Report from Roskilde Festival 2005
Thursday, June 30, 2005:
Roskilde Festival, Day One:
The day started with perfect sunny weather, which amazingly ended up lasting for the entire festival.
On the station I met Hans E. Madsen, whom I know from my Århus days. It turns out he was the mastermind behind (among other installations) the orange neon sculpture in front of which Morten and I were posing on last year's Roskilde report. Small world, eh?
First band on the Odeon stage was Athlete, sometimes known in the British music press as "The mighty Athlete". And they're pretty good: Cinematic pop with a pleasantly funky groove and a knack for writing a good hookline. And every once in a while a burst of quirky inventiveness to keep the audience on their toes. An excellent start to the festival.
Imagine a hip hop band that doesn't rap in any known language, but instead invents their own nonsensical lingo - and you have Danish Ikscheltaschel. Live on the Orange stage, it was even more fun than I expected - there's a good deal of dada in their determination to utter complete nonsense. The huge production - live musicians, including strings and brass, and especially the dancers that filled the stage - mainly added a tired hippie flavour. This band works fine without all that stuff. Funky as hell.
I merely went to see Velvet Revolver for fun - but I didn't expect them to suck as massively as they did. I mean, Scott Weiland used to be in Stone Temple Pilots. And they were kinda innovative, right? So why does he now seem content to front a band that sounds more dated than your old Guns'n'Roses albums (at least they had some decent songs)? Every now and then, the soulful guitar wizardry of Slash breaks the tedium, but no. Life is too short.
Tom Vek, on the other hand, has that relentless inventiveness that can easily result in indie-rock of the incomprehensible and unlistenable variety. But here,the tight rhythm section kept even the weirdest stuff moving along. I was somehow reminded of last year's brilliant TV on the Radio concert - the same ability to make unconvential music rock. Interesting stuff.
There are a couple of bands that inspire a huge following - but which I just don't get. Coldplay is one (though now of course, Coldplay-bashing has become almost too predictable), Swedish Kent is another. Their sad, slightly grandiose brand of indie rock is decently written and impeccably arranged. But they lack any sense of inventiveness, any urge to break outside the norm. There's nothing not to like, but ultimately so predictable.
Are Sonic Youth the dinosaurs of indie-rock? Well, they're still the best at what they do: I've heard no other band create so carefully constructed layers of guitar noise. And they master that seamless transition from pure noise to power pop. Excellent.
Tocotronic have played Berlin so many times but I never got around to seeing them before today. Their musical style is actually sort of reminiscent of Kent's, but the delivery is so different: Pure energy and determination carries their sad and melodic songs across. And in true "modern rock band" style their arrangements make intelligent use of the guitar-bass-drums format without resorting to cliches. A nice way to end an evening.
Friday, July 1, 2005:
Roskilde Festival, Day Two:
What would heavy metal sound like played in super-slowmotion? Something like Sunn O))): A deep, almost motionless drone - a primordial soup of distorted guitars and bass synthesizer. From the outside it sounded like the Odeon Stage had been transformed into a huge, electric didgeridoo. And Hungarian singer Attila Csihar managed to make his gritty chanting voice blend into the massive noise. Not a band I'm dying to hear again, but I was impressed by the sheer vision of it.
Sylvie Marks & Hal 9000, on the other hand, didn't quite convince me. Their blend of electronic beats and live drums and keyboards is not very original. And most of the time there was just to much doodling going on with no real focus (some of the live playing even sounded a bit shoddy).
They say that no matter how international Abba (or any other Swedish act)tried to be, you could still hear an echo of Swedish folk music. In the songs of the exuberant Håkan Hellström it's much more than an echo: He's a Swedish take on the rock singer/songwriter style, at times almost mutating into a young, playful Scandinavian Springsteen (in the best possible way). All the Swedes had at great time - and the young girls sang along to every word.
This just in: Grunge is not dead. No, really: Audioslave has held on to the good parts of genre: Gritty, powerful guitar riffs, heavy, but funky drum beats and muscular dynamics. A perfect platform for Chris Cornell's energetic heavy metal shriek. Now, this is rock'n'roll!
Canadian The Dears can whip up a storm. And when they do - at the peak of some emotional chorus - they blow you away. However, their songwriting often gets a bit too cerebral for my taste: C'mon guys, it is possible to write a song in a regular 4/4-beat - and it's nothing to be ashamed of. Less brain and more rapture, and this band would be irresistible.
I only heard a few songs by The Tears (the new band fronted by the former masterminds of Suede), but their powerful melancholy seems to have survived. And Brett Anderson really is a remarkable performer - so full of nervous energy he's actually shaking impatiently between songs.
I wouldn't exactly call it a trip down memory lane, but Black Sabbath played a number of songs I listened to intently 20 years ago - and haven't heard since. They look a bit worse for wear - surprisingly, Ozzy seems to have aged more gracefully than the rest of them. And the old rocker still seems to love what he's doing - puttering about the stage in a most un-heavy-rock manner, grinning happily as his shrill voice cuts through the massive riffs. The crowd loved it.
The concert billed as "The Other Sides of Sonic Youth" was - noise. Pure and simple. The band plus guests added layer after layer of distorted sound to an everchanging texture of fuzz and feedback. Skilled and daring stuff - they could have played an actual song or two but went for the extreme instead.
People keep suggesting that I should like Autechre. And yes, I can appreciate the complexity, the originality and the attention to detail, and yet: Their sound palette is too alien and their beats not really danceable. I would love to like them, but somehow they leave me cold.
Saturday, July 2, 2005:
Roskilde Festival, Day Three:
Some say Efterklang is one of the most interesting Danish bands at the moment. And I always like to check out any mix of rock and electronica. But this brand of shoe-gazing postrock is just too dull for my taste. Efterklang seems lost in a maze of introvert artistic pretentiousness - even stooping to "fragile" whispered vocals. I bet they write bad poetry, too!
The Foo Fighters seemed to be having some sort of sound problem on the Orange stage. Their powerful, punkish pop rock didn't come across as fresh as it should. And while not all their songs are masterpieces, some (like the new "Best of You") are true classics: Simple and to the point. As a frontman, Steve Grohl knows every trick in the book - even climbing to the top of the mixer tower to play a solo - and does it all with an endearing sense of irony. An intelligent brand of party rock.
Then I wanted to listen to Röyksopp, who blew me away with their support gig for Moby. But when I got to the Metropol stage, the audience was about twice as big as the tent, and I couldn't get close enough to get a good listen. However, the Norwegian electro-poppers seemed to be in great form, and the crowd was with them all the way. They sure deserve it.
So much can be done with guitars and electronics, but the human voice remains the most emotionally compelling instrument. And the most impressive concert of the day was the unlike combination of heavy metal singer Mike Patton (ex-Faith No More et al.) and human beatbox, rapper and singer Rahzel. Only aided by a small collection of electronics, the duo managed to whip the crowd to a frenzy (Rahzel playing the charismatic master of ceremonies to Patton's interovert artist). On top of an incredible rhythmic groove, they threw all sorts of vocal expressions into the mix: Metal screams, Arabic wailing, distorted vocal noises, quotations from all kinds of styles (including a complete bizarre cover version of 'Begin the Beguine'). Utterly unique and amazing stuff!
I just had to stay for the whole Patton/Rahzel show, so I only caught the last couple of songs by The Raveonettes. But the stylish noise-bubblegum duo (led by my songwriting hero, Sune Wagner) is still among the best things the Danish indie scene has to offer right now. Quite simply, they rock!
Sunday, July 3, 2005:
Roskilde Festival, Day Four
The Futureheads offered an explosion of pure energy. Absurd as it is to imagine a cross between Devo and The Proclaimers, delivered with the pop-punk simplicity of The Buzzcocks, The Futureheads make it work. I had a great time, but for the rest of the Festival audience 2 p.m. seemed a bit too early for relentless uptempo rock.
Perhaps the Orange Stage was a bit too much for the noisy shenanigans of underground darlings Turbonegro. And the 3 p.m. time slot in open air certainly didn't do them justice. After all, homoerotic glam-punk works better in the dark, doesn't it?
I've heard many bands attempt a fusion of rock and hip-hop, often with rather heavy results. The Go! Team, however, mixed these and a bunch of other genres into a happy and playful cocktail. Their female rapper, Ninja, has even developed an irresistible fusion of rap and singing. A fun band with a charming personality.
The eagerly awaited Bloc Party could be seen lurking at the side of stage during the Futureheads show. Now they took the stage themselves to an enthusiastic crowd. No doubt this is a party band - but they are also have one of the strangest and most original party bands I have ever heard: Quirky guitar riffs and vocal lines, unexpected drum beats. And then the restless intensity that might just one day end up as a straightjacket. And, unlike The Futureheads, their melodies just don't stick in my head.
And if you thought Ozzy Osbourne looked aged and mentally unstable, you should have seen Brian Wilson performing on the Orange Stage! The poor man's only attempt to communicate with the audiences was the question "how loud can you yell", repeated ad absurdum. However, even with his broken voice and hired musicians, the timeless quality of the old Beach Boys songs and arrangements came through loud and clear. The man has an immense talent - it's just a bit sad to see him like this.
My last concert at this year's festival was the ultra-cool Interpol at the Arena stage. I've kinda liked their music, but live it all falls into place. Interpol write variations on the traditional pop songs, adding the new wave-ish paradox of motionless motion. Simplistic and detached, their sound creates a unique emotional landscape, beatifully supported by the matching light show.
And still, as I drove home, the sun stood high in the sky over Roskilde. No festival could hope for better weather.
