Roskilde Festival!!

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Hi Everyone,

If you're wondering why I'm in front of the pc so much, it's not because Stockholm is boring, it's just that I've got a cold. Probably from going to too many festivals 😊

The pills are doing wonders though...(thanks mum!)

Roskilde festival, as its name may suggest, is held in the town of Roskilde, around half an hour out of Copenhagen. It's a 4 day festival, which is probably a shade long. I think 3 days was enough for me, but that being said, I've had a stretch of 10 days where I spent 7 of them at a festival.

For the benefit of all the festival-going folks back home in Melbourne, Roskilde is:
- 'big day out', but multiply that by 4 days
- then combine it with the camping of Falls festival, but stretch that out to 7 days.
You put those two together and you get Roskilde 😊

The type of crowd you get is rather different to Glastonbury, and I think this was influenced by the line-up (which was a lot heavier), and its proximity to a large city which means you get a few more yobs and thugs.

And if Glastonbury was all about mud, Roskilde is far and away the dustiest festival I've been to. Everytime a large group of people move, they move slowly, which means they generally shuffle their feet. When 50,000 people all do this at the same time, we create a dustbowl and then have to breathe it all in. Passive smoking at a festival is one thing, but having to breathe in dust?? : /

And unlike most festivals I've been to, you are allowed to bring in your own alcohol to your campsite. When young Danes go camping, they don't do these things by halves. These happy campers generally bring in around 4 slabs of beer, and then catch the bus back into town to go get more. They generally stopped people that were using trolleys to bring in 8 slabs of beer though 😊

Truth be told, the Roskilde festival experience for me was seriously undermined after I heard that The Mars Volta had pulled out of the festival (and the rest of their European tour dates due to illness), so it was going to take a bit to win me back over. However, there were definitely a few unexpected highlights but more from a human experience. Oh, but the music was great too 😊

One great moment was watching this African guy, Tiken Jah Fakoly, play his African inspired reggae. Watching him perform was really a celebration of human spirit. He was energetic, he got the crowd to sing along in his native African language (which is no mean feat), and he was just so happy to be there. Watching him play gave me one of those moments when you step back, and realise how lucky and fortunate you are to be alive and to have the opportunity to witness this kind of event. I'm a Chinese guy, from Australia, travelled all the way to Denmark, and am listening to this African guy play music that originated in the Caribbean. What are the chances? you tell me....

Another highlight was seeing Yuri Buenaventura play salsa. Now truth be told, I don't know enough about salsa to really appreciate the difference between good and bad salsa. But what was special about being at a salsa performance is watching the crowd dance. Now I know I talk about connection a lot, but watching two people dance salsa well is so beautiful. It's sensual, provocative, but not sleazy. You just watch these two people dance to the music in perfect harmony, understanding each other's moves, communicating with their eye contact and dancing bodies in a way that only the choicest words from your favourite book could possibly rival. Puiling, make sure you sign me up for salsa lessons when I return....

The lowlight was the shortage of toilet facilities. Roskilde really does give new meaning to the term 'the world is your urinal', and this goes for both guys and girls. No wall, fence, shrub or tree was spared from the onslaught of excessive consumption of Carlsberg and Tuborg. At times, there was even concurrent processing of beverage inputs and outputs. Surely there are better ways to prove you can multitask??

That aside, it was a great event, but I am so knackered. Like last time, the band descriptions of what I saw is below (in vague chronological order). Please stop here if you're not interested. That is, if you haven't stopped already....

Cheers,
Ben

Thursday

Athlete:
Another lo-fi band in the mould of coldplay and keane. They try and meld dance beats with pop music though, but sadly sometimes not that effectively.

Velvet Revolver:
Somehow I can't get into these kind of bands where they're formed from the breakups of other bands. It's ok to listen to, but I really can't get into it. Slash was in fine form though....

Sonic Youth:
I've never heard any of their tracks, but their set was awesome. They play so well and they just create a certain atmosphere with their noise that I can't describe. Definitely not for everyone but I really dug it. They're too cool for school, and it's not surprising why they've been around for so long.

Kent:
This is a swedish band that actually sing in Swedish. I heard about them way back when I was still at uni, and actually downloaded a few of their songs 😊 I don't mind their pop-rock music at all, and if they sang in english, they would have had a far broader audience than the strong following that they have in scandinavia already.

Friday

Sunn:
These guys look impressive (they dress up in robes) but I could only listen to them for 10 minutes. This is the best way I can describe their sound: You know the incessant hum and buzzing that powerlines emit? Well imagine you were listening just inches from the powerlines on one of those massive pylons that make up the electrical grid. Now you're on your way to listening to Sunn.

Isis:
Band out of America that play melancholic, melodic metal. Their songs have really quiet melodic and brooding moments that are broken up by periods of just thrashing it out. It wasn't bad, and I'd probably give it another listen.

Audioslave:
See Velvet Revolver.

The Dears:
I think these guys are my new flavour of the month. Band out of canada, and I really like their sound. That and they put on a good show too. This band not only has one female keyboard player that's pretty and sings back-up vocals, but two!! Eugene, where did we go wrong with Sounds of Ellipsis?

Tiken Jah Fakoly:
See before in the higlights.

Black Sabbath:
Ozzie really wound back the clock when he was on stage. He was energetic, and he got the crowd going. You'd never be able to tell that he was that out of it, until he started talking to the crowd and clapping to the rhythm of songs only half the time.

Saturday

Jimmy Eat World:
They're ok, but they're not great. It's fairly generic pop/rock but some people seemed to really get into it.

Eskobar:
Another Swedish band, but they do sing in english. I'm surprised they're not bigger. They've learnt how to write songs that sound exactly like U2, which makes it quite listenable 😊

Foo Fighters:
Dave Grohl has style, I give him that. They were good, and they played a lot of their big hits, and it was pretty good fun. I'm not a huge fan but it was entertaining.

Dresden Dolls:
I didn't even know they were playing at Roskilde until I turned up on the thursday. I love seeing them perform live. Everyone should go if they get a chance. The two greek guys I was travelling with have now been converted into fans. But it was really special when I saw two young girls buy their cds after the gig and got them signed by both of them. They were just so excited and were screaming and hugging each other. It took me back to something I experienced first hand about the dresden dolls 6 months ago when I saw them at the dingdong lounge in Melbourne. The girls and I are part of the same exclusive club now 😊

Green Day:
Green Day were great fun. One of the craziest and dustiest mosh pits I've ever been in, but it was worth it 😊 There was this one part in their set when they got 3 guys from the crowd to come up and replace them in playing their instruments. So for a couple of minutes, these three kids got to be green day. How cool is that? And Thomas (the kid playing the guitar) became the envy of the whole crowd when he got to keep the guitar that he was playing on 😊 Great gig, and it finished with the aptly named 'Good riddance (time of your life)'

Yuri Buenaventura:
See above in the highlights.

Duran Duran:
You've got to give them credit for continuing, but they didn't really do it for me. They did a good rendition of 'Hungry like the wolf' though 😊

Sunday

The Go! Team:
Kind of meld of hip hop and rock. Must say it wasn't really my thing.

And you will know us by the trail of dead:
These guys replaced Mars Volta in their time slot so I am incredibly biased. The album is supposed to be fantastic and I probably would have enjoyed it more if I had listened to it before. That being said, they are talented and very tight as a band, and probably one to keep an eye on.

Bloc Party:
Saw them at Glastonbury as well, and they were solid the second time around. One of the few times that I've seen ladies throw underwear on stage 😊

Brian Wilson:
Definitely worth another look, it's just so much fun listening to all those beach boys songs 😊
'Happy times together we’ve been spending,
I wish that every kiss was neverending,
Oh Wouldn’t it be nice....'

Interpol:
My festival finished with Interpol, and they were fantastic. Their influences are from the eighties, but their sound is very now (I know the term is zeitgeist but I'm not sure how to use it). Definitely have to go get their album to have a closer listen. Great great set, and a marvellous way to finish the festival.

I'm done, cheers guys.
Ben

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