Balthazar and Faces On Tv @ Club Control

During Balthazar’s Fever tour, two concerts managed to make their way in Bucharest, in Club Control. Faces On Tv, the opening act, made sure we were properly prepared for the night to come. I am gonna tell you how the first night from their Romanian stop went on, and I’ll be back soon with an interview with Jasper Maekelberg from Faces On Tv.

The night darker than usual would hold us, hostage, some people said we might get an acoustic concert at the candlelight (which wouldn’t have bothered us), others were close to leaving the venue and the ones with hope left, were sure that in any minute everything will have been solved. In case nothing has come to your head by now, we had to deal with a blackout. But the optimists were right, the energy was back on, not just in the club but also in us.

Faces On Tv

The scene was arranged with a guitar and a few other instruments, that, to be honest, I had no idea what to call. The thing is, there was a mystery hidden behind them, a mystery that we got to know as Faces On Tv. Darkness is taking over us again and Jasper (the only member of the band) makes his way to the stage. I would have never thought that one man can rebuild his songs in front of my eyes. Just Jasper, his guitar, a synthesizer some pedals and a few percussion instruments took us on a journey through a mixture of indie/pop with sonics taken from electronic music. I am glad I had the chance to see something like this and I recommend it to every single one of our readers. It’s worth seeing this kind of concert. Anyways, everyone had a good time, people danced and most importantly the contact with the crowd was always there. Either through the music, through Jasper’s moves or through the way he would make eye contact with certain people. Sadly, the songs that were prepared for us came to an end, but the energy could be felt in every corner of the room and it was ready to welcome Balthazar.

Balthazar

The five members of the band appeared in front of us, while the intro was blending perfectly with the song, Roller Coaster, which was inviting us to another dance. Once the music could be felt all around, there was no way out, the songs from their oldest albums teamed up with the ones from the new one, Fever. The intense beat, the guitars that would complete each other, the violin, the synthesizer and the trombone carried us in a sound bubble. The contact with the crowd kept intensifying. From time to time some jokes made their way through the two frontmen’s microphones, there were hints for the upcoming songs. After a marathon of four songs from the latest album, an older one broke the chain, Blood Like Wine. At some point, someone told me that this song was something else , but I didn’t want to believe her. After that night, I won’t listen to it in the same way that I used to. When the song felt like it’s coming to an end, everyone raised their glasses soundtracked by the lyrics “Raise your glass to the nighttime and the ways” while the voices of Maarten and Jinte would echo in the atmosphere. There are moments when the stage doesn’t seem as exciting as it used to, so Maarten Devoldere stood up to that. When Changes was close to the chorus, he jumped into the crowd and started wandering through the people. What could be higher than the stage? The bar. So next thing I knew, he was up and performing on it. The place where people buy and serve their drinks had gotten a whole other role. All eyes were on him.

Our Belgian lead singer made his way back to the stage and shortly after that, satisfaction could be read on his face. Actually, not only on his but also on the faces of the rest of the members. Fever, the song that also names the album belonged to the crowd. “I get the fever every time you cross my mind” was singing almost every person in the venue. The end of our Belgian journey was called Do Not Claim Them Anymore. I am sure every person in there wished for some more music, but after a 17 songs long setlist, we were eventually tired from so much dancing and good time.

Anyways, there was no place for disappointment, the mood set by the music was still there, even though the concert came to an end. Neither the energy brought by Jasper’s music with psychedelic tendencies nor the places Faces On Tv and Balthazar took us to that night will be forgotten.

Photos by: https://www.shamrockraver.com/

This article originally appeared in Romanian (Click here)

Eli Giuglea

„You see us as you want to see us—in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions.” – The Breakfast Club