Festival Review: Higher Ground Festival - Roundhouse, London 15/07/2023
The Roundhouse held the Higher Ground festival championing an all-female lineup of genre-defying and contemporary sounds of singer-songwriters. The Staves on the headline slot in their only London headline show, this festival is set to be an astounding one.
5pm and the doors open to Tina Edwards DJing with tunes from Little Dragon and remixes of Hiatus Kaiyote getting everyone in the mood on this rainy Saturday in London. The Roundhouse shelters us in this cocoon of music and excitement while everyone arrives. I love this venue, every time I’m in here I am in awe of how beautiful it is.
Aoife Nessa Francesn is the first band on the stage, hailing from Dublin, Ireland she has established herself and has performed worldwide. She plays through her album, “Protector”, a beautiful gift she wrote out of Ireland. Her comfortability on stage is warming and it feels like we are driving out a coastal road with the wind in my hair. With melting saxophone melodies and soft bluey guitars, her music softly glided across the venue and left us wanting more as she left the stage.
Tawiah’s set was body-melting incredible, she sang each song supported by her choir and led us by the hand into the circle of life. Each song title gives us a feeling of time passing and getting older in a beautiful crescendo to death. The movements with delicate lyrics allowed the audience to feel free and supported by the community she has created. She sings “Able to love, able to breathe” as she takes us through her performance. Her final song is a waterfall of harmonies proclaiming, “We will return to love.” Beautiful.
It is now 7:45 pm, the audience hiding away from the wind while the stage is being set up for The Orielles. As 8 pm strikes and the band gracefully enter the stage supported by the sensational Northern Session Collective. The Orielles feel like a crashing electro dream with indie rock like LCD Soundsystem, with Esmé singing softly tying it all together in a cascade of vibrations. My personal highlight from their set was their song, “Darkened Corners”, which led us into an indie masterpiece. The energy from The Orielles is happy and determined, showing Higher Ground Festival everything they’ve got with an enormous applause from the audience at the last note of the arpeggiator.
Now the moment everyone has been waiting for, the expectant crowd dancing to Tina Edwards's DJ mix. The venue was completely full and excited for The Staves to take the stage.
A dark blue spotlight cascades down and the sisters come out beaming ear to ear. The Staves have come a long way since their first EP “Dead & Born & Grown”, to Bon Iver to releasing their latest album "Good Woman" to critical acclaim. The Staves consist of three sisters, however, performing tonight as a duo as Emily has had a baby in 2021.
The Staves start with their sensational song, “Failure”. They sing so smoothly and confidently, dipping seamlessly in and out of harmonies in an effortless performance, I can feel the happiness pouring out of them on the stage. They are where they love to be.
The Staves welcome the audience and burst into their next track, “Next year, next time.” A song about daydreaming and never getting around to doing the thing you say you will do. This led beautifully into, “Best Friend”, the crowd singing along and having a great time as the sisters are powerfully singing. Their vocal performance is dynamic and strong, the way they sing from one delicate word to punch you in the face strong harmonies absolutely blew me away. It’s what I expected but they still broke my expectations proudly.
“Careful Kid” built into a cataclysmic ending, full of harmonies, guitars, and melodies. The vocals are a driving force of nature, leaving the audience hanging onto every word and the beautiful Staves world they have created.
A personal highlight was their next track, “Make it Holy”. It is sung acoustically with a guitar, this track has beautiful melodies and the lyrics stand out songwriting, the audience being held by their music in this beautiful venue. I’d completely forgotten about the rest of the world outside stood here in The Staves's dream. They move between instruments and multiple guitar changes while easing us into, “Satisfied”. A compelling song with an impressive chorus, “' Til you're satisfied And you don't know why”, the emotion pouring out of these women, I can feel every word like tough love. They thank the Roundhouse, Higher Ground Festival and the audience for coming out to see them and the rest of the acts.
“Waiting On Me to Change” was a dynamic masterpiece, it reminded me of the musical Rent with their frustration and music direction - stunning! The full band are back now and the sisters proclaiming, “I’m tired as fuck!” A song about relationship breakdown but to keep going, a feeling that we can all resonate with in some way or another. This was followed by an incredible live performance of, “Black & White,” the rock anthem chorus that had everyone singing and dancing along.
They finished their Higher Ground festival set with their song from their latest album, “Good Woman”. A song about being proud of who we are and enjoying who we are individually. They start with harmonies and slowly go into the rest of the song to a tremendous end. The audience roared for one more song while cheering and clapping.
Higher Ground Festival at the Roundhouse in London was a masterpiece of music from women-fronting musical acts, hopefully leading us to a place in the future where stating that it is a female-fronted festival isn’t important but right now it is important to recognise and celebrate. From full-body goosebumps to my hands up high singing along, the Higher Ground festival triumphed and I can’t wait to go to the next one.
Words by Hannah Kane
Photo credit - Get In Her Ears and Paul Dawes (@pauldawesart)
