Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.04.2008, Qupperneq 14

14 | Reykjavík Grapevine | Issue 04 2008 | Reviews
THEATRECONCERTCONCERT
The Faroese invasion achieves momentary success at Organ.
.
At the same time local celebrities toasted their victories at the Ice-
landic Music Awards, Faroese musicians invaded Organ with a set
much more energetic than any awards-party could ever be. Eivör
Pálsdóttir, the blonde queen from the small village of Gøta, was first
to take to the stage. Looking like she was pulled straight from a fairy
tale, she shone with her huge voice. Eivör is an incredible singer
and backed only by her acoustic guitar her performance was more
dynamic than a five-piece sporting crazy drum action and heroic
guitar solos. Although her lyrics are a bit cheesy, her singing is so
effortless and her stage presence so sincere that she is pure joy to
watch.
At the time Eivör finished her set, the place was packed with
Faroese friends and local fans. The extremely wild Boys in a Band
brought the crowd to a state of total madness with their powerful
head-banging rock n’ roll and the sweaty front row screamed their
lungs out when the fivesome climaxed in ‘Beyond Communication’.
Their Hammond-organ player, with his long beard, twitchy moves
and fun choice of clothes, reminded me of Captain Jack Sparrow,
which only made me love them even more. If Boys in a Band are any
indication of the Faroese music scene, the future looks pretty damn
good.
The crowd diminished when the electro-dance-pop group
Bloodgroup jumped on stage but the downswing can be explained
partly by the fact that it was almost 1am on a Tuesday night. The
three siblings from the East fjords of Iceland, the Faroese maniac
Janus on the octapad and their scratching DJ B-Ruff were far from
tired and proved once again that they are a great live band, any day
of the week.
By Steinunn Jakobsdóttir
Newly crowned kings of the newcomers, Agent Fresco, mix jazz and
metal influenes, while Dr. Spock feed off their recent TV success.

The concert started considerably later than I expected. The first
band, Agent Fresco, recently won the Icelandic version of The Battle
of the Bands so I was excited to see what they had to offer. Many
have tried and failed at what Agent Fresco seems to be able to do
with the greatest of ease. Their music is a strange mix of jazz and
rock. They infuse the two genres skilfully by being able to apply
unexpected power to their formal music training. The band some-
how remains harmonious through this process and I applaud them
for that. Very original. There was only one thing that bothered me:
the singer. He’s not bad, he’s just doesn’t suit the band. I did not
appreciate a screamer on top of such a refined flock of players. On
the bright side it might bring jazz to the metal loving masses. Agent
Fresco is a very promising band. Whether they’ll become preten-
tious or honest musicians, is yet to be discovered.
Dr. Spock are widely known for their rubber gloves and pow-
erful performances, especially after breaking into mainstream with
their hit, “Hvar ertu nú” from the Eurovision pre-selection TV show.
It was business as usual for them. Funny costumes and a playful take
on metal pleased audience members immensely. Their raw power
seems to have an amazing effect on fans. Every time I see Dr. Spock
play, the crowd seems to give their all to respond to the music, and
that is beautiful. The concert at Organ was no exception.
All in all it was a fine night. The bands knew their game and
seemed to be enjoying themselves. I would’ve liked to see them start
before midnight as advertised. It’s not necessary to keep these in-
sane concert hours.
By Helga Þórey Jónsdóttir
Baltimore’s Misery Index proves that a good dose of metal is the
best cure for recession.
By the time I arrived at Organ, Celesine had already fired up the
heavy machinery and set out on their path of destruction. It was a
somewhat misguided journey. As awesome as this post-metal band
sounds on record, they face a problem on stage. They sorely lacked
stage presence and failed to engage their audience. Admittedly, the
crowd was tough and made it a hard sell, but Celestine were still
largely at fault as they seemed incapable of making the audience
care that they’d even shown up, despite drawing the night’s biggest
crowd.
Even with their faces covered behind a thick curtain of hair,
Severed Crotch did a better job of engaging the audience. Their
technical death metal is a great display of dexterity and the band
proficiently adheres to their chosen genre, but ultimately falls a tad
short of distinguishing itself from other like-minded bands. Their
delivery is impeccable, but they don’t add enough to the formula to
stand out from the rest. That being said, the occasional attempt to
mix it up did a lot for their performance and their second song of the
night, Spawn of Disgust, showed that the band is capable of great
things.
Death metal bands that draw their names from economic indi-
cators are in short supply, but Baltimore’s Misery Index proved that a
good dose of metal is the best cure for recession. I didn’t know what
to expect when I arrived, but I was not prepared for this. Their core-
ridden deathgrind was as fast and heavy as anything I’ve witnessed
recently, but what truly set them apart was the sheer intensity of
their performance and the joy they took in executing it. Their per-
formance floored me and despite the rather unreceptive crowd, I
managed to forget completely about Iceland’s free-falling currency.
By Sveinn Birkir Björnsson
The Faroese Islands Agent Fresco - Dr. Spock Misery Index
Photo by GAS Photo by GAS Photo by GAS
Where: Organ When: March 18, 2008 Where: Organ When: March 28, 2008 Where: Organ When: March 27, 2008
Icelandic for beginners
Framvegis oferuje kursy nauki
języka islandzkiego.
New courses starting April 28th.
www.framvegis.is