As something of a wild card in Vega’s usual lineup, Los Van Van’s concert Saturday night was clearly a show of a different sort. The 14-piece Cuban orchestra stepped onto the stage amidst shrieks and chants of excitement from a partisan crowd that had turned up with the very specific intention of dancing the night away – and dance they did.

Naturally, a group of the size and status of Los Van Van always have plenty of expectations to live up to from the word go. Last night’s show saw Los Van Van outdo themselves. The merry-making Cubans were nothing short of perfect and the crowd loved them.

Los Van Van didn’t hold themselves back, as they served up a canny blend of songs hailing predominantly from their latest album, La Maquinaria. Their dance-friendly, heavily-instrumented fusion of irresistible songo (a mixture of Cuban and Caribbean rhythms) worked wonders on the crowd, who were more energetic and more impassioned than any other I have seen at Vega.

This was one of those rare concerts in which everyone, on and off stage, seemed to be well and truly enjoying themselves from start to finish.

This sense of collectiveness was most evident at moments during tracks like the distinct ‘Me Mantengo’, which was brought on towards the end of the show and summed up everything that was good and great about the night.

As a 40-year-old orchestra, Los Van Van played with the mastery and perfection of experienced musicians doing what they do best, yet one has to give credit to their newer, younger band members who seem to have added even more liveliness to their show and who seem to blend seamlessly in with the rest of the troupe.

It is rare to see so much chemistry between the members of a band, all the more so in one that contains 14 different people and rarer still to be part of an audience that doesn’t hold back one bit when it comes to their enjoyment of the show. Credit due where credit is due: Vega deserve a pat on the back for booking one of the most talented music ensembles this reviewer has had the pleasure of

If Friday’s performance was anything to go by, it is more than safe to assume that Danish electro experimentalist Rangleklods (aka Esben Andersen) may well become something of a household name in the not too distant future. The Berlin-based musician fired things up at a crammed Lille Vega with snippets of his upcoming debut album Beekeeper – which is due to drop this week- combined with older material off the 2011 EP Home as well as other single releases.

Rangleklods stepped onto the scene to an anticipatory crowd who didn’t fully let themselves go during the concert, but who seemed to enjoy themselves nonetheless. The light show and the acoustics were some of the best I have seen at Vega – complimenting the experimental, Joy Division- esque electronic sounds of the seemingly unstoppable Rangleklods, who performed behind a smoky haze of flashes and lightning-like shards that accentuated the hissing hi-hats and heavy bass lines of his music.

This time round, Andersen was accompanied by a guitarist who added a refreshingly innovative touch to his music, which was no more evident than during the ‘Young And Dumb’ tune, which features a hallucinatory, psychedelic electronic guitar sequence.

At some points during the show, however, this mysterious guitarist seemed to be more of a spectator than part of the actual process – although when she did play, she played with enthusiasm and panache that glossed this over.

The new album is definitely a lot more rich in pop influences than their previous releases, which arguably makes it a more accessible work by virtue of it appealing to a broader audience.

This notwithstanding, Beekeeper does elicit a more musically mature sound that preserves the consistent organic sounds Andersen experiments with, whilst infusing more vocal renditions into the process. The heavy bass lines and pronounced synth stabs that constitute the rather distinct sound  people have come to associated with the band with are consistent and prevalent throughout the album, and found room to roam on Friday thanks to live-setup that allowed Rangleklods to inject a great deal of spontaneity and improvisation to his studio productions.

And while musically the show definitely had a lot going for it, the show did get a tad monotonous at times and the audience didn’t really well and truly let themselves go. This notwithstanding, Rangleklods music can only get better with time. He is definitely an artist to watch out for this year.

When James Morrison first rose to critical acclaim in 2006, many must have wondered how a man of such talent had not been discovered earlier. When he played at a sold-out Store Vega last night, the crowd must have been flummoxed by what exactly they had just witnessed. At his best, the Rugby-born musician was as soulful a voice as any you’re likely to hear and even at his worst, he was teetering on the edge of sheer musical brilliance.

Morrison stepped onto the scene along with a sizeable backing band and proceeded to quench the crowd’s thirst with the prolific ‘Beautiful Life’, a well-placed opener that set the standard for the night. After a slowish start that entranced more than it entertained, signature track ‘I Won’t Let You Go’ took the concert to a whole new level five songs in, as Morrison’s hoarse yet soulful falsetto-inclined voice got the license to roam from low to high that it had been waiting for.

Fans and critics alike have hailed the lively singer’s style as being reminiscent to Stevie Wonder, albeit infused with elements of confessional lyrical singer/songwriter traits, an alternating pattern that was consistent throughout last night’s show.

Fluctuating between emotive, if not borderline melancholic. numbers juxtaposed alongside more soul-crammed tunes, Morrison and co didn’t take a misstep during their concert and seemed to be enjoying themselves more and more as time went by. An acoustic performance of ‘Right By Your Side’ was the highlight of it all, as Morrison’s vocals thundered through Vega unimpaired by any instrumentation whatsoever, bar a few well-placed electric guitar strums.

This numbed the mood and created an overwhelming sense of subtlety that was promptly left short-lived by a crescendo of upbeat tunes towards the end, such as the well-known ‘You Give Me Something’ and ‘Wonderful World’, both of which topped the charts back in 2007 and did their bit to send the crowd home with smiles on their faces.

It is rare to see a musician that’s graced with so much natural talent, rarer still to see one who is as genuinely humble about things as Morrison. Six years after being catapulted into the limelight, he’s still the shy lad from the West Midlands whose hoarse voice stands apart from any of his contemporaries.

I turned up at a semi-filled Lille Vega Wednesday night not really knowing what to expect from singer-songwriter Kina Grannis’s concert. Two hours later, I – just as the rest of the crowd – left with a smile on my face and searing rays of optimism in my heart.

Grannis’s show was preceded by a cheery, imaginative and emotionally charged warm-up performance from acoustic folk pop guitarist and singer, Imaginary Friend, who played several well-crafted opening tunes – interwoven with a series of jokes and impromptu humour that did their bit to lighten the mood.

California-born Kina Grannis, accompanied by her cello player, stepped onto the smoky scene and opened with the adequately placed ‘World In Front of Me’ – featured on her highly revered 2011 albumStairwells. Several songs in and the soft-spoken Grannis had the audience entranced in a spellbinding sequence of well-performed tunes accompanied by lively pauses in which she interacted with the crowd with admirable prowess.

Grannis delivered a mix of solo and cello-accompanied songs that showcased the full depth of her abilities. In fact – apart from a cover of Britney Spears’ ‘Oops, I did it again’, that didn’t quite tick in the tune of the rest of the songs on the night – Wednesday’s concert was as picture perfect as they come.

Unsurprisingly, the audience called her back to the stage for a final trio of songs that capped off an epic concert – with a full band cover of Coldplay’s ‘Fix You’ rounding things off with flair and sentiment, after her new song ‘Little Warrior’ did its bit to set the tone for a grand finale of mesmerising proportions.

Many of Kina’s growing fan base know her from her popular YouTube channel or Facebook and Twitter, on which she readily admits to using a fair bit to express herself in the modern day of limitless technologies. It goes without saying that she’s a lot better live than she is on any of the aforementioned platforms, as last night’s show proved.

With a unique stage presence and a willingness to involve the audience as much as possible in her show, she certainly does stand out from other musicians of her calibre and is definitely a name to look out for in the near future.

Expectations were high from the very beginning as Swedish electronic act du jour, Little Dragon, took to the stage at a sold out Vega on Tuesday night. Following in the footsteps of fellow Swedes Nikki And The Dove, who played the venue back in January, vocalist Yukini Nagano and her band delivered a performance that will be remembered by all present for many years to come.

Having rescheduled the show from November to February on account of illness, Little Dragon had plenty to live up to. As such, the crowd was anything but partisan to begin with, but hearts were melted and feet were shuffled by the end of the show.

The proceedings kicked off in lighthearted fashion, as a mix of older gems off albums such as the eponymous Little Dragon debut album and 2009’s Machine Dreams filled the packed hall. Aided by top-notch acoustics, Yukini Nagano seemed at completely at ease, brimming with exuberant waves of confidence that saw her drift dreamily into hypnotic, trance-like states with her eyes closed and her hand elegantly swinging a tambourine back and forth.

As time wore on, the Gothenburg-based band showcased some of their longer tunes, along with new material off their 2011 critically acclaimed album Ritual Union, many of which featured lengthy improvisations that stretched on almost symphonically before weaving into more upbeat pastures towards the end of the show.

By the climax of the two-hour performance, Nagano’s voice and the instrumental cacophony backing her vocals had worked wonders on the Valentine’s Day crowd, who by this point had long since killed their inhibitions.

Little Dragon preluded the curtain call with a virtuoso performance of the sentimental (and on the night, rather fitting) ‘Twice’, which triggered more than a few embraces amongst the crowd. Five years after they took the world by storm, Little Dragon only seem to be getting better as the years roll on — an assertion last night’s outing proves with a fair bit of authority.

There are, admittedly, few places to go out on a wintry Monday night in Copenhagen, and fewer still in the midst of the cold spell that’s been gnawing at our fingertips and cracking our lips of late.

Nørrebro’s Kind of Blue is a bar that provides music of a different sort for those lonely Monday evenings when the streets seem darker and colder than usual. Now in its tenth installation, ‘Tangled Up In Blue’ is a singer-songwriter orientated evening that provides Copenhagen’s most talented names within the genre an opportunity to share their powerful, emotionally-charged music.

This particular installation of the event featured German songbird Paula Tebbens accompanied by pianist Edoardo Bottalico (EBDK), Americana rock nomad MC Hansen and folk singer Julie Dybvad, who was backed up by a remarkable array of instrumentalists. Tebbens and Edbk set things in motion, playing songs off Tebbens’ demo album Memory Box alongside other singles.

The duo ventured deep into folk territory in a charismatic performance that resonated with echoes of the sort of music played by bands such as the well known Minnesota-based group Dark Dark Dark. The highlight of their set was the seldom played ‘Cotton Candy’, which seemed to ignite a sparkle in the eyes of both musicians as well as the audience.

Next on the stage was wandering MC Hansen (aka Mads Christian Hansen) accompanied by the established Jakob Chano Lundby. Hansen’s set strayed playfully into Americana-meets-folk pastures and shimmered with a blend of melancholic, reflective and playful flickers all at once.

Both musicians looked at ease and played with a glee that could only have emanated from the fact that they were well and truly enjoying themselves on stage.

Dybvad rounded off the show with a performance that was as dextrous as it was witty. Her hazy vocals were backed up by several outstanding instrumentalists playing the bass, trumpet, piano and guitar, all of whom added depth and dimension to what proved to be the highlight of an evening of quality music.

The next Tangled Up In Blue event is in two weeks time at Kind Of Blue (Ravnsborgade 17 in Nørrebro) and is by far the best bet for a top night out on a Monday evening.