the airwaves festival

so another airwaves festival has gone by. the highlights were not so high and the lows were low. the festival has become a bit too crowded. the frat boys have arrived. the scheduling was weird - the shins play in a glorified garage while the godawful gus gus get a prime spot at one of the bigger venues? so the music.

day 1. to rococo rot: good but after three songs I got a little tired. adem: boring. who on earth thought of giving these guys good reviews. they sound like the fucking barenaked ladies. hood: somewhat of a disappointment but some of the new stuff sounded interesting/promising. some "technical" difficulties going which probably didn't help. slowblow: very nice but please drop the 453 instruments and play some rock like back in the day. fourtet: the few minutes I saw were alright but not what I expected. úlpa: rocking it out at nasa. the two songs i witnessed were great. look out for these guys. ensími: very boring, formulaic alternative rock. avoid. sahara hotnights: it is nice to know that the swedes can fail at something.

day2. skakkamangage: my festival surprise. sound like arcade fire minus three band members. nice dynamics. i want to hear more. kid koala: koalas rock. hjálmar: 8 times better than i expected from an icelandic reggae band. which makes them alright. hot chip: nerd fun. great show, no desire to listen to their stuff ever again. kimono: can i say polvo? excellent stuff. can i ask for a more lo-fi approach to the next album, please?

day3. mugison: thinks he is cool. and he is a little bit. but not enough for the act he tried to pull off. could have done with out ragga gísla on the second song. actually, just scrap that song altogether. but when he was good, he was good. Unsound: pretty good. i'll see him again. singapore sling: despite most of the members leaving the band they rocked and were better than last time i saw them. the stills: i wasn't crazy about the sound but they did a good job nevertheless. the shins: i didn't like the last album so i had rather low expectations that they thankfully managed to exceed. quite entertaining despite the crowd. Croisztans: i only caught one song but what a song. some definately ungodly noise. the pogues vs. death

dayafter: nursing a hangover i went for a beer and happened to see hudson wayne at sirkus. i may have enjoyed this show more than the entire festival. they are just a nice band. not terribly original but they do their stuff well. somewhere close to idaho, mojave three, ....