One of the city's great hidden treasures, the Brussels music scene hosts some of the biggest and best up-and-coming artists and bands in the international, European and Belgian scene.
Every month, Europe's capital has no shortage of thrilling concerts – and picking out the best gigs can be tough. This is why we have put together a monthly guide to discover the best live acts in the city, perfect for new and old Brussels folk alike.
Carefully selected by music journalist Simon Taylor, here are The Brussels Times' choices for the concerts and gigs that you and your friends should not miss throughout September.
Best gigs this month:
3 September
Throwing Muses
Botanique
Throwing Muses were one of the 1980s bands that redefined indie rock with a mixture of abrasive guitars and fierce, deeply personal lyrics that rejected simple tales of unrequited love with tales of mental abuse and the ensuing anguish. The Muses’ co-founder Kirstin Hersh was perhaps the greatest proponent of this style. The band was founded in 1981 Newport, Rhode Island by Hersh and her stepsister Tanya Donnelly (who went on to form The Breeders with Kim Deal, and then Belly). The band was supported by those other alt-rock pioneers, the Pixies, on their first UK tour in the late 80s.
Throwing Muses
The Muses released some of the best albums and singles in the late 80s and early 90s, including House Tornado in 1988, The Real Ramona in 1991 (and the single Counting Backwards) and Bright Yellow Gun from the album University, released in ’95. Give them a listen now and see if you agree that the songs haven’t dated in the slightest. Hersh has suffered from mental health problems throughout her life and this is reflected in her intensely personal lyrics. It is therefore encouraging and exciting that she is still performing live after more than 40 years of making music. It will be interesting to see the age profile of the audience at Botanique to see whether this godmother of emo speaks to a younger audience.
4 September
Poison Girl Friend
Botanique
Regular readers of this column (if such people exist) might have realised by now that I am a fan of French pop, preferably of the ‘60s yé-yé variety, as well as of Japanese bands’ take on western pop. So Yokohama-born Poison Girl Friend, aka nOrIkO, is right up my street.
Poison Girl Friend
She sings in breathy French against a backdrop of synths with an ability to write catchy melodies. I have never seen her live but she played at Les Nuits Botanique in May supporting Stereolab (an obvious pairing).
9 September
Dutch Interior
Botanique
Dutch Interior, an Americana/lo-fi roots band from California, have the dubious honour of being famous as one of the first victims of AI-generated 'fake news'. Posts by Meta AI stated that the band were from the Netherlands (they’re not), that they were linked to far-right groups (they are not) and that their songs had been removed from streaming services (guess what).
Dutch Interior. Credit: Julien Sage
Meta’s post was picked up and regurgitated by other platforms. Maybe this appalling situation will give the band and their music some deserved exposure. Using lapsteel guitar and banjo, they work the furrow of dreamy, country-tinged melodic songwriting that acts like Waxahatchee, MJ Lenderman and Big Thief have been exploring. Check out their latest LP Moneyball with its acknowledged debt to those other Californian soft rockers Fleetwood Mac.
17 September
Blondshell
Botanique
Blondshell (aka Sabrina Teitelbaum) has probably listened to a lot of Throwing Muses records as her music, angsty indie rock with powerfully personal lyrics, emerges from the tradition created by alt-rock pioneer Patti Smith and continued through artists like PJ Harvey.
Blondshell. Credit: Daniel Topete
Teitelbaum, who is now based in LA, is also capable of writing strong pop songs that put one in mind of indie talents like Snail Mail. Check out fearlessly frank songs like T&A (yes, it does stand for what you think) that spell out the tension between fleeing emotionally abusive partners and the fear of being on your own.
20 September
M’bilia Bel
La Madeleine
I think we "internationals" or "expats" or white European foreigners don’t make the most of the richness of Congolese and west African culture in Brussels. This concert, a benefit for victims of sexual violence in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is a chance to rectify that. M’bilia Bel is the Shirley Bassey, the Edith Piaf, the Barbara Streisand of Congolese music. She is known as the 'Queen of African rumba', a genre that Congolese musicians created by combining the sounds of Cuban bands with local dance styles and which later further evolved into the high-energy 'soukous' (from the French word for shake).
M’bilia Bel
Bel started her singing career at the age of 15 in 1974 with the legendary Congolese band, Les Redoutables. In the ‘80s, she teamed up with soukous great Tabu Ley Rochereau, who renamed her M’bilia Bel. The two married in the mid 80s by which time Bel was widely acknowledged as the queen of African music. Hopefully, her show at La Madeleine will be full of her fans and the crowd will be in the mood to celebrate this musical icon.
22 September
Mereba
Botanique
It can be hard to keep track of the current crop of young female singer-songwriters emerging from the rich and prolific US and UK scenes (not to mention the French and Belgian ones). So let me try to help by singling out Mereba from Alabama. Although her own music is rooted more in the folk end of the spectrum, she has added her smooth vocals to collaborations with big name rappers such as J.I.D.
Mereba
She released her debut full-length LP, The Jungle is the Only Way Out, on legendary rap label, Interscope Records, in 2019, followed by Glock Peaceful in 2021. Her most recent album, The Breeze Grew a Fire, came out in February on Secretly Canadian records, a label better known for left-field indie acts like Anohni and The War on Drugs.
29 September
Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Ancienne Belgique
Sophie-Ellis Bextor
It’s a shame that this show comes at the end of September rather than at the start of the month when Ellis-Bextor’s English-rose-does-disco would have lifted the spirits of anyone with the rentrée blues. Even if you don’t know her name (or the fact that her mum, Janet, was a presenter on classic British children’s programme Blue Peter), I challenge readers to listen to her surefire floor fillers Murder on the Dancefloor or Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love), the track she recorded with Italian DJ Spiller in 2000, and tell me they haven’t shaken their bum at some point to those tunes.
