We stayed an extra day here so we could take a short road trip. So glad we did. We saw the sun for the first time today and had an amazing drive south east. Destination: Skaftafell National park, and the iceberg lagoon 30 miles beyond. We had to hustle to get to the bay before dark, and were rewarded with a gorgeous sunset. I would have liked to hike around and soak up the atmosphere, but the freezing cold wind blowing off the glacier and over the ice water made lingering impossible. Next time we come in full ski gear! Tomorrow we will get closer to the glaciers and waterfalls, then hurry back to catch our 5 p.m. flight home.
Lots of bleary-eyed people wandering the town, and things are quiet. I’m overhearing conversations like, “…then it was 5 a.m.! I don’t know what happened! I feel terrible!” A guy at the front desk was apologizing to the receptionist, “We are supposed to check out at noon, but my friends are sleeping and I can’t wake them up!”
There aren’t many off-venue events today which is a relief because we need to relax without worrying that we are missing something. The off-venue events were great, but free shows fill up fast and we found that more often than not, we couldn’t get in.
I got in an interesting discussion with a British journalist today about how “Icelandic” Iceland Airwaves is supposed to be. He said, on one hand, it is very expensive to fly in/pay international artists, and some of the funding for this comes from the city, so people argue that the money should go to local musicians. However, he talked to local musicians, and they said they looked forward to hearing foreign bands as a way to take the pulse of what is happening in music in the rest of the world. I was wondering if the decision to have many Icelandic artists this year (which I loved) was a practical decision based on the countries economic situation. As a visitor, I loved hearing local bands, but I can see that it might be more fun for them to see bands they don’t see every week.
Our first Saturday night outing was to Faktory to see Borko (we play their album from a couple years ago on Digitalis). They were playing some new material which was a bit rough but showed promise. The last song of the set was from the first album and felt polished and had a great level of energy live. We’re looking forward to the next Borko album.
Heading over to Iðnó for the Erased Tapes night, we got there right as Olaf Arnalds was going on. The crowd was packed but almost everyone was able to get in who wanted to see the show. Arnalds is often referred to as a “Modern Classical” composer: he plays piano, has a small string orchestra, and another person doing samples and digital beats. He mixes these two seemingly incompatible genres nicely; if you can imagine what Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture would have sounded like with sub-sonic bass instead of cannon blasts, you’re thinking in the right direction. He is definitely someone to watch and it may not be going too far to say he will become one of the most highly-regarded composers of the early 21st century.
Arnalds was followed by solo electronic artist Rival Consoles from the UK who did a set of electro-influenced techno. While he had plenty of energy and the musical performance was excellent, the live shows by these laptop jockeys are just not exciting to watch: it’s just a guy with a laptop and some knobs. Someone needs to figure out how to make a laptop musician’s stage performance more exciting to look at. He could be checking his email for all the audience knows. Still can’t complain: we got to experience a good artist in real life that we may not have heard of otherwise.
Over to NASA for something completely different: Apparat Organ Quartet (four keyboard players and a drummer) was pretty awesome. Last time we were at Airwaves (2008) they were rumored to be playing a secret show that unfortunately never happened. Finally we get to see them live. The best description I can give it is if Kraftwerk had decided to be a metal band without guitars. The crowd was wild for Apparat Organ Quartet because the music got you moving and at the same time was fun and different.
Sadly, we missed US-based Neon Indian because they were on at the same time as Apparat Organ Quartet, but we will have more chances to see Neon Indian in the US in the future.
Next, back to Iðnó to check Icelandic band Lights on the Highway who we saw a couple years ago here. They did a fine performance to a packed house, but the songs didn’t stand out this time; but the other people around us loved them. And as usual, the sound at Iðnó was just right.
Part of the crew headed over to the Reykjavik Art Museum to see Robyn. She started quite late, which was only surprising because nearly every other show we’ve attended has begun within five or ten minutes of the time printed in the schedule. This is remarkable, especially given the fact that many of the venues don’t have a back door (or back stage) the poor musicians have to haul their gear up tiny stairs and through the crowd while another show is going on.
The show was worth the wait. Robyn gave an energetic performance and the crowd loved her!
The Blue Lagoon Chill party, aka the Blue Lagoon Hangover party, is an Iceland Airwaves institution. Held in a huge geothermal volcanic hot spring that gets it’s blue color from the silica dissolved in the water, this is one of the most highly anticipated daytime events of Iceland Airwaves.
The Blue Lagoon chill party was indeed chill, with icy-cold, driving rain falling for most of the time. Sadly, this kept the scheduled string quartet from being able to accompany DJ Margeir. The event was also plagued by technical problems where the new, much larger sound system kept blowing a circuit breaker. There were a dozen false starts with music for a few seconds and then silence. The music didn’t get sorted out until for least ninety minutes after the event started, which was disappointing because the party was only three hours long.
That being said, everyone had a great time. It is impossible not to have fun in the huge blue lagoon, especially now that they have added a swim up bar!
I am sure one of the highlights for everyone was the gang of crazy French guys in hot pink Iceland-themed underwear. They sang, they danced, they started a conga line. Who needed a stinking band anyway?
A great night. Much too much fun was had by all.
Reykjavik Art Museum had a great line up, and half of us stayed there for most of it. We saw Chateau Marmont, Feldburg, Dikta, and Everything Everything. All were great!
Icelandic electropop band Bloodgroup performed to a packed house at NASA, performing some new material which we really liked: a kind of darkwave elecropop. I highly energetic performance which had the entire audience dancing and sweating. Here’s a video of them from last year doing the song “Pro Choice” live in their studio.
Trying to chill out a bit, we went to see Icelandic singer Hafdís Huld (Gus Gus singer and FC Kahuna collaborator), who has moved away from her electronic roots, doing an intimate acoustic performance at a plush venue called Risið.
