This was the last gig of the Summer 2013 Ibiza Rocks season, with Foals and support from Jagwar Ma, and it promised to be a good one.
Australian’s Jagwar Ma, aka Gabriel Winterfield and Jono Ma with the addition of recent recruit Jack Freeman on bass guitar released their first album earlier in the year to much critical acclaim. With an intro of the Stone Roses – I am The Ressurection, as soon as they arrived on stage they had everyone dancing to their hypnotic, dancey, guitar-fused, vocal-laden tunes.
There was much dancing from the stage too, always a good sign in my opinion. As is often the case with the support bands, their set was all too short, and before we knew it, they were off. If you haven’t heard them and like guitar-infused dance music, then check them out.
Foals have been getting lots of praise from their festival sets this summer and the five-piece band from Oxford put on a great show for the packed Ibiza Rocks crowd who were all there for the last gig of the year. Frontman Yannis strutted across the stage with his guitar throughout the set, joining the club of several other performers this year who have ventured out onto the exit tunnel roof to play mid song. An impressive light show was also on offer, with spotlights shining out from the stage into the courtyard and lots of white lights and strobing from the back of the stage, which added to the atmosphere and the show emanating from the stage. There was a nice touch at the end of the last song in the encore when two members of Jawar Ma joined Foals onstage to provide drumming and dancing. The up-for-it crowd lapped it all up, and it all added up to another great Ibiza Rocks gig, albeit the last one for 2013. A great end to a great season of live music.
Unusually, just before Foals came onstage, the photographers were informed that they were not allowed into the pit to take photos during the first three songs, which is the norm granted by most performers. Instead they wanted photos taken during the encore. With no briefing of when this might be, we consequently have no photos of Foals performing, just some videos.
Ed: The beauty of taking photos of bands you like is that you do the 1st 3 songs in the pit, take some more photos around the venue etc and then you can go enjoy the gig and come out with a positive attitude of the band to everyone. I’m not sure which is worst, the insistence on deep red or blue back-lighting in 1st 3 songs, the odd last-minute change or just saying no… but I did enjoy it in the end and was a good ending to a good year of live music by all the Ibiza Rocks team. Some great headliners and some brilliant choices of support bands. And of course the closing after-party at Pikes didn’t disappoint…. near enough “last to leave”…
Looking forward to next year already – cheers !
p.s. One special mention to the Wok On team next to the hotel – kept everyone fed and watered with a smile 🙂
