Dear Canım Istanbul readers,
It’s the first day of the month, the time our friend çizenbayan shares her live music picks with you. Be sure to listen to the featured artists on the Canım Istanbul SoundCloud.
Enjoy!
After a tough summer that felt like it wasn’t going to come to an end, the city begins to flourish with September and open-air events continue for a few more days. Venues that move to their beach-side locations or terraces during summer are now leaving the entertainment to their usual winter venues.
Mentha, which has been one of the most active venues of this summer, will have the second Playtuşu + Co party on Thursday, September 1. Kaan Sezyum, who takes the stage with the name DJ Sarıyılan, and Mindshifter will be there.
Suma Dance Olympics, which is a Suma Beach tradition, will take place on Saturday, September 3. Whoever dances the most will win! Get your dance shoes and vitamins ready because from what I remember from last year’s event, the competition will be fierce.
Dennis Ferrer
After the Dance Olympics, Suma will begin to bid farewell but not without one last event before bayram with Dennis Ferrer and Paul Johnson on Saturday, September 10.
Yang & Elif Tanverdi
After the bayram holiday, on Saturday, September 17, when everybody begins to return to the city, one last festival will take place in the city: the Burn Istanbul Rooftop Festival. The festival lets you get into the city’s best terraces with DJ and live music performances. Saigon, Nuteras, Georges Hotel Rooftop, Nest, Cue and Backbar Rooftop will be hosting the festival. The line-ups are pretty awesome, too. It’s still unknown who will play where and when but the names are: Stavroz, Pillow Talk, Be Svendsen, Sound Nomaden, Bora Uzer, Allen Hulsey, Hey Douglas, Cantanca, Murat Uncuoğlu, Memo Garan, Orkun Bozdemir, Stylist, Murat Tokuz, Aksak, Undomondo, Doruk Güralp, Furkan Kurt, Discolog, Yang + Elif Tanverdi (that’s me J), Efe Kantel and more. Make sure to follow Rooftop Festival’s social media accounts for details.
Perhaps the worst collective Monday blues will happen on September 19 when the long bayram week will come to an end. But, on the bright side, venues that we missed so dearly like Babylon, Salon, İndigo, and Klein will be opening up.
Klein and Babylon will open their doors on September 23, which is when we’ll truly say goodbye to summer. I guess no one will complain that this overly hot, humid, and eventful summer is coming to an end. I hope I will be writing about a season where events don’t get postponed, and peace and solidarity reign.
Kraak & Smaak
Battles
Klein will open its doors with The Magician while the fun duo Kraak & Smaak will be at Babylon on September 23. Salon will start the season with two nights of improv rock with Battles on September 24 and 25.
Selda Bağçan
Babylon will have Selda Bağcan, one of the best Turkish folk musicians alive today with fans from all over the world, on stage on Saturday, September 24. Tickets will probably run out quickly for this event in which Israeli band Boom Pam will accompany Bağcan. The duo had shared the stage at Primavera Festival in Barcelona in May. The night will take off with Grup Ses Beats. I suggest you get your tickets asap!
G-Shock City Festival was announced to take place at Küçükçiftlik Park but there is no more information regarding the event as of yet. In case the festival takes place, make sure you have September 25 marked on your calendar and that you follow the festival’s social media accounts for further info.
Athena
Athena will take the Babylon stage two nights in a row at the end of September but the performances will be quite different. The first will be an acoustic concert on Thursday, September 29. Friday, September 30 will be an electric concert or Athena as we know them. As I approach my 30th birthday, I can’t wait to head to Athena’s acoustic concert.
Jehan Barbur
Jehan Barbur will be at Salon on Thursday, September 29 with her velvety voice and soothing melodies.
Mashrou Leila
Friday, September 30 will have indie rock band Mashrou’ Leila from Beirut at the Salon stage. Mashrou’ Leila is one of the few indie rock bands from Beirut and as expected their music is highly political. I think it will be quite interesting!
The reason why I look forward to September 30 is because indigo will open its doors. Electronic music’s one and only venue indigo will have a great act from Solomon’s recording company Diynamic, Adriatique.
Sneak peek: October will come full force with the Akbank Jazz Festival and tons of concerts. Spoiler alert: YANG and I will be at Kiki on October 1 for our monthly performance. Details on October events will be up next month!
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Check out September’s concerts playlist here.
