Since this was a pretty special experience and International music event, I thought I would share some thoughts and photos in summary here, mostly in an effort to genuinely promote and recommend this event to those who might not have heard of it or ever considering attending themselves. The 9-day event took place in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, a coming together of twin ski/resort towns to put on Caprices Festival, hosting dozens of musical artists spanning many different genres and styles. I actually only ran into a couple of Americans during the nine days of concerts (both had come out from New York for Tori Amos), so I think spreading some more information about the event on a U.S.-based site might bring out more people from the United States for future incarnations of this annual event, which celebrated it’s 10th anniversary this year, which also happened to mark some big changes and growth in size and line-up. [Read more…]
Caprices Festival Day 2 | Fatboy Slim, Nas, Cody ChesnuTT, Tom Staar, Crash Island | Crans-Montana, Switzerland | 3/9/2013 (Concert Review)
Day 2 of Caprices Festival in Crans-Montana, Switzerland… and my first full day of the show (arrived up after dark for Day 1, traveling form California for the event). Last night’s line-up included a mix of styles that flowed nicely set to set on the main stage, The Moon. Opening up was UK indie band Crash Island, one of the finalists of the Orange New Talent Contest. Next on stage served as an unexpected highlight of the night for me with Cody ChestnuTT, who was simply amazing with his music and genuine, soulful delivery. Popular hip hop artist Nas was a huge draw, really bringing the audience to life and jumping around. UK DJ and electronic music artist Tom Staar kept things moving to set up for the legendary Fatboy Slim, who closed out the stage for the night, with his own pioneering brand of relentless electronic/house/trip hop/rave/rock music. Truly a special line-up that thrilled the crowd. It was one of those shows where I found myself taking more than the usual number of reverse shots of the crowd to capture some of the energy and emotion driven by a night of incredible music.