Iceland Airwaves: Day 3
The warm woolen gloves, and wool cap that I have been carrying semi-uselessly around Europe are useful once more. I´ve left my cheap umbrella at the apartment in Vesturbaer and instead travel around with a borrowed sweater and green hooded raincoat. Of course, all of these items are quickly removed and folded upon entering a venue, but for outside times, they are quite necessary here in semi-cold and often rainy Reykjavik.
Like the day before, Friday (the first "real" day of the festival where a lot of people start coming out), I spent the morning quietly, eating toast by myself, updating this blog (I did it in about an hour and a half this time, an improvement, let´s see if I can get this one done in less!), listening to some of the Icelandic punk music that had been so inspiring the night before. Once again, took the 20 minute walk into town, breathing in the fresh cold air and thinking about how much I just wanted to stay and enjoy this life. Just like the previous two days, I stopped for a pylsa (hot dog) at Baejarins Beztu. Just as before, I wandered the streets before the first gig of the day. I got into town maybe a little too early (noonish?) so I had lots of time to walk in and out of the Eymundsson bookstore, the supermarket, and the harbor area.
Yuni in Taxco (USA), Havari, 2:00 p.m.
My first impression of this Seattle band was as a fairly standard modern psychedelic band, heavy guitars, a tambourine, a theremin seeming machine. While this wasn´t exactly an inaccurate impression, after the band corrected a problem with low vocals in the first two tracks, the performance became very high quality (I know I say this about almost every band, but it´s true every time!). At one point, the lead singer observed that "This is the coolest record shop I´ve ever been to. There´s not a bad record on these walls". This sentiment was fairly typical of everybody I met at the festival. During the last song "King of Borneo", the guy on the left was heavily featured on super intense vocals, causing his face to turn red. This song was awesome.
I walked down Laugavegur and grabbed a double espresso. For the millionth time, I ran into an American guy from DC and his wife.
Murder (Denmark), Sjoppan, 2:40, p.m.
Despite the name, Murder was a pretty mellow Danish duo, who more or less completely filled up the Sjoppan hair salon on Laugavegur. These two guys harmonized vocally, accompanied by acoustic guitar, kind of reminded me of Iron and Wine. At the very least they would have very easily fit in with the bearded guy, folkish, pretty singing movement that got so popular around 2008, but I couldn´t get terribly excited about them. The room was filled with the smell of hair and hair product. I ran into the Canadian guy from the other night and we discussed our previous nights, as well as lamented the fact that neither had ever been in a fist fight. I may try to stay in touch with this guy and his wife. The room was so crowded that I was stuck behind a post and couldn´t get a picture.
Bastardgeist (USA), Sjoppan, 4:00 p.m.
Another duo, this time from Chicago, but in my opinion much more exciting. Tall skinny girl, with super skinny legs and shortish blonde guy with an intense expression, carrying all sorts of electronic equipment to produce the blips, and beats, and fuzz that backed up their vocal harmonies. I wish I knew what those machines were called, because they were super cool. According to my notes one of them was using a handheld synthesizer keyboard. At times their sound reminded me of Sade, other times more like Massive Attack. While at times their vocals got out of sync, I liked them a lot.
Chateau Marmont (France), Ring Lounge at Hresso, 4:00 p.m.
On the occasions on which I hear the complaint that DJ performances are pointless in that the DJ doesn´t "do" anything besides play pre-recorded music, I explain that this is not the case, and that in fact there is a lot going on behind the console. Not in the case of Chateau Marmont! One of about 5 bands featured in the French Showcase at Hresso, their electronic music, which alternatively sounded like Kraftwerk, Daft Punk or even Phil Collins, was really good. It just didn´t look like they were doing anything besides standing behind the turn tables and computers. Based on my photograph, you can see that they look like nice guys. And I think I´d give their music another listen once I get home.
Gable (France), Ring Lounge at Hresso, 5:00 p.m.
These guys (two bearded guys, one tall, one stouter, and a girl) were absolutely ridiculous, but in a good way. Experimental, avant garde sounding sort of like Einar Örn´s contribution to the Sugarcubes, started off with the shouting of some nonsense (in heavily accented English), to the arrhythmic beating of handheld drums. Later there was some guitar strumming, more absurdist lyrics, some handheld horns, a cover of Elvis´"All Shook Up" while the singer wore an Elvis mask. It was really cold outside, but the Minnesotan and I were enjoying the hilarity of Gable, and despite the potential pretentiousness of it, they were entertaining as heck. The blank stare of the guy on the left of the photo persisted throughout the show.
And here began a not productive break in my festival. I walked to the Reykjavik Downtown Hostel to see Haldis Huld (said to be amazing and playing at 6:00), but she wasn´t on yet. Olafur Arnalds had just gone on, for a semi-improvised set, but neither I, nor my Canadian friends, nor the Dutch guy from Zeeland I met, nor the confrontational Australian were able to get in. Instead we stood outside and chit chatted in the freezing cold, occasionally, placing our ears on the window to try to listen in, and failed.
I returned to Hresso, grabbed another beer, and then met up at about 7:00 p.m. with Audur and Gummi again for dinner. We talked about their trip starting the next day to Paris, I ordered plokkfiskur (fish stew), and it was a very pleasant time. I do hope to see them again before too long.
I stepped outside for a bit to wait for Disa (who met up at around 8:30 p.m.) and ran into the very short, cross-eyed and very, very drunk Icelandic guy I had met previously at the bus station after I returned from Laugavegurinn. He seemed to want something from me, but I didn´t want to give him anything, so we sort of stared each other down for about 5 minutes without speaking. It was a strange long moment.
When Disa arrived, we walked to Iðno. It was raining, kind of cold, and there was a line outside.
This venue was located near the lake, a big white building, which I believe to be a theatre. The cloak room had no clerk -- just two long rows of hangers upon which to place one´s jacket. Another example of the honor system working quite well in Iceland. We met Disa´s friend who worked there, who gave us each 2 glasses of white wine. Though the place was packed, we made it up fairly close to the stage where Mugison, a large band was playing. While on the record they sounded fairly folksy, almost like Sufjian Stevens (yet another), on stage they sounded more like the Black Keys -- loud, blues rock. For one song they brought out a big bald guy who sang along hard core punk style (this song was introduced (in Icelandic) as a "song about love" -- everyone laughed. For the last song, they brought out a choir of girls to sing a song about the lead singer´s favorite aunt who had recently died. I´m not sure if the decreasing quality of my photos has to do with my camera getting dirty, the venues being darker, or me just doing a bad job at it.
Bloodgroup (Iceland), NASA, 9:40
I know, this is now my third time seeing Bloodgroup, but this time only stayed for about 15 minutes. Mostly it was the same material as the previous shows, but this time they did an excellent cover of Men Without Hats´ "The Safety Dance", which was very satisfying, and very appropriate for the sound of the band.
Here´s a video of Bloodgroup performing "Safety Dance" on another occasion:
Teeth (UK), Venue, 10:30 p.m.
This electro (I think they were a duo) were okay. I was most interested by the fact that the guy in the group was dancing around with a 12" macbook in his hands, kind of reminded me of walking around my apartment back in the day with the same small laptop. Fairly typical electro-dance music, but after the shot of Opal Vodka Shot and the shot of Topas I had before the performance, I don´t know how closely I was paying attention.
Everything, Everything (UK), Reykjavik Art Museum, 10:50 p.m.
I´m kind of embarrassed to report that I don´t remember so much about this performance. They seemed good, I recall dancing, I recall everybody yelling and screaming, and I recall people seeming really happy. But it was a huge venue, lights were flashing everywhere, and what can I say -- I was just having a good time and not worrying too much about taking notes.
Hurts (UK), Reykjavik Art Museum, 11:50 p.m.
Hurts were also good, and I have a slightly better recollection of them. They were compared in the Airwaves booklet to the Bronski Beat and Pet Shop Boys, but I found this comparison to be somewhat weak. Just because the guys are dressed in suits, are of slightly ambiguous sexuality and use a lot of electronic backing does not the Pet Shop Boys make. But yes, it was a bit spectacular show, everybody went nuts and I had a great time.
Men Without Hats -- The Safety Dance
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