With this being the last night of the festival, the locals were out in droves and ever single gig I caught was pretty much packed. No one was turned away, but in several cases, it was very close.
Susanna and the Magical Orchestra
Yes, there’s a Susanna but the orchestra is just a dude on keyboards and effects. Her voice is absolutely sensational (think Sarah McLachlan) and their choice of material is unusual. One of the three songs I managed to catch was—wait for it—“Subdivisions” by Rush. Weirdly, it worked.
Children and Corpse Playing in the Streets
Anyone expecting some church-burning, blood-drenched black metal fiends was surprised to find a group fronted by three women who sing in that scary little girl voice (think the Cranes). They have some good ideas but suffered from some equipment problems. If they worked a little more on finding a cohesive visual image, they might be on to something.
Phone Joan
Just to be sure that I was right in thinking they were my favourite band of the festival, I went out to see them again. I was not wrong. Imagine a cross between the Dead Weather, PJ Harvey, the White Stripes (the drummer is a woman) and a young Grace Slick cut with Juliette Lewis. Brilliant. They were kind enough to come to the hotel and drop off a CD. Subscribe to the podcast and you’ll hear some of their stuff. Point of interest: the singer is married to a member of Shining, a local jazz-metal band of some acclaim.
JOENSUU 1685
Fronted by a 17 year-old kid from Finland—and pronounced “yu-AN-soo-sixteen-eighty-five—these “noise evangelists” (their description) layer influences of My Bloody Valentine and the Jesus and Mary Chain on top of a Farfisa organ lines. Things swirl pretty good without flying out of control. Point of interest #1: They do a killer version of Bruce Spring’s “I’m On Fire.” Point of interest #2: All three members have the surname Joensuu but only two are related.
The Cumshots
Rammstein-style metal—albeit without the industrial keyboard bits—fronted by the extremely charismatic Christopher Schau (who also works under the name Max Cargo on Norwegian TV). Brutal yet accessible.
For a Minor Reflection
Four 19 year-old kids from Iceland who fuzz it up in direct counterpoint to fellow Reykjavikians Sigur Ros. I spoke with their manager earlier in the day who gave me a series of demos from a still-unreleased CD. Let’s see if I can’t get some of their stuff into the ExploreMusic podcast.
By the time I got to bed, it was well after three and facing a 6:15 wake-up call—I had to be on 7:45 airport train if I hoped to catch by 9:55 flight)—I was too afraid to fall asleep. I needn’t have worried, though; the music continued in the streets until at least 5:30.
Lemme tell you something: this is one helluva festival. Kudos to the organizers and all the participants.
Gate 33 Frankfurt International
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A final couple of thoughts:
The Norwegian crowds at the festival drank LOTS of beer, yet when a venue cleared out after a showcase, there was a nary a cup on the floor anywhere. And if there was a stray glass, someone would inevitably pick it up and toss in the nearest trash bin. Norway has the tidiest concert-goers of any people I’ve seen.
Despite their huge North Sea oil wealth, Norway is hella-expensive. A simple Pepsi is six bucks. Finding a shot of run-of-the-mill scotch for less than $17 is pretty much impossible.
Word amongst the journalists is that Norway is the only Scandinavian country that doesn’t show porn on TV after midnight. Maybe it was because the time zone issues created by Olympic coverage—four channels are all over the games—bumped the normal porn from its late-night spots.
One more: Despite Norway being a deeply religious country, there’s at least one strip club in Oslo. The hearsay was that it was small, extremely clean and featured a clearly written laminated menu of services smartly delivered to guests as if it was a wine list. A personal visit in the VIP room cost about $300 (no time was indicated) but didn’t include a drink for the dude ($20) a half bottle of wine for her ($70) and a tip (whatever). Not that I would know anything about this, of course.
Click here for Part 1