Report from Roskilde Festival 2008
Photos at the Festival website
Thursday, July 3, 2008:
It just struck me: The Roskilde Festival can be seen as an embodiment of the civilized Danish society. Only the Danes could manage to make a huge rock festival so safe and comfortable.
I arrived midway through MGMT's set - but instead of what the programme hailed as "psychedelic electro rock", I heard a crowd-pleasing mix of glam rock and disco - with even a faint echo of Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill" at one point - and complete with mullets. Mullets? Is this really what the kids in Brooklyn are up to these days?
Danish Pilgrimz play what we in Neon Machine refer to as "semitone metal" (when heard from the surrounding rehearsal rooms) - amazingly tight and with a charming sense of humour. But you have to love the genre to enjoy more than a couple of songs.
Gossip provided the first "Roskilde moment" - when something exceeds all expectation. Humongous Beth Ditto's Janis Joplin-meets-Alison Moyet vocals alone were almost enough to carry the show. But coupled with the bands minimalist, funky groove, the result is deliciously sexy (of whatever orientation).
And then, of course, the long-awaited Radiohead show on the Orange stage. Any cultural pessimist would have second thoughts seeing the huge crowd gathered to hear something as "difficult" as this band (kicking off with a 5/8 beat, no less...). Radiohead is probably as intelligent as rock music gets - their carefully layered arrangements are almost devoid of cliché (unless you count Thom Yorke's melancholy lament). Still, I would have enjoyed them more in a smaller and more intimate setting. I even drifted off to catch a few songs of Swedish guitar riff kings, Hellacopters (I can just imagine how jealous Danish D-A-D must be over their effient rock-pop formula).
Friday, July 4, 2008:
The programme described Polarkreis 18 as a German answer to Muse and Radiohead. And they did have the crystal-clear vocals of the former and the brooding chord sequences of the latter, but at times an infectious disco beat lifted their melodies to another plane. I wouldn't be surprised if these guys made it to the Orange Stage one day.
By chance I popped into Sidi Goma's show. The members of this troupe are Sidis - a black minority living in India (no, I hadn't heard of them either). Their music was a great reminder of how all rhythmic grooves in modern music are actually descended from Africa. And in the Sidi culture, too, a musician is an all-round entertainer: All members of Sidi Goma played, sang and danced. I have no ideas what the performance was about (did they mime some sort of animal?), but the music was funky as hell!
Gnarls Barkley pleased the crowd at the Orange Stage. Funny to hear how the live band almost perfectly mimicked Danger Mouses' programmed backing tracks on the album. And Cee-Lo's soulful voice has just the right kind of sharp edge needed to cut through the controlled chaos of the groove.
I've always thought of Danish Veto to be rather weak, synth-infused rock, but live their sound actually has quite an impact. However, they're still let down by a sad lack of charisma and decent songs. Do Danish bands really think more in terms of concept than material?
I've never really gotten into Kings of Leon, but their performance was a nice surprise. A simple, yet dynamic, grunge-inspired rock groove and truly memorable songs. Their sound had exactly the impact needed to capture the huge crowd in front of the Orange Stage.
And then of course, the aptly named Grinderman. I'm a great fan of their debut album, and Nick Cave and the guys managed to recreate the magic live - among other things confirming my view that the laid back groove of "(I Don't Need You To) Set Me Free" can get the crowd going just as much as the faster songs. But excuse me, didn't Warren Ellis once look like a nice, normal guy? When did he transform into this bearded, Rasputin-like madman, jumping around the stage, pushing buttons and banging a cymbal with his maracas? But a fitting icon for a truly untamed rock sound.
Im sure Barcelona's La Kinky Beat has a great and well-deserved reputation as a party band. But unfortunately, that does not equal musical inventiveness. They seem to start off at full throttle and keep it up for as long as possible. Great for dancing, rather boring for listening. And just think how much variation and dynamics great bands like Madness or The Specials have created, based on the same ska groove...
And finally, Mike Skinner of The Streets demonstrated that he's not only a talented musician/rapper/storyteller. He's also a brilliant entertainer, seamlessly weaving jokes and crowd-activating comments into the songs themselves. Not an easy feat. Maybe he's actually painfully smart underneath that disarming London lad exterior.
Saturday, July 5, 2008:
Tokyo Police Club was a great starter for my third afternoon at Roskilde. These young Canadians delivered their hard and fast rocking beat with the casual detachment of The Strokes or (my personal favourites) The Rakes.
Danish The Fashion offered a lot of energy as well - but sadly, not much else. Tight riffing, loud and aggressive sound, energetic vocals - but not much originality. And why do Danish band spend all their times rehearsing - instead of sitting down and writing the goddamn songs?
Considering my disappointment yesterday with Barcelona's La Kinky Beat, Spain came back with a vengeance with neo-flamenco band La Shica. While most folklore leaves me cold, I have a thing for flamenco - and Elsa Rovayo has the kind of powerful, relentlessly expressive voice that sends shivers down my old, cynical spine. La Shica mixes flamenco with rock, funk and even rap, which worked remarkably well - not least due to their guitarist injecting flamenco flavours into anything they did. Still, I would have been perfectly happy hearing them do traditional flamenco for the whole set. They're that good.
Soul vocalist Solomon Burke is now apparently too obese to stand up. Instead he was seated on a gold and red velvet throne, having young handmaidens wipe his brow and unbutton his jacket whenever needed. Still, he was in command of a truly funky band of musicians and delivered a show of classic soul music with his powerful voice.
I just managed to catch a few songs by German The Notwist - the Astoria tent was simply too crowded to get in. Which is only fair, as The Notwist delivered some of the most interesting and creative music I've heard this year. Their hypnotic groove moves imperceptively from guitar-based noise rock to electronic grooves and back again - combining an always rocking beat with a complex multi-layered soundscape. Is this the triumphant return of Krautrock? The eccentricity of Can and Neu! incorporating the sounds of today? A damn exciting band, in any case.
Godfathers of guitar noise rock, the recently reformed My Bloody Valentine delivered a massive wall of distortion. After an already deafening set, they ended with their notorious fifteen minutes of pure noise - during which the volume seemed to grow and grow to an incredible climax. And amazingly, there's still lots of layers and detail in their uncompromising sound. Your ears will definitely feel different afterwards.
I don't have a history of listening to Neil Young, and I believe that is needed to fully enjoy his performance. The endless jams over simple folk-rock songs left me rather unimpressed. But once in a while, the old rocker unleashed his fury on the guitar - and the intensity of those solos is still unmistakably his own.
After so many disappointing new Danish bands, it was nice to hear The Raveonettes again - even though the duo performed with one member missing - the pregnant Sharin Foo replaced by two standins. I've sometimes had mixed feeling about their rather restricting concept of guitar noise versus fifties bubblegum pop - but even within this format, the very talented Sune Wagner still writes better songs than any of his Danish contemporaries. And they truly rock.
Sunday, July 6, 2008:
Sunday I arrived to the Festival in time for Slayer. Well, what can I say? Their power and precision is impressive. But it seems to me they are still playing a style of metal that once was groundbreaking but since then has been copied by thousands of newer bands. But then again, I'm not enough of a fan of the genre to truly appreciate their qualities.
Instead I caught most of Miss Platinum's set, and that really kicked off the day. This irreverent group mixes dancehall rhythms with Balkan-style melodies, led by Miss Platinum herself - a squat housewife in an apron and worse hair than James Brown. She is accompanied by two Supremes-like singers (who nonetheless knows their Eastern European dance steps) and a exuberant brass section. Imagine the Leningrad Cowboys movies made by Emir Kusturica instead of Kaurismäki, and you get the idea. Excellent fun!
And then it was time for one of the festival's highlights, the newly reformed Swedish indie darlings, Bob Hund. With their raw energy, coupled with lyrical sensibility, and always a hint of wackiness, they still occupy a uniqie position among Scandinavian indie bands. And skinny and unpredictable frontman Thomas Öberg (with his unrepentantly off-key vocals and his worrying love of climbing onto wobbly chairs) adds an irrestible charm to the group. And hey, they didn't just reform - they played a number of new songs, as well. We don't miss their ill-fated English-language attempt, Bergman Rock, one bit.
As the rain started (for the first time in four days), we took shelter in the Arena tent, where British Hot Chip played their unique brand of raw and funky retro-dance-synth-pop. Somehow they manage to sound fresh and new in the midst of the almost unbearable wave of so-called electro-clash bands. And they're even more fun live. A nice closer (for me) to a festival offering many nice surprises.
