My favorite live performances

When I really like an artist, I usually look up their live performances on YouTube. And occasionally, I stumble upon some real gems. The kind of videos I can watch as many times as I want, and I still get goosebumps.

Today, I want to share three of my favorite live performances by great artists.

Pure creativity

I already mentioned Fred again.. in a previous post, but I’ll say it again: Although I’m not a musician myself, Fred is one of the most inspiring and talented creatives I know.

Especially his Actual Life series is worth mentioning here. During the pandemic, Fred sampled sounds from various sources (like social media videos or voice notes) and turned them into original tracks. All of them have that distinct Fred again.. sound, this rawness where you can feel all the creativity and emotions that were poured into the song.

No wonder his tracks are quite heavily featured in my playlists nowadays, they are particularly great for pumping you up during a run.

This performance of the Track “Delilah (pull me out of this)” (from “Actual Life 3”) at Glastonbury 2023 is a testament to the creativity and skill Fred has. Everything is done life, he mixes bits from the sample with the live piano and pre-recorded parts. It’s just great to watch him build up the song live (my favorite part starts at around the 03:20 mark):

The ending is also wonderful, hearing the audience keep singing your song while you’re already leaving the stage must be the greatest feeling ever.

Pure emotions

I originally found Isak Danielson, a Swedish singer-songwriter, via the Lost Frequencies Cut of “Broken”.

Although the original track is a rather heavy song (text-wise), the acoustic version of it, an edition of Isak’s “Sunday Sessions”, is just beautiful to hear and watch.

I can’t exactly put it into words why. The video just gives me a very calm, winter-y, Scandi vibe and always makes me feel melancholic and emotional (in a good way).

Pure vibes

Myles Smith is probably my top artist discovery this year. He has quite blown up since spring, so you might have also heard one or two songs from him. The first song I put in my heavy rotation playlist was “Solo”, but my absolute favorite one of him is called “Stargazing”.

This live recording of a Manchester concert of his is just pure vibes: A rather small location, but the crowd totally electrified, Myles and his band seem to have the time of their lives and everything just sounds perfect.

As a cherry on top, the cinematography of this one is also 10/10:

These are my current top 3 live performances. What is your favorite one?