It’s not so easy to write a brief account of three days – well, nights – of live music if you’re not exactly the kind of average gigs attender or if you are not a professional critic. I cannot hide the fact I’m one of those persons that are always willing to go to gigs, but are terribly scared and bothered and anxious about going. Sounds like a paradox, but I know of other people that are more or less the same.
So let’s keep it as nice and brief as it is possible. If any of this will enrage anybody, I’m sorry. To make even the enraged happier, I’ll quote Groucho’s, “these are my opinions. If you don’t like them, I have others.”
First of all the venue. I had never been to NASA before. NASA is quite alright. As a venue I mean. The acoustics are OK. I’ve been to clubs with crap acoustics, where you couldn’t really distinguish anything you were listening to, like you couldn’t tell one instrument from the other, also in Reykjavík. The problem I have with gigs like those held in clubs as NASA is mainly with the audience. As you know most people, especially later in the course of the shows, just go to drink and mess around, not for the music in itself. Well, this may be alright for some, but I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this kind of attitude. Also, it’s true that compared to other audiences the Icelandic one is quite composed and relaxed – in three days I never risked my life or had to punch anybody in the nose – but still you cannot really enjoy the show if you’re surrounded by teenagers that at that hour should be in bed sleeping soundly like little lambs, teenagers that are instead holding five bottles of beer in their hands each, barely able to keep their balance. I keep on telling myself I’m too old for these things, but the fact is I’ve been too old for them all my life and I could never grasp the not very subtle pleasure of attending any music event not for listening to the music.
The music now. I did know some of the acts playing. In fact my original intention was to attend only their part of the show and flee ASAP after it. I confess I found myself entangled in the eagerness of broadening a bit my knowledge of the local music scene, so I stayed. In some cases I am happy I did, in some others I’m not so happy. Complete happiness isn’t of this world, they wisely say. I wouldn’t like to focus for too long on what I didn’t like because I’m rather disturbed by the idea of always appearing like the old fart that doesn’t like anything. I must say though that some of the most pumped up and hyped bands weren’t that great. I know how it works: you’re a promoter and you have to focus on a product to sell, so you have to make it look – and sound in this case – like it’s irresistible. Sometimes you manage to make it look – and sound in this case – so much better than it actually is. This said, most musicians that played at NASA are very skilled and prepared. Some are not but they are are good enough to deal with it and pretend they are. In any case, even those that are indeed skilled are not necessarily able to write a quality song, or at least to write an original song with some substance behind the gaudy façade, something that is not a pastiche of this and that famous band’s works. In the last days I’ve heard so many bands acting like they are Tool, Arcade Fire, Sugarcubes era Björk or múm, but quite obviously they are not. Feel free to throw your rotten vegetables at me – or rather… frozen, especially considering the cost in Iceland of fresh vegetables even when they’re not looking very lively – but I found the so highly acclaimed Agent Fresco or Mammút quite trite and unoriginal. Bloodgroup also didn’t impress me as particularly inventive despite the vaguely Blade Runner-y disguise. From the reviews I had read I was expecting something more suggestively metaphysical for their act. But of course, maybe especially for all these reasons, these bands are also so highly appealing and marketable. Oh and anyway, sometimes having a girl in a band playing an accordion just to make everything look more alternative doesn’t work. Please stop using accordions where they are not needed, thank you.
On to the positive things. I was impressed by some bands I hadn’t heard of before or that I knew only by name or by a few songs. Hudson Wayne and Kimono especially were extremely interesting. No wonder they are in some way connected, though they are very different in sound. They both managed to keep my attention awake, even though I didn’t have a clue about their music until they started playing. From Hudson Wayne, both I and my partner in crime got an aura of honesty, an almost romantic feel that is maybe still quite unusual in most Icelandic pop and rock music, very often mainly focused on other aspects, with all their pros and their cons. I found Kimono extremely talented; even if they are being labeled by most sites merely as “post-rock”, I find their music is much more than that. Influences of progressive rock are very strong in some of their songs, and those songs are in a way also challenging for the ear of the unaccustomed listener. I also think Árstíðir were quite interesting, although maybe not exactly my cup of tea: they look quite young to me – I’m not sure how old they are – but their songs are as professional as they can get, both from a writing and from a performing point of view. They manage well to not overdo with the magniloquence of their arrangements despite their complexity. I intend to take a closer look at all these bands in the next future.
Seabear/Sing Fang + guests were as I was expecting. Their position wasn’t exactly simple, both days sandwiched between bands that are also quite big in Iceland, bands specialized in getting the audience all worked up, like Agent Fresco or Hjálmar. They succeeded in entertaining the public and keeping them attentive at the same time, whereas the above-mentioned acts created some commotion, but as for the attentiveness part I’m not too sure – people were also in most cases too drunk at that point. Ólafur Arnalds was even more successful at attention-inducing, achieving to keep the audience seated during his whole performance.
A final note on Hjaltalín. Though I’m nothing like a fangirl, I can safely affirm I like them on record. But on the live side, I’m not sure. They just lack that quid I was expecting. I found them at the same time a little too dispersive and too much on the danceable side. Maybe I have to give myself more time with them, I suppose.