One of the city's great hidden treasures, the Brussels music scene hosts some of the biggest and best up-and-coming artists and bands in the international, European and Belgian scene.
Every month, Europe's capital has no shortage of thrilling concerts – and picking out the best gigs can be tough. This is why we have put together a monthly guide to discover the best live acts in the city, perfect for new and old Brusseleirs alike.
Carefully selected by music journalist Simon Taylor, here are The Brussels Times' choices for the concerts and gigs that you and your friends should not miss throughout August 2024.
As there are usually fewer concerts and gigs in Brussels during the summer, Simon has picked out the best festival acts in August at Pukkelpop, Lokerse Feesten, Feeërieën and more.
Best gigs this month:
Sunday 4 August
Jah Wobble plays Public Image’s Metal Box
Lokerse Feesten festival, East Flanders
In August, music fans have to mostly venture outside of Brussels to get their fix before the gig calendar resumes in September. Lokerse Feesten is an hour and ten minutes by train from Brussels, just east of Ghent, and offers one of the best line-ups of the Belgian summer festivals. One of the highlights this year is Jah Wobble, the original bassist of Public Image Ltd (PIL), the post-punk outfit that the Sex Pistols' frontman John Lydon formed after the band known for Anarchy in the UK disintegrated in 1978.
Jah Wobble plays Public Image’s Metal Box.
Wobble (real name John Wardle) will be recreating PIL’s seminal Metal Box album, one of the greatest post-punk records ever made. In this record, Lydon gave licence to all the disparate musical styles he loved and never got to explore in the Pistols’ narrow musical remit. Wobble added his love of dub reggae. Metal Box (issued in a highly sought-after metal can) featured some of the best songs the band ever did (e.g. Careering) and some of the best post-punk guitar playing by Keith Levene. Set time is 22.30 - 23.30 on the Club Studio Brussel stage.
Thursday 8 August
De La Soul
Lokerse Feesten festival, East Flanders
Sorry to be heavy on the nostalgia but De La Soul are, for my money, one of the best hip-hop acts that ever walked the planet (in close competition with A Tribe Called Quest). Back in 1989, De La Soul released 3 Feet High and Rising, hip-hop’s Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, a phenomenal album of wit, killer samples and general good vibes. The Daisy Age, as they called it, was a peace-and-love vibe before the harder edged East vs West Coast rivalry came to dominate the scene.
De La Soul. Credit: Matti Hillig
The album was only made available on streaming platforms last year because getting permission for all the samples used by producer Prince Paul took years and was held up by disputes over royalties between the band and their record companies. One of the trio, Trugoy the Dove (first on the left in the above image), died last year just weeks before their classic albums were finally released on streaming services. I was lucky enough to have seen them at London's Brixton Academy in 1990. If you were too young to see De La back at their height of their powers or just missed out, this is one show to check out. Set time is 20.15 - 21.15 on the Main stage on Thursday.
Friday 16 August
Romy
Pukkelpop festival, Limburg
Romy used to be one third of UK indie electro-melancholics The XX, all former schoolmates from the former Elliot School in south London, which has also produced the likes of Four Tet, Hot Chip and Burial. Since branching out on her own in 2023, she has taken the electronic dance music world by storm with a series of floor-fillers concocted with producers Jamie XX and Fred Again.
Romy. Credit: Instagram / Pukkelpop
Her solo album Mid Air draws heavily on electronic dance from the 1990s and the 2000s, especially Walking Wounded-era Everything But the Girl and even Faithless. But the track that is probably the biggest influence on Romy’s output is Robyn’s electropop hit Dancing on My Own. The south Londoner has just released a duet with blue-eyed soul singer and former Sampha collaborator Jessie Ware.
For me, the standout track on the LP is Weightless – so much so I wish she’d release it as a single. The album is shot through with Romy’s heartache and pain at the difficulties of relationships but the overriding spirit is of redemption and transcendence in the arms of someone we love, on or off the dancefloor. Romy plays the Club stage on Friday with set time TBA.
Saturday 17 August
Nation of Language
Pukkelpop festival, Limburg
Nation of Language gave one of my favourite concerts of the last couple of years when they played at Botanique in September 2023. Founder and lead singer Ian Richard Devaney was inspired by his dad’s cassettes of 80s synth-pop pioneers Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and still tends to hurl himself around the stage in a manner reminiscent of OMD frontman Andy McCluskey.
Nations of Language. Credit: Paul Hudson
But this is a band greater than the sum of its influences with great hooks and chunky synths. Also, they come from Brooklyn, New York – and who doesn’t dream of being in a band from Brooklyn? No? Just me then. Nations of Language play the Club stage on Saturday with set time TBA.
Sunday 18 August
Glass Beams
Pukkelpop festival, Limburg
If you like Houston-based purveyors of global funk Khruangbin, then you’re almost certain to like Glass Beams. Also a trio, where Khruangbin take Thai and Asian funk from the 60s and 70s as their inspiration for their laid-back grooves, Glass Beams (from Melbourne, Australia) draw on music from the Indian sub-continent.
Glass Beams. Credit: Powerline Agency
The band also perform in masks, adorned with glass beads. Which makes me wonder if their name isn’t a reference to Hermann Hesse’s novel (The Glass Beads Game) from the 1930s. But maybe that’s just me trying to show off my knowledge of 20th century German literature. While Pukkelpop hasn’t announced set times, they play on Sunday, the last day, so I assume it won’t be too late. They will be a great band to listen to, dozing on the grass, before heading back home. Glass Beams play the Lift stage with set time TBA.
Sugababes
Pukkelpop festival, Limburg
Sugababes (without an ‘r’ to avoid any confusion with a London-based escort agency) were first launched in 1998 by the manager of All Saints, another all-female group. Twenty-six years and three changes of line-up later, the original trio of Mutya, Keisha and Siobhán are performing again. Vindicating the saying that original is best, the trio released some of the finest R’n’B influenced pop the UK music scene ever produced.
Sugababes in August 2022
They are sure to perform almost all of their classic hits from Push the Button, a song about encouraging a hesitant suitor to declare his intentions to Keisha, to Round and Round, Overload and Freak Like Me, a magisterial mash-up of Adina Howard’s raunchy G-funk banger with the hardcore synths of Tubeway Army’s Are Friends Electric?. If you’re not convinced and you want to get a taste of their live shows, go to YouTube and check their triumphant appearance at this year’s Glastonbury festival in the UK. Sugababes play the Dance Hall stage on Sunday with set time TBA.
Tuesday 20 August
Corinne Bailey Rae
OLT Rivierenhof, Antwerp
Bailey Rae from Leeds established her reputation as a smooth neo-soul singer in the same vein as Sade or Lianne La Havas with easy listening tracks like Put Your Records On. She has worked with a number of major US stars from the jazz and soul scenes, including Herbie Hancock with whom she recorded versions of Joni Mitchell’s classic River.
Corinne Bailey Rae performing in New York. Credit: Gus Philippas
Then, last year, she went off in a completely new musical direction after working with a black-arts professor in Chicago. The result was Black Rainbows, a spiky, fuzz-guitar led album in which she vents against oppression and discrimination. The centrepiece is New York Transit Queen, a song about Audrey Smaltz, a black 17-year-old model who won the Miss New York Transit pageant in 1954. Live, Bailey Rae delivers her songs with piss and vinegar (which means aggressive energy for those not well versed in British slang). She’s indeed come a long way from the easy supper jazz of her first record.
Wednesday 28 & Thursday 29 August
Asher Gamedze/Analog Africa/Sheherazaad
Feeërieën, Royal Park Brussels
At the dog days of the summer, just before the rentrée, Ancienne Belgique puts on one of the best mini-festivals in Brussels in the Royal Park (Warande to Dutch-speakers) and all the concerts are completely free. It’s worth going along to all of the five nights just for the fun of discovering something new – but I want to pick out some of my highlights of the week.
Asher Gamedze is a rising star in the jazz world. Hailing from South Africa, he is a talented drummer and composer who isn't shy to raise awareness of political issues in his music. He also wowed audiences at Flagey when he appeared there in January with Nduduzo Makhathini Trio. Asher Gamedze plays on Wednesday at 21:45.
Asher Gamedze; Analog Africa's Samy Ben Redjeb; Sheherazaad
Analog Africa is a fantastic record label based in Frankfurt, run by Samy Ben Redjeb who has dedicated himself to unearthing obscure but classic recordings from Africa and re-releasing them for a global audience. Expect a selection of stunning sounds from regions, places and musician you’ve almost certainly never heard of. Analog Africa plays on Wednesday with set time TBA.
Sheherazaad, a US singer of Indian origin, is the protégée of Arooj Aftab, the US-Pakistani singer who took the world by storm in 2021. Like Aftab (who is appearing at Bozar in October), Sheherazaad takes her influences from jazz, classical and Indian music and melds them into an entrancing new mixture, often dropping out instruments to rely on her voice. She’s already been signed to London’s prestige Erased Tapes record label, home to some of the finest electronic and post-classical musicians around today. Miss a chance to catch her live for free? Not blooming likely. Sheherazaad plays on Thursday at 19:35.
