It’s getting big at Airwaves
Thursday started early in the afternoon with Ólafur Arnalds performing at KEX. I arrived on time, not be making the same mistake again. Half an hour later the place was packed. To give everyone a chance to see he asked the audience to sit down. This made the atmosphere also a little more intimate. At Kex all the performances are being broadcasted by KEXP so we had to wait for the airtime. While waiting, Ólafur asked us to sing so he could record it and play with that sound afterwards. Like he has done at the beginning of every concert on his last tour. And so he started his set. It’s always nice to hear Ólafur perform live.
Then it was on to Passwords. A band from Montreal. At the Hressó venue they seemed to have a Canadian day as it was the origin of the five first bands that day: Mo Kenney, Technical Kidman, Passwords, Half Moon Run, The Barr Brothers. Few of them are still on my list to see. The lead singer was making some publicity for a nice festival in Montreal, Osheaga, after he thanked all the other bands. Hopefully I see some of the other bands later this week.
Next stop was Pascal Pinon in the smallest venue here at Airwaves. While I was waiting for them to start we could here a few songs from their new album trough the speakers, which added to the excitement. They also played music by Retro Stefson and I think their must be one other band in the playlist. When I asked which music was playing they only mentioned the first two. So I’m still on a hunt to find the third band. Instead of me telling you how I liked the concert of Pascal Pinon you can see it for yourself:
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Next was an originally tight schedule: going from the one concert to the next. First up Rökkurró but 12 Tonar was packed. So it was on to the next venue to see Ben Frost. As I was early Paul Corley was still playing. But again the place was full and as Paul and Ben share similarities in their music I assumed nobody was going to leave the venue in between. By now I did had the chance to warm up again and Retro Stefson was about to start around the corner in an outside venue. They were still finishing the construction (really, drilling bolts into the ground to keep things standing) while the crowd was arriving. The soundcheck took some time due to technical difficulties and the temperature was only getting lower. Once they started they made sure you wouldn’t be cold anymore. Retro Stefson knows how to get a crowd moving. I wasn’t a big fan of their music but I’ll probably pick up their latest album later today.
To prevent standing in a very big waiting line I left early to the Reykjavík Art Museum (which used to be a prison by the way). But by the time I arrived there people where already piling up horizontally. The venue still had to open so I was quiet sure to be getting in. During the wait I talked to someone who was also in the line yesterday for the Morr-music label night. He had to wait two and a half hours to get in and see just the last show of the night. Good thing I didn’t stay yesterday.
“Samaris” had just released a new EP and was more than happy to present some of its new tunes. If you compare the size of the crowd with their last year shows they really have become big. (But the same goes for the whole Airwaves festival.) Also their performance has made big improvements. They really the crowd going.
Phantogram took over with a blast. They have a few popular tunes but even the less known songs kept the audience going. I can only recommend to go and see Phantogram perform live.
Sóley had the tough task to play for a crowd that came for an electro night. In the slower songs you could hardly enjoy the music. Most of the people weren’t interested and just kept talking. And when her loop-equipment started to show some problems she was clearly hoping to get this show to finish as soon as possible.
Next up was Purity Ring. They also had some problems during the set up and started their set a little bit later. I really like their recent album but after three songs I decided to call it a night. There was not much to it live.
