Body&Soul 2019 – Friday Review – 21-06-19

Body&Soul is now ten years old and its first night fitting fell on the longest day of the year! The pagan Gods were kind and delivered some great weather for the assembled audience, who were in high spirits. The main Body&Soul stage started with The Murder Capital at half seven. Despite not having released their début album, the levels of hype over this band are reaching fever pitch, possibly due to the strength of the recent Fontaines D.C album and the (possible) birth of a new scene. The Murder Capital’s album ‘When I Have Fears’ is due out in August on Human Season Records.

The festival now has 11 stages in total, blending music with talks, comedy, theatre and other events. Some of the stages are quite small but there was a lively spirit at many of them. The Arbutus Yarns Theatre was packed throughout and always seemed to be in full swing. The surprise of the festival was definitely the Reckless in Love stage with seemed to be rammed to capacity, especially on the first night for the Homebeat curated set.

While there was no clear headliner on the night, Mashrou’ Leila are a band making waves and took to the stage at a quarter to eleven. They are a Lebanese indie band who have recently worked with Róisín Murphy and Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard. They are known for championing gay rights and were recently banned from performing in Jordan for blasphemy or ‘possibly because I like dick’ as their lead singer Hamed Sinno said on the night. He has an impressive voice and seems a natural on stage.

Other performances of note included the Pillow Queens and Alfi on a night with far too much on to possibly see everything! Kruder & Dorfmeister played last on the main stage and their blend of beats kept the crowd going long into the night.