Day one of Iceland Airwaves was kind of relaxed, so we took our time to wander about a lot, even if rain was hitting hard. We traveled back and forth from Harpa to the city center and enjoyed the smell of the drenched city at night. Apart from Nasa, venues were not super-full and, overall, Wednesday was excellent to get acquainted with the festival’s atmosphere — or acquainted again, in the case of returning visitors from the previous editions.
Most bands playing were from Iceland, so we felt very much at home. However, we decided to give a try to music we were previously not very familiar with. Thus we mostly attended concerts of Icelandic bands we had occasion to listen to only through recorded material. In a few cases, we were pleasantly surprised. We were forced to break our commitment in just a couple of occasions, mainly for timeframe issues. Speaking of Icelandic bands, we had our finest moments with Sóley and IKEA SATAN. Completely different ways to intend music, that’s for sure, but equally fulfilling for our ears. We also admired Rich Aucoin in a flamboyant and pandemic off-venue gig and YACHT just being awesome performers.
Images can sometimes speak more than words, they say. Whether it’s true or false, it’s up to the viewer to decide. These are, in retrospect, our visual highlights for the first day of the festival.
I regret not having good photos of IKEA SATAN’s drumming girl. She is such a character. Alas… Bad lighting and I am very much against aiming flash at people’s faces while they are playing.
We took quite a lot of photos, so filtering them and choosing those that look more meaningful is being a painful process, ha. We will be posting images from the rest of the festival, so check back for more!
All images (c)putheowl & Iceland Chronicles.
As an old guitar player (“old” being the key word) it is fun to see the variety of instruments being played. Thanks for all the great reviews and sound clips!
“Guitar” and “player” are the key words =D Do you still play?
Oh, yes!
That’s cool. Playing an instrument keeps you young and makes your brain function much better =D