Iceland Airwaves – Thursday Review

Airwaves Thursday was a good one. I seem to have posted on twitter when I got home that it was full of "random goodness and good randomness". Several hours later, I'll stick by that description. Looking at the line-up this looked like the weakest day of the festival and I thought that I would probably end up wandering around seeing where I arrived by chance.

Before the evening events however, I took in a couple of wonderful off-venue shows which always provide some of the most truly magical moments of every year here in Reykjavik. Firstly at the Iceland Music Export party at kaffistofan where a small gathering was treated to a blistering set, one of the best I've ever seen at Airwaves, by Mammut (photos to the right) who get better and more assured every year – they look great (if you like woolen 'snake' necklaces), sound great and have more than a couple of outstandingly catchy guitar songs, in particular "Rauðilækur" which is currently available as a free download as part of the Grapevine's Airwaves 2K9 compilation. But don't stop there, go out (in that rain) and get the album. They are one of those bands that make me genuinely excited every time and think they could break out in other markets.

I emerged, ears ringing from that living room style concert (with no volume sacrificed) and headed directly to 12 Tonar to see most of Rokkurro's set of cello-led gentle pop songs. They were soothing as ever and held those in attendance enthralled and then delighted (me especially) when they threw in the odd moment of rocking out, it's a style that really suits them. Amusingly, as they played their last note, and said their thank-yous the audience was silent for about 10 or 15 seconds, as if nobody wanted to be the first to break the moment. Eventually everybody got the courage, mostly to say "did you know they are on again in an hour at the art museum?". A triumph then!

Not much time then to turn around and get out for the evening which was due to start at 19:30 with Fjallabræður at Nasa, where I first saw them a year ago. I made the mistake of turning on the TV in the flat briefly and was therefore late for the start as I couldn't help staying glued to the balloon without a small boy inside it story. What a waste of time. I got there 10 minutes late in the end and was really delighted to see how many people had made the effort to make the early start to see this truly unique and special band. Around 30 fishermen in suits singing/chanting along backed by drums, lead guitar and a violin – they make the most inspiring noise and as the grapevine review this morning says, "Fuck, man. These guys are sure to have even the worst choir hater loving them. Fjallabræður really are incomparable with anything else on the Icelandic music scene." I don't see how they can translate the majesty of these live performances onto CD, but I look forward to hearing what they come up with.

So early in the night and no firm plan of where to go next. I headed for the Art Museum and the folk-tinged rock of Lights On The Highway, followed by the bigger, more sweeping sounds of Dikta. Dikta sound like a band that would be at home in a larger arena, they certainly filled the art museum with their commercial sounding radio rock songs.

Then, back over to Nasa as I had decided to see Hafdis Huld despite her being UK based these days, and therefore not hard to see back home. I've just read the fairly unfriendly review in grapevine, and although I see where it comes from, I always find Hafdis a delight to watch with her set of catchy (and unavoidably cute) pop-songs delivered with an (unavoidably cute) personality. Highlights included "Diamonds In my Belly" and the spiderman song, "Kongulo". The set also included one of the greatest instruments I've ever seen (and there are a few at Airwaves) – if you remember those ald fashioned V-shaped guitars that old school metallers used to use, well this was a ukelele version. The guy playing it got the joke, and the audience loved his "foot on the speaker stack" solo (below, right). Awesome!

Back out into the night, which by the way was absolutely beautiful – a clear, pitch black sky dotted with stars, and I headed to Sodoma to see Mammut for the second time in a few hours. However, there was a huge queue (good for them) and despite the press pass I decided (a) it will be packed inside and (b) I saw them play an awesome set hours ago so I moved back and went to Idno where I saw, wait for it… a non-Icelandic act. Nina Kinert has had some success outside of her native Sweden and I had downloaded and liked a few of her songs beforehand so it wasn't completely unknown. The audience in Idno was strange, in that it must have been 90% female, and actually very quiet – I couldn't tell whether they were silent in awe-struck appreciation, or slightly sleepy. I gave it 4 or 5 pleasant enough songs (about killing lovers and the like) and made my way back outside to wander further, stopping just breifly to gaze at Frikirkjan by the lake where Hjaltalin were playing a set with a chamber orchestra which I'll bet was pretty special.

Thursday night, like the night before, was meant to end with Hoffman who are back at the festival after a year or two off but once again they had to cancel, swine flu I believe. Instead, more running around, finishing the night with 4 bands. Danish band Alaska In Winter left me uninspired in nasa, they (well, he) makes good records that I've been ipoding quite a lot in the run-up to Airwaves but I can't quite handle a live act that is one person on stage, playing one instrument, while a backing track does the rest. I can't argue however with the atmosphere in the club, he had the place jumping for sure. Next stop was Batteriid for the first time this year to take in some of Sykur's set, a member of the thriving electronica scene in Reykjavik. The audience was young, nearly all locals, determined to have a good time and the place was hot, oh so hot! With their debut album just in stores now, this was Sykur's chance to impress and they didn't fail it.

Last stop for the night was Sodoma (it really is called that, must mean something else here) which had emptied out after Mammut's show so it was easy to get in, get a beer, and get near the stage for American rockers Kidcrash who played that familiar college hardcore stuff, and did it pretty well. Finally it was left to Who Knew, rather than Hoffman, to finish the night with a set of bouncy, catchy rock perfect for the uniformly very drunk clientele left in the place. Moshtastic.