for me. I think I was caught between being somewhat confused by the starkly different styles, and unimpressed by his brief, yet memorably intolerant reaction to the less fortunate events of the night. I’d still go back to see someone else at the Jazz Cafe, though that’s not really a reflection on the performance of the night.

TheKua.Com Rating: 4 out of 10

Friday night saw a large crowd descend upon the O2 to witness American superstar, Alicia Keys. We had fairly decent tickets on the side of the stage, especially considering how many different tiers the O2 has. Unlike many other configurations in the O2, on this night all the area in the middle had been filled with seats. It kind of makes sense when you think about how laid back many of Keys’ songs can be.

The first support act was unmemorable in the form of some DJ playing R&B tunes followed by the old band, Soul 2 Soul. Although Soul 2 Soul looked like they’d recently joined with plenty of new fresh talent, I found their act quite weird. They had one big hit that they saved until the end, although the band seemed like a tribe of musicians where the actual make up changed through several generations.

And back to the main act. Keys played a great collection from her new and older albums, including saving many of her popular songs like Fallin’ for the final encore. Impressively I think she played for almost a straight two hours, weaving a semi dramatic story to tie all the songs together and give the show some flow. It was obvious the audience really enjoyed the show Keys put on, and evident that Keys really enjoys performing with her beaming smile and delightful laughter filling in the gaps between her conversations with the audience.