Summer of music

This summer has been warm and filled with music. Tanya and I started what became a big run of concerts by seeing Mogwai and Sigur Ros at Montreux. Mogwai was dark and played their soundtrack to a film about the legacy of the atomic bomb. Sigur Ros were comparatively uplifting, wonderfully loud, and used excellent visuals. A few days later came Van Morrison, to which I took Mum for her birthday. I grew up listening to Van's music, and it was a huge treat to see him play live with a tight band. He was astoundingly good and it was a special show. In his encore he played Ballerina, a favourite. Then came the big one - Tanya and I went to Lisbon for a long weekend, to see the city and to go to the NOS Alive music festival.

Lisbon's streets are lined by buildings with wonderful tiling on the walls, of all patterns, colours, and states of repair. With its terracotta roofs and intense heat, the city has a Mediterranean feel and plenty of colour.

We walked through the surprisingly steep city and up to see the view from the São Jorge Castle.

There was a lot of awesome street art around the place.

We also walked through the old section of the town in Alfama. There we witnessed (and Tanya helped with) the rescue of a cat who had climbed into a hole in a wall that was too high for it to jump down from. The poor cat was meowing so forlornly that a crowd had gathered underneath it and were watching as it turned circles in and leaned out of its letterbox-sized hole. Shortly thereafter a man arrived with a ladder, to the applause of the crowd and more meowing from the cat. An older man, who was apparently the owner, launched up the ladder and retrieved the cat, who made things harder by hanging on to the wall with its claws. The was more applause as the two returned safely to the ground.

Cat rescue in Alfama!

The main reason we were in Lisbon, though, was to go to the music festival. The first night there we saw Radiohead. They started their set by playing the first five tracks of their new album A Moon Shaped Pool, in order. Then they dived into older material which included Talk Show Host, Everything In Its Right Place, and Reckoner. Everyone danced like crazy for Idioteque and sang along to Karma Police. They were just brilliant.

The moon and a drone over NOS Alive in Lisbon.

On our second night of the festival, we caught the end of Jose Gonzalez' set and then got good places in the excited crowd for Arcade Fire. The energy that Arcade Fire put out was incredible, especially on their big build-up songs like No Cars Go. M83 finished off the night with synthesisers.

Portuguese tarts are amazing.

We flew back from Lisbon on the night that Portugal played France (and won) in the Euro 2016 final. Getting to the airport was a minor battle against crowds of people with airhorns and flags, and during our flight the pilot gave us regular updates on the match's progress.

The string of concerts wasn't quite over even then. We went back to Montreux to see another Icelandic band, Kiasmos, who played right before Four Tet. Then last week it was time to head to the Paleo festival for one night to see The Lumineers and Muse take to the stage. Muse were polished and excellent and played on the cleanest stage you can imagine - no amps and no cords. And it was with Muse that our summer of music, which included many bands, many large crowds, and many late nights, came to a loud conclusion.