October 17, 2010
Iceland Airwaves: Day 5
Final day of the festival. To be honest, there wasn't a lot happening this day, but due to food poisoning, I saw a very small fraction of that small remaining bit.
It took me until at least 11:00 a.m. to get out of bed, and even then was hurting pretty bad. I ate nothing for breakfast, and skipped coffee, as I didn't think I could handle it.
The first big stop of the day was Kolaportið, the Reykjavik flea market open only Saturdays and Sundays, that I have made a point of visiting on each of my trips to Iceland to browse children's books, clothes I probably won't buy, and most importantly dried fish, whale meat, flatbread from Selfoss, licorice candy and maybe even a taste of hákarl (fermented shark). Always a lively spot, held in a warehouse near the port, the flea market is full of Icelandics browsing the various meat and non-meat items, or maybe picking up toys for their children. Because of the state of my stomach on this visit, nothing looked nearly as appealing as it had on other occasions, but I knew how much I would regret not picking up some of the dried fish that I do so much love (the smell of which those around me so much hate) and two packets of this soft, super delicious licorice candy that I've grown to love over the years. So these delicious Icelandic foods I indeed purchased, and how much I have enjoyed them over the last two days.
We stood briefly inside Havari and caught a little bit of Rolo Tomassi (UK), a hardcore metal band, who sounded fairly good, but I still didn't feel great and we didn't stay long.
From here, I took a cab to the home of Rosa and Oskar, Eva's parents, where I had stayed on my previous two trips. While I didn't feel 100% yet, dinner with them was really wonderful. Rosa made a delicious pork dish, with potatoes with cheese, and salad and a cheesecake. While this was probably not the ideal food to eat on a semi-sick stomach, it was so delicious I couldn't resist, and given that I ended up feeling better later, it was probably a good idea that I gave in. We watched a video on youtube about the Imagine Peace Tower built by Yoko Ono in honor of John out on Viðey Island (15 searchlights projected into the sky, giving the impression of a several thousand meter high tower). Sadly, this thing went up on October 9, just a few days before I came, and Yoko did a live performance with Sean, that I think I would have liked to have seen. I think the dates were announced after I booked my trip. Oskar drove me back to Vesturbaer, after a short detour to the harbor to see the actual peace tower (impressive).
With virtually no time to spare, I dropped off my bags and Disa and I hopped in a cab to Venue to meet a friend of hers.
Reykjavik! (Iceland), Venue, roughly 9:00 p.m.
This performance by hard-core punk band, and Airwaves favorite Reykjavik! was my only show for the day, sadly enough, but at the very least it was very good, much like the show I saw on Wednesday. This show was not only "off-venue", meaning that a festival pass was not required to attend, but it was not even listed on the Iceland Airwaves program. I wonder now how many other performances like this there were that I may have missed. I was introduced to lead singer Boas before the show -- seemed like a truly nice dude, despite his totally insane stage presence. This show was actually the premiere for the video for the song "Internet", which took place at a local Reykjavik bar, with many of their friends acting as wildly dancing, beer spraying, vodka guzzling fans. After premiering the video on a screen, the band played a few more songs, and finished off by playing "Internet" live while the video played on the screen, which was super awesome. Especially since they somehow managed to sync almost perfectly with the video performance. At one point they asked for requests and someone shouted out "Kate Bush"! I didn't realize that this was the name of one of their songs. Here's the video for "Internet" -- the crowd wasn't quite this crazy on Sunday night, but I'd say Thursday night got pretty close to this:
Reykjavík! - 'INTERNET'
Reykjavik! | Myspace Music Videos
Reykjavik would be playing 45 minutes later in the club Boston, but we attempted instead to see Dan Deacon and then FM Belfast (supposedly one of Iceland's best bands) at NASA to close off the festival. We walked through cold rain and stood in a long line in front of a really annoying group engaging in an incredibly banal cultural exchange and waited for about 45 minutes without hardly moving. Instead of the wool socks I had worn the other days, I wore ordinary cotton socks and Converses on Sunday and felt the cold water soaking through as I waited.
So we gave up. Kind of a shame that Sunday night ended up being a bit of a dud (Reykjavik! was great, but that's only one band, you know?) but I can't complain. The festival was one of the highlights of my trip, I attended some exceptional live performance, met some great foreigners and tourists, as well as spent quality time with the Icelandics already near and dear.
I had one half day left in Reykjavik. Until the next trip, of course.
Barenaked Ladies -- Be My Yoko Ono
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