Reykjavík Grapevine - 24.06.2005, Blaðsíða 38

38
Reykjavík! know the value of showmanship. Singer Bóas is basically all
over the place during their performances of short and energetic songs.
In tiny bars like Sirkus this can be quite a thing to watch, as he jumped
on top of the bar, fell into the crowd, and basically acted like a complete
moron - all a few inches from the concert guests. But this behaviour
has always been considered cool in rock and roll and I’m not going to
question that opinion. When asked to play an encore, guitarist Haukur
responded: “We’ve only been a band for a year. We don’t know any more
songs!” That’s Reykjavík!: Really fast, really short, really stupid, and
pretty darn good.
Concert Reviews
Thursday
June 9th
Sirkus
Skátar & Reykjavík
What’s great about Skátar (Scouts)
is that they have very good
drumming and some interesting
guitar work. On top of that they’re
pretty adventurous when it comes
to song structures and dressing up.
Some gestures aren’t as impressive:
like the bassist’s habit to turn his
back to the crowd when singing,
the awkward synthesizer intros,
the tendency for songs to sound
as though they’ve fallen apart, and
the vocals. If they would tidy up
the songs, make them more like...
songs, and allow the synth player
to focus on his instrument and ease
up on singing, our reviewer would
be relieved. He left the show with
the mantra “Chaos is good, but
organized chaos is even better.”
The first thing one noticed upon entering
Bar 11 was Bob’s huge amount of guitar
pedals and effects. “We just finished it last
night,” guitarist Finnur Kári said referring to a
newly crafted wooden board carrying close to
thirty tiny sound machines. Second guitarist
and vocalist Matthías had about ten pedals,
whilst bassist Skúli let five of them do the
trick. When they played it was often hard to
hear what sound came from what instrument
and whether it was of this world or not. But
Bob knew better than to rely on their pedals.
The sound effects are only backing up truly
impressive and adventurous songs, which are
among the best I’ve heard from an Icelandic
band in a while. However, the long periods of
silence that came between songs were really
irritating and I hope Bob will learn to adjust
their pedals much faster in the future.
The Foghorns are an unusual bunch. Armed only
with a single guitar and a bucket they perform songs
drawing heavily from American folk music. At the
heart of these relatively simple songs lay beautiful
lyrics performed by frontman Bart Cameron, whose
singing is the key element of the band. Drummer
(bucketeer?) Paul Fontaine kept the beat by hitting
his bucket in a robotic, Kraftwerk-like style in sharp
contrast to Bart’s lively performance. In the latter
half of the show they were joined by Australian
violinist Marisa Allen who added country-fiddle
parts. The fiddle was welcome but the band was a
bit insecure in its presence, something a bit more
practice would’ve taken care of.
Unfortunately Icelandic funk band Jagúar
cancelled its performance at the last minute.
Their replacement was the more than satisfactory.
Swedish surf-group Langhorns, who came on stage
wearing Hawaiian shirts and beach sandals, which
somehow made sense because of the extraordinarily
hot weather. The guitar sound was just right, the
farfisa organ was in place and the guitarist’s right
hand was fast (or shaky) enough. The tunes were
definitely entertaining and well-performed, but
one must ask himself whether it makes any sense
performing a genre that had its prime time in the
early sixties. Or, one could just shut up and have a
blast. That’s what I did.
Saturday
June 11
Bad Taste Gallery
Jagúar Langhorns
Thursday
June 16th
Bar 11
Bob & Coral
Coral’s first two songs fell somewhere between indie-
rock a la Sonic Youth and Foo Fighters’ mainstream
rock. By their third song “This Dark Globe” things
started to pick up. The song started out with a
Muse-like riff and a verse-chorus-verse structure
– not bad but short of great. A twenty minute freak-
out soon followed, where every player of the band
soloed insanely over a two-note bass riff. This was
reminiscent of Pink Floyd circa Meddle or Saucerful
of Secrets - if Pink Floyd had ever listened to funk
music, for the rhythms were insane and the drum-
solo a definite high point. This improvised coda was
the best thing of the evening and we were looking
forward to how Coda could have topped it. Like
most bands in the country, they couldn’t top it, which
is understandable.
In his early twenties, singer and songwriter
Þórir may be the most respected and trusted
musician in Reykjavík, and on June 18th
he demonstrated why. For a day after the
big Independence Day party show, Þórir
appeared at the Lobster or Fame Gallery
fresh-faced and ready to deliver. The crowd,
lingering and lumbering and severely
thinned out by post-party ailments, was
relieved by the low volume and smooth
delivery that Þórir brought as he delivered
six numbers, including a new song, Stage
Dives and High Fives, hinting at his other
life as guitarist in hardcore band Fighting
Shit. Þórir took his one man show next door
to Sirkus to continue the show, and most of
the crowd followed.
Saturday
June 18th
Bad Taste Gallery
Þórir
Rass (Arse) will have a hard time fleeing
its past as heavy metal band HAM. This
was apparent during their set in the
Sirkus-garden when a crowd member
begged them to perform “Partíbær” which
is HAM’s most famous song. But Rass
frontman Ótarr Proppé kept a straight
face and launched into yet another one-
minute, one-phrase, one-chord punk song.
I came in a bit late and asked a crowd
member how many songs Rass had played.
“Seventeen songs in three minutes,” he
responded. This was almost true. Still,
every second was enjoyable, the raw power
and the unique sense of humour took care
of that.
RASSThursday
June 16th
Sirkus
Friday
June 10th
Bad Taste Gallery
Skátar & The Foghorns