Thursday, October 15, 2009

Iceland Airwaves Update - Day Two

Things were off to a roaring start today (or rather last night, when the winds were well in the 50 mph range after midnight) but (almost) everything was sunshine and flowers at a small off-venue concert held in the early afternoon at the Nordic House, a Scandinavian library and cultural study institution located near the University:



Hafdís Huld, an experienced singer-songwriter performed catchy pop-rock with her band in the intimate auditorium. Very professional, very positive and upbeat in personality, Hafdís charmed the small crowd:



Hraun, whose leader/singer/songwriter Svavar Knútur is from the Westfjords (his promo shot shows him bottle-feeding a lamb!) is about as close to an elf as you can get. His reworking of Darling Clementine into something quite new was exceptional. He got the audience to sing along on a couple of tunes, and we were great as well:



Just for Rose: here's a little library porn:



Rokkurró, what some might call a "shoegazer band", did some art-rock on the main stage at the Reykjavík Art Museum. With a strong vocalist who doubled on cello they were pretty good, in their way, in a short set:



I didn't know what to expect from Björt, so I headed over to Hressó, where they had a stage set up under a big tent- beer garden style. She came on with a full rock band, but sang songs with titles such as "Happy Memories" and "With Love to my Parents", I know that it sounds corny but she was sincere and it was very nicely done:



Next up was a trip back to the Grand Rokk to see something completely different, Vicky:



And they were great. Sample song titles: Robutussin and My Black Lesbian Lover. They definitely had the most fun performing of any group I've seen so far. I LOVE RIOT GRRRLS!

To complete this most eclectic night, I went back over to Fríkirkjan to see Hjaltalín perform with a TWENTY PIECE ORCHESTRA! Every Iceland Airwaves usually has a few moments that are simply mind-blowers and this was definitely one of them: Fully orchestrated songs with overtones of Ligeti, Stravinksy, and Spector... Phil Spector, that is. Conducted with inspiration by Daniel Bjarnason, this was a full hour of magnificent music. Stunning.



And The Airwaves isn't even half over!

By Professor Batty


5 Comments:

Blogger Darien Fisher-Duke said...

I'm exhausted, and I'm not even there! Thanks for the library porn--I want to work at the Nordic House! ;-) Do you realize has been warmer in Reykjavík than Richmond on and off these past few days?


Anonymous Jon said...

Batty, you appear to be having way too much fun!


Blogger Professor Batty said...

Rose ~ It has been very nice weather, excepting for some wind the other night. Periods of sunshine everyday, I must bring it with me!

Jon ~ no such thing!


Blogger Shoshanah Marohn said...

Great pictures, as always! I'm "viveted" (that's my word verification, "viveted".)


Blogger Iceland Eyes said...

Rose, a friend of mine was the Nordic House librarian for a few years. She loved it.

Batty, I can only imagine how Awesome Hjaltalín+ was. They're awesome all by themselves!

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