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 November 2024.
Best gigs this month:
1 November
Geordie Greep
Botanique, Les Nuits Weekender festival, Orangerie stage (20:00)
Geordie was the lead singer and guitarist of alt-rock royalty black midi who burned brightly and made three landmark albums before splitting up (sorry, going on an indefinite break) this year. Black midi combined math rock, jazz and punk, channelling influences such as Frank Zappa and skating dangerously close to prog. Greep’s solo album, The New Sound, continues the approach but adds a highly stylised take on smooth US Album-Oriented Rock (AOR) beloved of FM radio stations in the 1970s and 1980s.
Geordie Greep is the former frontman of black midi. Credit: Yis Kid
As a result, Greep sounds like Steely Dan, especially on “Holy, Holy”, with what seems like dozens of chord changes and show-off borrowings from jazz. His lyrics manage to be twice as cynical as Steely Dan’s with a dose of US lowlife chronicler Charles Bukowski. (That’s enough cultural references. Ed.) Greep’s texts adopt the viewpoint of a sad user of escort services. Live, you can expect a highly entertaining performance from Greep. Black midi’s shows were always exhilarating with their high-octane delivery and supreme musical skills.
1 November
Avalanche Kaito
Botanique, Les Nuits Weekender festival, Museum stage (19:00)
Avalanche Kaito are one of the most exciting Belgian bands to have emerged in the last couple of years. The group’s members are Kaito Winse, a griot or traditional west African musician and storyteller, from Burkina Faso, plus drummer Benjamin Chaval and guitarist Nico Gitto, both from Belgium. Their music is a fusion of Winse’s vocals and playing combined with driving rhythms (and polyrhythms), samples and heavily modified sounds.
Hailing from Belgium via Burkina Faso, Avalanche Kaito's live shows are characterised by their energetic frontman
Following in the vein of groups in the 1980s like Cabaret Voltaire and 23 Skidoo that combined electronic instruments and sounds from traditional instruments, their records are heavy and intense and I would expect the same energy in their live performances. They have already played the UK’s End of the Road festival and had a session on prestigious US radio station and channel KEXP.
2 November
English Teacher
Botanique, Les Nuits Weekender festival, Museum stage (20:00)
English Teacher, hailing from Leeds and Lancashire, were the Mercury Prize winners this year for their debut album, This Could Be Texas. Teacher’s music straddles the proto-anthems of another "honest" and "earthy" Northern band, Elbow, and the post-punk quiet/loud/quiet dynamics of Wolf Alice.
English Teacher. Credit: Tatiana Ponzuelo Kopie
As a proud son of Birmingham, I have a soft spot for any English bands who sing in their regional accents so I love hearing the Northern vowels of singer Lily Fontaine. They started out as a dream pop band called "Frank" but there is little of that left in their most recent work. They are also performing at Les Nuits Weekender, a new Brussels music festival organised by the Botanique venue.
6 November
Kokororoko
Ancienne Belgique
Kokoroko are an eight-piece ensemble from London, led by trombonist Sheila Maurice-Grey, that mixes Afrobeat with jazz improvisation. Their name means "be strong" in the Nigerian Urhobo language, with the band's influences ranging from Lagos to London.
Kokoroko have been defined as 'London's most exciting collective of recent years'
They came to the fore in 2019 when their track, the seven-minute-long Abusey Junction, appeared on the “We Out Here” compilation on UK jazz DJ Giles Peterson’s Brownswood label. The track, a laid-back mix of smooth brass melodies and West African guitar playing, evokes the music of South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela. Fresh from Belgian performances at Flagey, De Roma, Pukkelpop and Couleur Café, the band are likely to also get the AB moving.
7 November
Les Négresses Vertes
Cirque Royal
Les Négresses were that rarest of commodities from the 1980s (or indeed, from any period); a French group that sort of broke into the UK mainstream. They were marketed at the time as the “French Pogues” which was a concise slogan but failed to say anything about their music, which was a mix of punk energy and French popular music idioms such as accordion music and Gitane (gypsy) jazz.
Dubbed France's Pogues, Les Négresses Vertes, reunited in 2018.
They nearly had a hit in the UK charts in 1989 with Zobi La Mouche, and Toujours L’Ete from the same year also got a lot of airplay. The group’s original lead singer Helno died in 1993 at the age of 30. The band stopped playing after his death but got together in 2018 to play gigs again. Live, they were always full of energy. Let’s see how they fare without Helno’s giant personality and stage presence.
13 November
Empress Of
Botanique
While the media (social and music) have been raving about Charlie XCX and the so-called brat summer, Lorely Rodriquez, a Honduran-American singer/songwriter, has been producing killer tunes and dancefloor bangers since 2013. She broke through with the single How You Do It from her debut album, Me, in 2015.
Brooklyn-based Empress Of first uploaded her music to YouTube anonymously before reaching international fame
Since then, she has collaborated with a stellar list of the finest of the US pop and R’n’B scene including Dev Hynes, Muna, Rina Sanayawa, Caroline Polachek as well as Denmark’s MØ. For this tour, she will be playing tracks from her latest album, For Your Consideration. Live, she delivers a high-energy performance. For fans of Carly Rae Jepsen, Robyn, Tove Lo, Kali Uchis, and even Taylor Swift.
15 November
Ganavya
Ancienne Belgique
Ever since Pakistani-American singer Arooj Aftab (who featured last month's Gig Guide) became popular in 2021, music from south Asia which combines jazz with traditional music (sung in their own language) has been an easy sell. Sometimes I wonder if record labels and artist management companies don’t have meetings in which they say to their talent scouts "Get me someone who sounds like Aftab".
Ganavya stands out from other artists combining traditional south Asian music with jazz
To be clear: my cynicism is directed at the music industry not at the artists. Ganavya, raised in Tamil Nadu, India’s most southerly province, fits the record company checklist perfectly but I think she stands out from the other artists who have emerged in Aftab’s wake. She is a genuine jazz singer, rather than someone who has studied jazz, and she incorporates her musical traditions into her art in a way that is greater than the sum of its parts. She is also appearing in Leuven at 30 CC Schouwburg on 14 November, the day before her Ancienne Belgique gig.
16 November
Cassandra Jenkins
Botanique
Jenkins is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She was supposed to accompany Purple Mountains, the group of David Berman, but he took his own life in 2019 before the tour. Her own music is an intriguing mix of folk and country but shot through with the flashes of ambient pop and the art-rock of Berman’s bands.
Cassandra Jenkins infuses folk with poetic lyricism and dreamy melodies. Credit: Josh Goleman
On this tour, she will be playing tracks from her third studio album, My Light, My Destroyer which came out this year, as well as its predecessor from 2021, An Overview of Phenomenal Nature. For fans of Waxahatchee, Weyes Blood, Laura Marling and Aldous Harding.
23 November
Shabaka
Flagey
Shabaka Hutchings is a London-born, Birmingham and Barbados-raised sax and flute player who was the creative force behind UK jazz ensemble Sons of Kemet and The Comet is Coming, who combined Hutchings’ furious sax soloing with driving synths and drums. After the high energy blowing of Kemet and Comet, Shabaka turned to the meditative music genre known as spiritual jazz, inspired by the work of saxophonists John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders and pianist and harpist Alice Coltrane.
Shabaka Hutchinson is a figurehead in spiritual jazz
On his latest album, Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace, Hutchings teams up with other global jazz greats such as bassist Esperanza Spalding, harpist Brandee Younger and South African pianist Nduduzo Makhathini. The album is contemplative and explores the same sort of musical territory as André 3000. For my money, Hutchings’ album is vastly superior. Live, expect an intense experience requiring and rewarding rapt attention. It also features electronic musician and DJ Floating Points (aka Sam Shepherd) and new-age/ambient music pioneer and zither player Laraaji.
1 December
Merope
Bozar
Merope is a collaboration between Lithuanian singer Indrė Jurgelevičiūtė and Belgian musician Bert Cools. Their music combines traditional Lithuanian folk melodies played on the kanklės, a traditional Lithuanian stringed instrument, and electronics. The effect is atmospheric and haunting. The concert comes as the group release their fifth album, Vėjula, on 5 November.
Lithuania's Merope are an eclectic folk band which offer a sample of Baltic folk
There's a sense of spontaneity and playfulness in the latest record, with moody folk melanges which will provide the perfect soundtrack for Brussels' international landscape.
