blanket of snow earlier this week, 3 of its favourite musical acts arrived in
(comparatively) tropical London to entertain us locals. Big boys Sigur Ros had
much of the week sold out down in wild South London and by all accounts
accompanied their incredible back catalogue with some slightly more muscly
sounding new tracks.
I didn’t venture down there this time, but I did venture to
Shepherds Bush for the mighty double bill of Mugison and Of Monsters And Men at
the Empire. Little more than two years ago I did what I am claiming (almost
certainly untruthfully) to be the very first interview (LOOK AT THEIR LITTLE FACES!) with fresh Icelandic
band Of Monsters And Men. Those early days showed much promise and I have happy
memories of chaotic gigs in tiny Glaumbar and in the ground floor café in Harpa.
It has been a pretty incredible rise, 2 years after winning the Musiktilraunir competition
they had a song voted best of the year on the American amazon site and now here
they are on the first night of a residency in this famous old London theatre.
I first saw him at Iceland airwaves in 2004 having been tipped off by the guys
at 12 tonar. I guess I’ve watched him play 20 or so times since then but it was
pretty weird to be watching him just a mile or two from my front door. I saw
him last November at Airwaves, then in February at Sonar and now here in
London. All the shows have been different but excellent. This time, there was
no band with him, he took to the stage alone claiming that he was his own
support act. This was true – he played a 3 or 4 song set with his bespoke
machine (still no name?) which mainly bewildered people I think and then left
the stage for a matter of seconds before returning as the more traditional,
guitar clad, support act playing his Icelandic blues. No doubt, most people inside
the Empire had never come across Mugison before so I think he can take great
pride that, in the role of supporting act, he did get a pretty decent singalong
going with “Sweetest Melody”.
and immediately broke into their traditional opener Dirty Paws. They show
absolutely no sign of nerves and retain that kind of shy / charming
conversational style between songs. The cover of Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Skeletons was
the only time I kind of lost interest – the rest of the set was excellent. My
personal highlights were From Finner, Mountain Sound, Love Love Love and the
rousing finale Yellow Light. I’m so bored with lazy comparisons that people
make between OM&M and the Mumfords, I just don’t see it. Live, the volume
and energy is closer to a band like Arcade Fire.
This was a fine start to a pretty exceptional season of
Icelandic music coming to London. Before the end of March we will be welcoming Olafur
Arnalds and Retro Stefson, and before long we will get to see Soley, Sin Fang and Pascal Pinon.
It’s just like Iceland Airwaves but over a longer period and without 8 other
bands at the same time and with less hot dogs oh it’s nothing like Iceland
Airwaves, but it is nice.