Live Reports

Banks at the Ancienne Belgique: we were hypnotized!

The Serpentina Tour of Banks stopped at the legendary Ancienne Belgique in Brussels on this September 5th. The singer brought her lovely alt pop and hypnotized the full room with her new songs! Usually, Monday suck. But not this time!

It’s a pure coincidence if we discovered Banks this Summer while we were checking the agenda of the Ancienne Belgique… Where were we the last 10 years?! And were the fans?! Shame on us for not having discovered it sooner! But the timing is perfect as she released her best full-length album “Serpentina” last April. This tour promoting this brand new album couldn’t arrive at a better time. Even if early September isn’t always the best time to play a show, between end of festivals and the back to school mood.

The AB is in its Ballroom configuration, meaning only the full floor is open but not the balcony (1300p max capacity). It gave a more intimate vibes to enter in the Banks‘s world. Jillian Rose Banks aka Banks choose wisely her fits tonight as she’s fully in red, like the venue. Her dancers are dressed in dark and her stage production very minimalist so she can easely keep all the light on her. And she totally deserves it! Not only because she’s the queen of the night and released a kick-ass album but also because she’s a strong woman who kept her motivation after getting the news she has an autoimmune disease. A new that would have stopped any artists without any shame to do so. But she’s there in front of us, ready to start the European leg of her “Serpentina Tour”!

Because, yes, tonight is the first show of the tour so we are the first people in Europe having the chance to hear the new songs. Misunderstood launched perfectly the show and set the tone for the rest of it as 7 from the 16 songs on the set-list are from “Serpentina”. But also showed us that she’s using a lot of backing tracks. Luckily, the backing tracks were less present when she moved less. Of course, it’s hard to dance a lot and sing easely at the same time… Even if Dua Lipa proved during her both shows at SportPaleis in May that we can find the good deal between dancing and singing.

More than just a show, it’s a full performance that Banks is giving us tonight. So if we want to give an opinion about her live show, we have to look to its entirety! We are far away from an act like Scarxlrd but we had the same questioning at this show at Botanique in June: is it a bad thing he uses so many backing vocals and don’t sing all part of his songs. The answer was negative. It’s the same answer for Banks tonight: it’s part of the show, she’s there to make us enjoy the evening and does everything possible for that! Don’t make us say what we didn’t say: she doesn’t do play-back.

The first highlight of the evening arrived very quickly with the banger Gemini Feed as third song! Dancers on stage are on fire and so is a part of the audience. Song after song, the connection went better between the artist and her fans: we got more and more songs when she’s without her dancers, sitting on stage and singing her songs without too much backing vocals. Honestly, we definitely prefer these parts of the show like Waiting Game and Someone New. Between all these classics and new songs, we only get one from “III”, Gimme, near the end of the show, but it put the floor on fire! Before the climax of the show with Beggin For Thread, only song played during the encore.

Set-list: Misunderstood, Meteorite, Gemini Feed, Fuck With Myself, Better, Waiting Game, The Devil, Skinnydipped, Fuck Love, Drowning, Someone New, Brain, Gimme, Deadend, Holding Back, Beggin For Thread.

The Serpentina Tour of Banks stopped at the legendary Ancienne Belgique in Brussels on this September 5th. The singer brought her lovely alt pop and hypnotized the full room with her new songs! Usually, Monday suck. But not this time!

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