Electronic beats is a Festival established by T-Mobile several years back. After major stages in Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Bratislava, Budapest the festival came rumbling to the “Stadion Malih Sportova” in Podgorica. Last year it had such distinguished as “Disclosure”, "Mount Kimbie" and "Retro Stefson". On September 12 Podgorica was graced by "Kate Boy", "Jessie Ware" and "Moderat".
Heavy rain was insisting on spoiling the fun, but for us, love of music was stronger than the bad weather. People travelled from all corners of Montenegro, from places in neighboring countries, but still it was a less than a good response to this great line up.
Gates opened at 7.p.m. and with the performance of the local trip hop, lounge, chill band “Deep Thoughts.”, the Festival was a go.
After them, Electro-Synthpop Trio "Kate Boy" started their performance. Band was formed in 2011 and quickly rose to prominence by having tours all over the world. Very charismatic singer Kate Akhurst, with her androgynous style, surprisingly strong, perfectly screaming vocal, set the stadium on fire. Her spirit and performance were restless, giving away her excitement, although she was trying to stay distant, unattainable and mysterious. Her voice was similar to that of Karin Dreijer Andersson of ''The Knife'' fame.
She invited us to dance with her, she took selfies and talked about how happy they were to meet so many fans in Montenegro. “Podgorica - You showed us the Montenegrin way to party! Thanks for an amazing weekend!” said their Twitter feed.
Every member of the bend was dressed in black clothes and Kate had a rap hat coupled with a cloak on her back. They design their own stage clothes and put as much effort into the visual aspects of performance as they do in creating music.
Less than perfect response from the audience got better when UK pop singer - songwriter Jessie Ware walked out on the stage. Best known for her 2012 single "Wildest Moments ", this diva proved once again what the critics said about her being "the missing link between Adele, SBTRKT and Sade."
She stepped in front of us singing “Running", dressed simply in black, so gracious, wearing a ponytail. Her charismatic stage presence made the crowd rush to the first rows. We were “ready to run, to lose it all", ready to fall in love with her beautiful, soulful singing, her unpretentious, spontaneous behavior. She's just as great live as on her album, her voice left everyone in awe. Jessie learned how to say "Thank You" in our language after several attempts. She was very funny while spelling the words and made a few jokes in her adorable British accent.
Singing “Tough Love", "Imagine It Was Us",” Kind Of ,Sometimes, Maybe" , "Say You Love Me" she seduced us, won us over with her vocal extravagance and most important colored our mood with melancholy. Band followed her in every word with their masterful playing. And then "Wildest Moments" occurred. It was like everyone came just to hear this song. She was surprised to hear we knew every word of the song and said "Hvala" once again. Concept was truly an extraordinary and once in a lifetime experience, we were honoured to have so great a performance in Podgorica. Her sophisticated, smooth and sensual, music combines the present and past and ends up sounding both contemporary and timeless.
Sascha Ring, known as Apparat, and Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary, also known as Modeselektor created electronic music project which they named Moderat. These three fellas have been making music for almost fifteen years now.
Originally from Berlin they succeeded in spreading their creation all over Europe and come the spring they’re going to perform in America and Canada.
Finally we've got the chance to see them perform live under our stormy night sky. It was raining cats and dogs, but it only moved the crowd to dance even more with a great beat building up, bass and dance power cheered up even the cranky ones. Intriguing, stunning, fresh sound and visual concept with four separate screens, monitors, projectors and electronics were great, combined with the foggy weather. While people were dancing, completely wet, this powerful, amazing trio has transported us to another world performing great tunes: "New Error", "Damage Done", “Bad Kingdom" , "Rusty Nails" , "Les Grandes Marches"...
Whatever you think of their studio album material, Moderat will prove to you their worth and blow your mind with their live performance.
This year, the Festival lived up to everyone’s expectations, people had a good time despite it pouring with rain all day long and a lot of people decided not to come. The weather could have been better, but true fans enjoyed themselves, nonetheless, and that's most important.