The SONIC ICELAND AIRWAVES blog – day 3
Ah, gravel roads. How I missed you. Due to the fact that we had a rental car at our disposal, we welcomed the fact that we were not overly hangovered (the magic of Bæjarins beztu pylsur) and took to the countryside, leaving a surprisingly sunny Reykjavik behind us and drove north, skipped the tunnel to Akranes and rounded the Hvalfjord amidst bands of rain, spells of brilliant sunshine and heavy winds, almost alone on the road. We stopped for lunch in Borganes, where we also visited a sheep market, or a local gathering of people with sheep, whatever you want to call it. Some people even led their family sheeps around on a leash. I also spotted a mutt wearing his own little Icelandic jumper. They do love their pets here.
After that it was another two hours on gravel roads, driving through endless lava fields around Husafell and enjoying the incredible colours of the Icelandic scenery in autumn. Slightly tired, we were back in Reykjavik around seven in the evening, just in time to get ready for another show at Harpa. This time is was the turn of Ólafur Arnalds, who played a best-of set in the same hall as Mugison they day before. Óli had brought his usual string support, but I was delighted to see Janus from Bloodgroup setting up his own array of laptops and mixers on stage. The aditional layer of sound and programming that Janus provided made the whole set much more livelier and the songs sound much more diverse than on record. Ólafur himself seemed to enjoy it all, joking with the audience in Icelandic and English and introducing his fellow musicians – his demure stage behaviour a thing of the past, seemingly. A very enjoyable show of one of the best contemporary Icelandic composers.
Next up were baguettes (hamburgers were already sold out) from a booth on Hafnarstraeti and then Gus Gus at the arts museum. Due to the late hour (the band was on stage shortly after midnight), the crowd showed multiple signs and levels of intoxication, from leaning against the wall and starring into nothingness despite the massive beats from stage to what I can only describe as tribal dancing, the main action was definitively off stage. Due to the big venue, the impressive sound system and the massive crowd, the whole Gus Gus set looked and sounded like a bad Faithless-show ca. 1999. I have completely lost track of current line-up and releases of Gus Gus, so I’ll leave the googling to you. Show was good, though, if you like that kind of sound.
Our final stop for the night was the Sudden Weather Change show at Iðnó, the 19th-century restaurant/venue right next to the city pond. Since the departure of singer Ben Stacey, they have moved away from the three-guitar-wall of noise and added programming and loops to their sound, which takes some of the raw edge away, but makes their music much more comprehensible. So maybe this is the next logical step for their sound – the crowd, including many members of local music gentry like Jonsi and Ben Frost, was more than pleased.
Overall, the crowd turnout was much less then the days before, and the people that came to the shows, media people or not, showed various signs of disrepair. People fell asleep on the sofas in Harpa, and despite the energetic sound of Sudden Weather Change did many revellers rely on the walls of Iðnó to prop them up. Iceland Airwaves takes it toll.
Coming up today: Blue Lagoon and Frau Gudmunsdottir live. Talk to you later.
