Roskilde '13 Nostalgia
Though it's only been two months, I'm already getting nostalgic over my
first Roskilde experience. |
| 1 | Ice Cream Cathedral
This Danish band presented a delicious beginning to the festival, with a dreamy
sound living up to the name of their debut album "Drowsy Kingdom" |
| 2 | Navneløs
According to the festival booklet, they combine classical music, post rock and jazz.
While these influences were on the hazier side, their set finisher was the first
emotional gut-punch of Roskilde. |
| 3 | Lower
Possibly my favourite performance of the whole festival! Lower are from the same
Danish punk scene as Iceage, who have professed jealousy over how good Lower
are. An energetic and gripping performance which was just about perfect. I'm
praying for them to release their debut as soon as possible. |
| 4 | Vinnie Who
The Danish disco-prince opened on the festival main stage "Orange". This wasn't
some mindless half-hearted 80's nostalgia though; the man clearly pays attention
to detail, and his songwriting is vibrant. Highlights included the oddly affecting
vocoder vocals of "39" and Talking Heads cover "Life During Wartime" |
| 5 | Animal Collective
Animal Collective weren't quite mind-blowing live, for all the glowing teeth and other
paraphernalia. Rather, the nicest live touch was the jamming that went on to
transition between songs. A thing I noticed is Panda Bear doesn't spare his drums.
The way he banged at them, the way the drum-kit shook, I kept expecting the kit
to fall apart. |
| 6 | Sigur Rós
Another favourite of mine which didn't quite have the impact live I would have
hoped. Still, their music never fails to be impressive. |
| 7 | Ekkozone
The performance of Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians provided a very welcome
change of pace to the rest of the festival. |
| 8 | Thurston Moore
The Ekkozone performance leads nicely into good ol' Thurston Moore, who was at
the festival both for an interview and for a set with his new band, Chelsea Light
Moving. In his interview, Thurston didn't just praise Reich's piece, but he also
compared his beloved NY with Europe, and spoke about the history of Sonic Youth.
Unfortunately, I didn't catch the Chelsea Light Moving set as it overlapped with
Sigur Rós. |
| 9 | James Blake
One could think James Blake's intimate and moody R&B tinged electronica isn't
suited to a sunny summer-day with 60,000 people, and James went to great
lengths to instruct us to imagine we were in fact somewhere during a rainy night.
The self-aware banter provided a nice addition to an impressive performance. In
particular, his performance of "I Never Learnt to Share" utterly annihilates the
version on his debut. |
| 10 | Kraftwerk
The last performer. My friend seemed awfully surprised at how short the line was to
the pit, when he insisted we get to the line two hours prior to the performance
starting. I don't know if it was the angle/distance to the stage (I was in the pit
right below the stage), but none of those 3D effects seemed to work. Having given
up on those, I was free to enjoy a seamless medley of pure Kraftwerk goodness.
Afterwards, festivalgoers yelled "We want more, we want more, we want more!" not
at Kraftwerk, but at the closed vendors. Perhaps the most enthusiastic cheers of
this year's Roskilde were heard when a burger place re-opened. |
|
