Best of 2024

My best of 2024 are records, concerts, a book and an exhibition that filled my soul, touched me, or left a strong impression. Art forms that early this year still resonate, and remain close to my heart.

In late April 2024 I wrote an essay with Deep Emotions, a single from Good Grief, Bernard Butler third solo album and his first in 25 years as starting point. It was my second essay for Mondo. Along with, earlier in 2024, the listening parties of Rafael Toral’s Spectral Evolution it was the beginning of marvels, emotional perils and tribulations, and new paths.

The albums by Rafael and Bernard are healing records. Basalto merges melancholia, drama, romanticism. Vini Reilly is a Record Store Day re-issue of the 1989 album by Durutti Column. If there is a musician, composer, guitarist that has been with me since I’m a kid and has an influence how I see, approach, the electric guitar, Vini Reilly is him. I become aware of Ned Swarbrick when Bernard made a shout-out for support acts, and I liked Ned’s music. His ep has been a constant since.

As the Universe would have it, in 2024 Bernard played in Portugal for the first time, solo or otherwise. It was an amazing concert. 2024 was also the year of Old Jerusalem’s last concert. Old Jerusalem and Francisco Silva, the man behind it, have been part of Mondo’s favourites for decades. Francisco also begun being part of mine, in a different capacity, in 2022 when we wrote our first song together. Old Jerusalem last concert was intimate, poignant, a gathering of friends.

Records:
Bernard Butler – Good Grief (355 Recordings)
Rafael Toral – Spectral Evolution (Moikai/Drag City Records)
Basalto – Blunt Knives (self-release)
The Durutti Column – Vini Reilly (rsd2024)
Ned Swarbrick – Michelangelo EP (self-release)

Concerts:
Bernard Butler – Casa da Música, Porto
Orquestra Barroca Casa da Música & Coro Casa da Música performing Messiah by Handel – Casa da Música, Porto
Basalto – Passos Manuel, Porto
Bill Mackay – Rivoli, Porto
Sleaford Mods – Casa da Música, Porto
Old Jerusalem – Socorro, Porto
Tindersticks – Casa da Música, Porto

Book:
Miranda July – All Fours (Riverhead Books)

Exhibition:
Cláudia Clemente – Plastic Bitch, Mira Fórum, Porto

Concerts of the Year

01 - TOP PLATINA - Príncipe
Príncipe @ Passos Manuel © Guilherme Lucas

These are Guilherme Lucas’s concerts of 2019.

“2019 was a year of few concerts, I attended 42 in total. As always, in some of them I found good and interesting things for future reference. Some are (re) confirmed repetitions and others absolute premieres for my attention radar. My tops do not follow any particular criteria, therefore those that deserve a prominent place in my appreciation exhaust themselves in rank order.”

Guilherme Lucas’s words freely translated by Raquel Pinheiro.

PLATINUM TOP – Concert of the year

Príncipe – Passos Manuel

GOLD TOP

1- SERVO – Woodstock 69 Rock bar

2- Greengo – Woodstock 69 – Slabdragger

3- Homem em Catarse – Casa da Música

4- Dinamitz – Casa do Salgueiros

5- TWIN GUNS – La Iguana Club

6- JESUS THE SNAKE – Woodstock 69

7- O Manipulador – Woodstock 69

SILVER TOP

1- Cavalheiro – Passos Manuel

2- Jaguars – Woodstock 69

3- Mick Harvey – Casa da Música

4- VÜRMO – Barracuda – Clube de Roque

5- Antinomia – Metalpoint

Guilherme Lucas’s 2018’s Concerts.

Homem em Catarse_3
Homem Em Catarse @ Woodstock 69 (c) Guilherme Lucas

words: Guilherme Lucas (freely translated by Raquel Pinheiro)
In 2018 I attended 156 concerts. Most of them were good, or very good, some excellent and very few, almost residual, that were bad or indifferent to me. I wrote about almost all of them in my no-future reviews. Here is the top of the ones that mean the most to me. It is a top to my measure and taste, not of a round number, but of all the bands that managed to be a little more (in concert) than the others. Those that did not appear on the list were also important and served mainly to differentiate levels, mostly small ones. To all of them my sincere thanks for being there and for the good times given to me. Special thanks to Woodstock 69 Rock bar, Mondo Bizarre Magazine, Portuguese Distortion and Lovers & Lollypops.
PLATINUM TOP – Best Concert
Homem em Catarse – Woodstock 69

GOLD TOP
1 – Johnny Hooker – Milhões de Festa
2 – Svederna Garde – Woodstock 69
3 – Bone Zeno – Barracuda – Clube de Roque
4 – MOOON – Woodstock 69
5 – Religião & Moral – Barracuda

SILVER TOP – all following concerts have no degree of classificatory importance, listed in a timeline order.
– Hellcharge – CAVE 45
– Era uma vez um tímpano – Woodstock 69
– Scott Kelly/John Judkins – Understage – Rivoli
– O Bom, o Mau e o Azevedo – Barracuda
– Fuzzil – Woodstock 69
– Sunflowers – Maus Hábitos – Espaço de Intervenção Cultural
– METZ – Hard Club
– Summer of Hate – Woodstock 69
– dreamweapon – Woodstock 69
– Nu No (Nuno Marques Pinto) – Cantinho da Teresinha
– PÉ ROTO – Woodstock 69
– Sekhmet – Antireligious BM – Metalpoint
– Official: Lydia Lunch – Galeria Municipal do Porto
– Fur Dixon – Barracuda
– The Cavemen (NZ) – Barracuda
– Greengo – Woodstock 69
– Sereias – Milhões de Festa
– Warmduscher – Milhões de Festa
– Vaiapraia – Milhões de Festa
– Bite The Bullet – Woodstock 69
– Eskizofrénicos – Barracuda
– Okoyome – Woodstock 69
– Marky Ramone – Hard Club
– Terebentina – Woodstock 69
– Harutaka Mochizuki/ Tomoyuki Aoki – Praça Alegria Futebol Clube
– Cavalheiro – Casa da Música
– The Saxophones – Hard Club
– Little Friend – Passos Manuel
– A Burial At Sea– Woodstock 69
– Andy Burns – CASA DO LIVRO
– It Was the Elf – Woodstock 69

rafaelfarias.concertohooker5
Johnny Hooker @ Milhões de Festa 2018 (C) Rafael Farias

texto: Guilherme Lucas

Neste ano de 2018 – que termina hoje – assisti a 156 concertos ao vivo. Na sua esmagadora maioria estes foram bons, ou muito bons, havendo uns poucos excelentes e uns muito poucos, quase que residuais, que foram maus ou que me foram indiferentes. Sobre quase todos eles escrevi nas minhas reviews sem futuro. Deixo aqui o meu top dos melhores de todos, daqueles que mais significaram para mim. É um top à minha medida e ao meu gosto e também não é um top de número redondo mas sim de todas as bandas que conseguiram ser um pouco mais (em concerto), do que as outras. As que não aparecem na lista também foram importantes e serviram sobretudo para conseguir diferenciar níveis, na maioria das vezes muito pequenos. A todas elas o meu agradecimento sincero por existirem e pelos bons momentos que me proporcionaram. Um especial agradecimento ao Woodstock 69 Rock bar, Mondo Bizarre Magazine, Portuguese Distortion e Lovers & Lollypops.

TOP PLATINA – Melhor concerto do ano
Homem em Catarse – Woodstock 69

TOP OURO
1 – Johnny Hooker – Milhões de Festa
2 – Svederna Garde – Woodstock 69
3 – Bone Zeno – Barracuda – Clube de Roque
4 – MOOON – Woodstock 69
5 – Religião & Moral – Barracuda

TOP PRATA – todos os concertos seguem sem grau de importância classificativa, seguindo numa ordem de linha do tempo.
– Hellcharge – CAVE 45
– Era uma vez um tímpano – Woodstock 69
– Scott Kelly/John Judkins – Understage – Rivoli
– O Bom, o Mau e o Azevedo – Barracuda
– Fuzzil – Woodstock 69
– Sunflowers – Maus Hábitos – Espaço de Intervenção Cultural
– METZ – Hard Club
– Summer of Hate – Woodstock 69
– dreamweapon – Woodstock 69
– Nu No (Nuno Marques Pinto) – Cantinho da Teresinha
– PÉ ROTO – Woodstock 69
– Sekhmet – Antireligious BM – Metalpoint
– Official: Lydia Lunch – Galeria Municipal do Porto
– Fur Dixon – Barracuda
– The Cavemen (NZ) – Barracuda
– Greengo – Woodstock 69
– Sereias – Milhões de Festa
– Warmduscher – Milhões de Festa
– Vaiapraia – Milhões de Festa
– Bite The Bullet – Woodstock 69
– Eskizofrénicos – Barracuda
– Okoyome – Woodstock 69
– Marky Ramone – Hard Club
– Terebentina – Woodstock 69
– Harutaka Mochizuki/ Tomoyuki Aoki – Praça Alegria Futebol Clube
– Cavalheiro – Casa da Música
– The Saxophones – Hard Club
– Little Friend – Passos Manuel
– A Burial At Sea– Woodstock 69
– Andy Burns – CASA DO LIVRO
– It Was the Elf – Woodstock 69

Bone Zero_3
Bone Zero @ Barracuda (c) Guilherme Lucas