As we get well into September, ascending slowly but surely toward the pinnacle of Closings, another night to say farewell and pack up for this Ibiza season is the flag-flier for live music on the White Isle, Ibiza Rocks. It was a real menagerie of a line-up including Kiwi and Jagwar Ma, then none other than Foals headlining, and although it was the final event, it was bitter sweet, as I'm a big Foals fan and have been looking forward to this all season.
Australian trio Jagwar Ma got everyone warmed up. After hearing their debut album Howlin which was released earlier this year, I was really looking forward to seeing them and wasn't disappointed. They played a happy mix of covers and their own material, including Come Save Me, the debut single that put them on the map, The Throw and Man I Need, and a great version of The Rapture's How Deep Is Your Love.
Resident DJ Nicola Bear kept everyone from chomping too impatiently at the bit for Foals to take the stage. She played some of the season's biggest tracks and artists such as Daft Punk's Get Lucky and Fat Boy Slim's Praise You, before handing the reins over to Yannis (lead Foal) et al.
I (and the rest of the crowd from the looks of things) found their set was practically flawless; a selection from all three albums that had clearly been cherry-picked. It felt like we were really taken on a journey through the band's progression and musical discovery; from Olympic Airways and Electric Bloom which feature the racing catchy swells their first album Antidotes was famous for, to the slower more ethereal electronic sounds of Spanish Sahara and the title track from Total Life Forever, to the punchy, catchy guitar solo-filled third album Holy Fire. The third album is rather dissimilar to the first two, and Foals interspersed songs from it such as My Number and Late Night. Late Night has become a big hit on the island this season thanks to Diynamic honcho Solomun's edit of it being played all over Ibiza from Pacha to Sankeys.
The band ended on a high, playing the track Inhaler off their third album as their encore, and to the crowd's delight, Yannis walked out into the crowd for his guitar solos. His stage presence is always fantastic, as we saw at Latitude Festival this summer where they were headlining for the first time.
So it seems Ibiza Rocks and Foals confirmed there's ‘neigh' doubt about it... thankfully live music still very much has a place on the island and in the hearts of its music-hungry visitors.
Words by Lydia Laws, Photography by James Chapman
