We started Saturday early – hitting up one of the first off venue performances at Slippbarinn for the ever lovely Laylow – again playing with a band rather than solo and including some songs from her latest album Talking About The Weather (if you haven’t heard it – go buy it). Her vocals were a soulful and dusky as ever and did not disappoint.
Then it was off to Reykjavík Fish across the road for lunch – we opted for a Fish & chips (fish type unknown) and a breaded cod & chips then shared so we both got to try each. Delicious, we came here last year and again. It did not disappoint – also this year we had a window seat with beautiful views over the harbour.
Next up was ÍRiS at Around Iceland, a quaint little cafe / tourist information shop. Again she was not perform in solo and had ‘Frank’ on percussion which included playing a saw and one of those air-tubes you swing around your head. Playing several tracks from her album Penumbra, she finished on what was described as a classic we might know, but it was in French so I’m pretty sure it’s nothing I’ve heard before.
Next of the evening was Epic Rain at Lucky Records whom after my initial listen online I’d decided sounded quite dark and goth like, however it was almost rapping very reminiscent to me at least to Canadian artist Buck 65, but not as lyrically entertaining.
Lastly of Saturday evening, arguably the biggest party night of Airwaves weekend, we opted for seeing The Knife perform at Harpa- the shaking the habitual tour – their last ever tour, with this being their last ever show of last ever tour, we were expecting great things.
Because of the afore mentioned info we knew this would be a case of arriving early or queueing pointlessly later on, so we arrived at around 8:15 with first act in Harpa Silfburg – Samaris starting at 8:40. It was already pretty busy but we managed to get a floor space near the front. I was looking forward to hearing Samaris and their music should’ve sounded great, except the bass was way off, like when it makes speakers buzz because of too much bass. It was almost like AMFJ ‘s power noise except totally unintentional.
After Samaris finish their 40 minute set (leaving at unusual 40 minute gap
until the next act) the room gets inherently busier with groups of young ‘adults’ who look barely older than 15 pushing each other into people in order to create a space and push forward, it’s hot, overcrowded and boring.
Then eventually The Knife’s warm up act comes on, a lady who gets the crowd geared up, excited and ready for a thrilling show. At this point a doubts I’d had, all thoughts of leaving early and heading somewhere else disappeared – this was going to be fun!! Who cares if my friends who saw the show a few nights back had thought it was disappointing (apparently only singing live for 3 tracks then miming the rest of the show), this was gonna be fun!
Wrong.
After spending all that time getting bored and impatient crowd to warm up and get hyper, they came on with one of the most sedate tracks from the album, then followed with another at which point we left. Oh sorry at which point we had to physically fight & push our way OUT of the venue. Because it was over crowded (and a real fire hazard) with zero crowd control. What I mean is that on this floor of Harpa there are two venues both with different room capacities, however there is no one checking that either of said rooms have the right amount of people in.
So we left, we walked back via Herfisgata where my husband commented on a crane being almost invisible at which point I noticed behind the crane was the Northern Lights! I’d totally forgotten despite checking weather reports all week that Saturday night would be clear.
I didn’t have my tripod but I still managed to get a few photos of the northern lights dancing mostly around the Imagine Peace Tower – and my night was made.
To top it off we stopped by the bar in Hlemmur Square which has one of the most epic beer lists I’ve ever seen!
Culturenator 