What can I say? I had fun and here are my festival-highlights:
The Duke Spirit turned out to be one of my two festival-finds, along with Loney, Dear, as I had only heard one of their songs before seeing them perform. And I must confess that I was slightly worried to begin with as attending The Duke Spirit's gig meant failing to catch Grizzly Bear, who were playing at the exact same time at a different venue at the other end of town. Quite uncertain, I decided very last minute to follow some friends to see The Duke Spirit play in some dull looking reception hall, where I am pretty sure I went to vote in a presidential election once. It did not appear very rock & roll at all. But as my candidate had won the election years ago, so did The Duke Spirit. Lead by a husky voiced Liela Moss, the Duke's did not disappoint.
Look out for their new EP titled EX VOTO, which includes the hefty Lassoo.
Conclusion: I did not cry for Grizzly Bear. At all.
The Duke Spirit
Then there was Loney, Dear from Sweden:
Loney, Dear.
Video: Saturday Waits, starring dogs in wigs. Excellent.
As sober and innocent this song may seem, be not mistaken, their performance was one of the more powerful I witnessed over the festival weekend. The lead singer's random bellowing in his deep and slightly out of tune voice was extremely charming.
Conclusion: I was sold.
The video below is from a Loney, Dear gig at the Lowlands festival in Holland. The song is called Ignorant Boy, and when they performed it here in Reykjavik at the festival, boy did it send chills down my spine. Their last song of the evening and it was just lovely.
Loney, Dear performing Ignorant Boy
If you have not already heard of or checked out The Duke Spirit or Loney, Dear I do recommend that you check them out. Pronto! For you own safety and well-being.
Then in no particular order, this is what else impressed me:
Of Montreal, especially their surprise off venue gig, that did not include their habitual glitz and glamour. Just frontman Kevin Barnes and a trusty sidekick, showing off their more sincere side, in t-shirts and jeans, whispering sofly into their microphones and jamming on their guitars for an appreciative crowd. They even did a delightful cover of Starman.
Ra Ra Riot were very cute jumping around the stage, chirruping happily one of my favorite tunes, Can You Tell.
Ra Ra Riot
Icelandic crooner Mugison, left me surprised as he is someone I used to love to hate, but now suddenly hate to like. Quite a feat. His new material from lastest album Mugiboogie, sounded promising. I will surely tune in when it comes out.
Mugison
Then...
!!!
!!! (Chk chk chk) were in excellent form and rocked the house down, leaving a sweaty audience wanting more. Their performance was the last one I saw and what an awesome and satisfying climax. !!! owned the crowd those 45 minutes they played (too little), as their raw beat whipped ruthlessly through the air, hitting everything and everyone in sight.
What a rush.
And that was that. My first Iceland Airwaves experience was a sure win. Nothing left but to cut and remove the festival wristlet and place it safely in a memory box for future reminiscing.
x
