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 Brussels folk alike.
Carefully selected by music journalist Simon Taylor, here are The Brussels Times' choices for the concerts that you should not miss with your friends this September.
Best gigs this month
4 September
Bedouine
AB Club
Azniv Korkejian, to give Bedouine her given name, is a Syrian-American singer with a super gentle voice that brings to mind people like Karen Carpenter or, to give a more recent example, US singer-songwriter Weyes Blood. Bedouine was born in Aleppo to Armenian parents and lived in Saudi Arabia before her family moved to the US.
Bedouine
She usually accompanies herself on softly plucked nylon-string guitar, but her latest album, Neon Summer Skin, features piano and tasteful brass 60s-style arrangements courtesy of the Spacebomb studios. I first saw her in the small upstairs room at the Ancienne Belgique back in 2018, and her music comes over best in intimate settings so it should work in the AB’s Club.
8 September
The Orielles
Witloof Bar, Botanique
The Orielles, from Halifax in West Yorkshire, delivered one of the best indie albums of recent years in 2020 with Disco Volador, an album that combined disco, funk and electronic textures and brought to mind bands like Stereolab, Broadcast and Saint Etienne (who are also on Heavenly Records, like the Orielles).
The Orielles
The impact of the Covid-19 epidemic plus Brexit making it prohibitively expensive for small bands from the UK to tour in continental Europe seem to have held them back from building on the success that Voladar deserved. Their third album, Tableau, didn’t have the same impact. Undaunted, the trio are back with a new album, Only You Left. They played a fantastic show in Botanique’s Witloof Bar in 2018, and I’m looking forward to seeing them again after far-too-long a break.
10 September
Rachel Chinouriri
Museum, Botanique
Chinouriri is a 27-year-old singer-songwriter from South London who attracted attention after she uploaded her songs to SoundCloud. She released her debut EP, Mama’s Boy, in 2019. Like many of her contemporaries, she shot into the limelight when one of the tracks, So My Darling, became popular on TikTok. Chinouriri’s music is an interesting mix of pop, soul and R&B inflexions but also with a healthy dose of indie guitar music, which puts you in mind of artists like Beabadoobee, james k and Belgium’s own Uwase, and off-kilter electronic sounds.
Rachel Chinouriri
Chinouriri is clearly destined for major fame and popularity. She recently supported Sabrina Carpenter on the US singer’s stadium tour and appeared at Olivia Rodrigo’s Daisy Chain Fields all-women festival last weekend. It will be the last time you get a chance to see the British singer in as small a venue as Botanique’s Museum, so grab your tickets while you can. Expect hordes of worshipping teens singing along to every word.
18 September
Judas Priest
Foret National
Judas Priest, or Priest as they are known to their fans, have been around since 1969 (!!!) and were one of the bands (along with Iron Maiden) at the forefront of what was known as “the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM)” in the mid and late 70s. Their sixth studio album, British Steel, is seen as one of the movement's seminal recordings and features some of their best-known tracks, including Breaking the Law and Living After Midnight. Their lead singer, Rob Halford, was one of the few frontmen in heavy rock at the time with short hair. (Nerds will point to Graham Bonnet, who sang with Rainbow in the late 70s, but my point still stands).
Judas Priest
Halford came out as gay in 1998 on MTV, which cast his hairstyle and love of leather, studs and peaked bikers’ caps in a new and refreshing light for the sometimes homophobic metal scene. One of my favourite Priest tracks is Island of Domination from their 1976 album, Sad Wings of Destiny. The band are planning to release their 20th studio album next year. Halford is one of the all-time great rock frontmen and their live shows are worth seeing to cross off your bucket list. By the way, try to find a video online of Halford’s tribute to Dolly Parton in which he describes her as a “glowing ball of light” in his thick Midlands accent. He duetted with her on a track on her 2023 Rockstar album.
26 September
William Basinski
Bozar
Born in Houston, Texas in 1958, Basinski is the creator of one of the most important pieces of avant-garde/experimental music of the 20th century. His Disintegration Loops, released between 2002 and 2003, is not as well-known as pieces like Steve Reich’s Minimalist masterpieces such as Music for 18 Musicians, Terry Riley’s In C or Philip Glass’ Glassworks or operas such as Einstein on the Beach.
William Basinski
The piece is also much more difficult listening and is therefore much less easy for yuppies to enjoy while doing their yoga stretches. Disintegration Loops is, as the name suggests, is a four-volume collection of recordings played while the tape disintegrates and the sound deteriorates past the point of recognition. It is a meditation on decay, loss, memory, creativity, preservation and conservation and the commodification of the artwork in late capitalism. For his concert at Bozar, Basinski will be performing piano pieces.
