A-wa 3/7/2014

Staying in the Jewish quarter of Krakov whilst there happened to be a Jewish Festival on meant there were some gigs of - you guessed it - Jewish music. the first one we took in was a band called A-Wa who were based around three vocalist sisters with accompanying synthesiser, bass and drums. The festival programme promised traditional Yemenite songs but the main thrust of the set was beat-based dance music with a distinctively modern feel. There weere a couple of songs introduced as Yemenite traditional tunes and for me they were the best two tracks of the gig. You could feel the desert atmosphere and the cultural constraints of whatever was being forbidden or lost - well that was what came across to me anyway. The sisters' voices were great and of course perfectly harmonised. The beats were a little relentless though, although a section dancing in a corner of the synagogue were obviously enjoying them. The guy playing the keyboard/guitar synthesiser was the weak link - he banged out pretty simple rhythms a bit too loudly but it was an enjoyable hour and a quarter nonetheless.