The atmosphere at The Alternate Experience 2024 was both breathtaking and electrifying. The concert took place at St George’s Concert Hall, one of Bradford’s most iconic performance venues, on 9th November 2024. This annual youth-led concert featured several musicians taking turns performing. One in particular caught everyone’s eye: Iteoluwa David Akinsete, who delivered the night’s most compelling bass guitar performance.

As part of the live band, Iteoluwa played alongside other musicians, forming a backing band for Philippa Hanna, T’Oni, OPhils, and The Sanctified Voices. Blending perfectly with the vocals of The Sanctified Voices, the performance was one of the most exciting and energetic of the evening. In their live rendition of Chandler Moore’s “Omemma”, he played short, high notes and returned to a low, repeating rhythm, responding to the choir. This added a nice melody to the background music and helped him stay perfectly in time with the song.

In “Omemma”, his bass playing was noteworthy due to how cleverly he timed his notes. He used the choir’s pauses to play high melodies, always grounding them on the low notes and rhythm he started with. He kept the music familiar while making the extra notes fit perfectly by returning to the main low notes. The brevity of the bass responses was crucial as it added colour to the music without overcomplicating things. By moving seamlessly across the fretboard, he showed structural depth and melodic flair. This part remained fascinating because, no matter how far he ventured, he always resolved smoothly back into the main groove.

On Phillippa Hanna’s “None like Jehovah”, the shift from the verse to the chorus required seamless continuity. Iteoluwa achieved this transition by locking into a low-end groove that followed the chord progression perfectly. His steady baseline made the shift between the verse and the chorus incredibly easy to follow. While this section wasn’t as melodically distinct as his work on “Omemma”, its true strength was its discipline. Iteoluwa’s playing here was purely supportive, locking perfectly into the song’s harmony. It showed his dedication to the foundation of the song, though his performance with The Sanctified Voices still stands out as the clearer example of his melodic creativity.

T’Oni’s solo performance of “Very Soon” brought his articulation into focus. Iteoluwa elevated the moment by introducing a strumming bass technique that made the music feel much wider and more textured. His movement across the fretboard provided a heavy, grounding foundation that perfectly framed T’Oni’s voice. It was a good structural choice that effectively transformed a simple support into a profound, supportive collaboration. Iteoluwa brought the same strumming technique to “Not Ashamed”, an unreleased duet from T’Oni featuring OPhils. The thicker bass texture was essential here, it added depth to cushion both vocal parts simultaneously. Instead of overwhelming the performers, this shared technique gave the performance a sense of continuity, showing that the technique built for a solo could feel just as grand in a duet.

At its best, Iteoluwa’s performance at The Alternate Experience 2024 was a masterclass in structural awareness, as his bass lines actively served the vocal arrangements rather than competing with them. Through an intelligent command of range and careful placement of his fills, he elevated the bass guitar from a passive timekeeper into a deeply expressive narrative voice.