Roskilde: days 1-2
I've been feeling flu-ish for two days once again. It was only two weeks ago when I last felt like this, but it didn't get worse then and I'm hoping it doesn't now, either. I was going to go to taiji today, but I think it's best if I just go home and rest. I'm supposed to go to Turku tomorrow evening and Ruisrocking on Saturday and Sunday. I'd best be healthy then! Ruisrock has some bands that I missed in Roskilde (Kashmir, Morrissey, Gogol Bordello). Maybe I can go see them now. Cool. And of course, many good Finnish bands that weren't there at all.
Thursday, June 29th
I mostly moved around, getting to know the festival area and listening to bits and pieces of random bands with Emily. Simo has a bit different taste in music so he didn't hang out with us that much. We listened to The Editors first for a while. During the first song I realized I've been seeing one of their music videos quite often at work. They played that certain song second and it was fun to hear it live. They were a nice band (programme description rightfully said "with their self-invented genre dark disco, the band mixes Joy Division and U2") but we didn't listen to them awfully long.
Next we went to hear what Moldavian Zdob Si Zdub sounded like. Apparently they participated in the Eurovisions last year and came in 6th. They were very energetic and fun! The band members kept jumping and dancing around all the time. The music was described as gypsy rock somewhere, I think. But all the songs were pretty similar.
We tried to listen to Bullet For My Valentine ("emo shakes hands with metal") but it wasn't our cup of tea. Way too much shouting and not melodic enough. Deus ("from playful art rock to wry pop music") was much better, but for some reason none of the songs really stuck in my mind. I should try find their albums here or something.
Last one was Icelandic Sigur Rós which we had been waiting for the most on that day. Their playing was so beautiful and intense that it's impossible to describe it. The experience was made even doubly wonderful when Emily, standing behind me, put her arms around me and hugged me for the duration of the whole concert. We just swayed to the music together, heads touching and eyes closed. (we wouldn't have been able to see the band anyway because of all the tall people in front of us...) It was great.
Friday, June 30th
We started with Finnish Disco Ensemble. I'd never heard them before. They were sort of cute but the music ("emo rock") didn't really touch me at all. Volbeat sounded more fun ("groovy metal and straight rock'n'roll") but we only heard a couple of songs by them.
I'm not usually into country-style music, but Martha Wainwright was lovely. She didn't have any other instruments except her own guitar and voice. Apparently the lyrics are important in her songs, so it was too bad most of the time I couldn't quite make them out. The song "Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole" was very clear, though. And apparently it's directed at her father. Want to read a bit more about the insane and fascinating Wainwright family?
Then there was this Jewish Orthodox sort-of-rapper Matisyahu whose music was actually groovy and relaxing and Norwegian Kaizers Orchestra, who are apparently a big name in Scandinavia, but I hadn't heard of them before.
Swedish Opeth ("death & black meta + symphonic rock") was nice enough that we stuck through the whole gig. They didn't shout too much and the guitars were melodic pretty much all the time instead of noisy and disturbing. Besides, the singer had a very nice talking voice and he said funny things. Pretty accurate quote:
"I was just talking to Bob Dylan on backstage. He wanted to know if I'd go to hear his concert. He asked me, hey, are you coming? And I said, no, Bob. Fuck off. Oh, but I really like Bob, though."
Umm. Yeah. After that was the highlight of the day: Rufus Wainwright. Like his sister, he didn't have any extra people playing instruments either. He only sang and played the piano or guitar himself. Rufus is one of those gay people who talk a bit funny (the "queen" way, or whatsitcalled), but it wasn't as apparent as with some people. He was awfully cute. And he played the song he made for Brokeback Mountain! Martha came to sing a few songs with him and it was all very cool. A couple of times Rufus would stop in the middle of a song, say something like, "This won't do, let's start again" and then he'd go back a bit or all the way to the beginning and re-do the song. With the song "Poses" he forgot that Martha was supposed to sing with him. He got all the way to the first chorus until he stopped and exclaimed, "Hey, I forgot you were supposed to be in this one! Come on, let's start again. I can't do this without you!" Aww. *melts*
We heard a bit of My Midnight Creeps (nice rock) and Death Cab For Cutie (indie pop), but the next one to rock my socks was Scissor Sisters. They knew what they were doing on the stage and had real charisma. The songs were cool too and had us dancing in no time. I must start listening to them more.
Okay, that's enough for today. Congrats to you who read through all of that! Days 3-4 are coming either tomorrow or next week. I'm off to home now.
Thursday, June 29th
I mostly moved around, getting to know the festival area and listening to bits and pieces of random bands with Emily. Simo has a bit different taste in music so he didn't hang out with us that much. We listened to The Editors first for a while. During the first song I realized I've been seeing one of their music videos quite often at work. They played that certain song second and it was fun to hear it live. They were a nice band (programme description rightfully said "with their self-invented genre dark disco, the band mixes Joy Division and U2") but we didn't listen to them awfully long.
Next we went to hear what Moldavian Zdob Si Zdub sounded like. Apparently they participated in the Eurovisions last year and came in 6th. They were very energetic and fun! The band members kept jumping and dancing around all the time. The music was described as gypsy rock somewhere, I think. But all the songs were pretty similar.
We tried to listen to Bullet For My Valentine ("emo shakes hands with metal") but it wasn't our cup of tea. Way too much shouting and not melodic enough. Deus ("from playful art rock to wry pop music") was much better, but for some reason none of the songs really stuck in my mind. I should try find their albums here or something.
Last one was Icelandic Sigur Rós which we had been waiting for the most on that day. Their playing was so beautiful and intense that it's impossible to describe it. The experience was made even doubly wonderful when Emily, standing behind me, put her arms around me and hugged me for the duration of the whole concert. We just swayed to the music together, heads touching and eyes closed. (we wouldn't have been able to see the band anyway because of all the tall people in front of us...) It was great.
Friday, June 30th
We started with Finnish Disco Ensemble. I'd never heard them before. They were sort of cute but the music ("emo rock") didn't really touch me at all. Volbeat sounded more fun ("groovy metal and straight rock'n'roll") but we only heard a couple of songs by them.
I'm not usually into country-style music, but Martha Wainwright was lovely. She didn't have any other instruments except her own guitar and voice. Apparently the lyrics are important in her songs, so it was too bad most of the time I couldn't quite make them out. The song "Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole" was very clear, though. And apparently it's directed at her father. Want to read a bit more about the insane and fascinating Wainwright family?
Then there was this Jewish Orthodox sort-of-rapper Matisyahu whose music was actually groovy and relaxing and Norwegian Kaizers Orchestra, who are apparently a big name in Scandinavia, but I hadn't heard of them before.
Swedish Opeth ("death & black meta + symphonic rock") was nice enough that we stuck through the whole gig. They didn't shout too much and the guitars were melodic pretty much all the time instead of noisy and disturbing. Besides, the singer had a very nice talking voice and he said funny things. Pretty accurate quote:
"I was just talking to Bob Dylan on backstage. He wanted to know if I'd go to hear his concert. He asked me, hey, are you coming? And I said, no, Bob. Fuck off. Oh, but I really like Bob, though."
Umm. Yeah. After that was the highlight of the day: Rufus Wainwright. Like his sister, he didn't have any extra people playing instruments either. He only sang and played the piano or guitar himself. Rufus is one of those gay people who talk a bit funny (the "queen" way, or whatsitcalled), but it wasn't as apparent as with some people. He was awfully cute. And he played the song he made for Brokeback Mountain! Martha came to sing a few songs with him and it was all very cool. A couple of times Rufus would stop in the middle of a song, say something like, "This won't do, let's start again" and then he'd go back a bit or all the way to the beginning and re-do the song. With the song "Poses" he forgot that Martha was supposed to sing with him. He got all the way to the first chorus until he stopped and exclaimed, "Hey, I forgot you were supposed to be in this one! Come on, let's start again. I can't do this without you!" Aww. *melts*
We heard a bit of My Midnight Creeps (nice rock) and Death Cab For Cutie (indie pop), but the next one to rock my socks was Scissor Sisters. They knew what they were doing on the stage and had real charisma. The songs were cool too and had us dancing in no time. I must start listening to them more.
Okay, that's enough for today. Congrats to you who read through all of that! Days 3-4 are coming either tomorrow or next week. I'm off to home now.