Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.05.2008, Qupperneq 18

18 | Reykjavík Grapevine | Issue 05 2008 | Reviews
CONCERTCONCERTCONCERT
First off, any establishment that sells bottled beer for 700 ISK is clear-
ly the wrong venue for a punk concert. Settings aside, this proved to
be a pretty good night for music. By now, Sudden Weather Change is
a firmly established indie rock outfit that plays fast-paced and multi-
layered guitar rock. I am pretty sure there is an audience for their
music, it just doesn’t include me. They are accomplished musicians
and occasionally show spurts of creative energy, but I have never
been able to connect to this band.
Reykjavík!’s scream-charged audio assault was unleashed
next. Their performance was the usual high-octane delivery of punk
rock mayhem that audiences have come to expect and demand
from this band: a barrage on all senses, including that of humour,
delivered with such ferocity that you could actually hear the guitars
go out of tune with every hit of the strings. Their set was topped by a
great cover of Dr. Mista and Mr. Handsome’s Boogie Woogie – a sur-
prising but effective choice. Midway through their set, guitarist Hau-
kur showed the good taste to remove what may have been the ugliest
pair of jeans in the history of mankind and played the rest of the set
in his briefs. The females in attendance collectively ovulated.
With the crowd sufficiently riled up by Reykjavík!’s power trip,
Morðingjarnir took the stage under the national anthem, a fitting
intro song for a band that has just released an album titled Áfram
Ísland (Go Iceland). Morðingjarnir is a band that draws influences
from across the alphabet. Well, from the Dead Kennedys to White
Zombie at least. They blazed through nearly 20 songs, occasionally
stopping to give the frenzied audience a taste of Icelandic Brennivín
liquor. They left the stage and returned for an encore and then
By Sveinn Birkir Björnsson
I was sure the editor of Grapevine was busting my chops when he
asked me to cover The Reykjavik Grapevine’s Sólarsamba Concert
at Organ. Reasons being the following: my own band was playing,
I was partaking in the planning the event and I manage the venue.
But I could see where he was coming from: He wanted the insider’s
look on a night like this.
The event drew a big crowd early on and everyone got into
positions to enjoy the evening’s opener, Swords of Chaos. The band
delivered a tight set of high-energy, best described as Battles battling
Mike Patton’s grandmother in queue at Wal-Mart. Very interesting.
Next up were indie-folk darlings Seabear who cooked up a
warm brew of lo-fi pop while back-stage conversations brewed be-
tween bands and friendliness seemed to be the theme. Excitement
grew in the air, for the highlight of the night drew nearer: Maggi
Kjartans, legendery old-timer of the Icelandic music scene was
present to perform his contribution to the 1988 Eurovision semi-
finals, Sólarsamba.
It had been 20 years since the song made its way into people’s
hearts and it had never been performed since with Magga Gauja,
Maggi’s daughter who sang the song with him when she was 12
years old. I was excited to see how people would react to this rather
strange addition to the already indie-ish line-up. As they jumped on
stage, it was clear that it hit the spot. In the 15-minute medley, the
crowd danced, smiled and laughed like Eddie Murphy was in the
house and even danced the Conga!
Kimono were up next, but since I was on stage for that, I can
only give you our point of view: fun fun fun.
Skátar closed the night with their weird-rock antics, a set that
could just as well have been performed in Las Vegas at a tanning
convention. Their songs are as entertaining as looking at pear-
shaped men in golden spandex tights. Come to think of it..
By Gylfi Blöndal
Organ was packed good, at least considering that it was a Tuesday
night. Most people were obviously there to see Sólstafir so the in-
terest in newcomers Polymental, who started the night, was politely
disinterested. Their set, frankly, didn’t do much to change anyone’s
mind. Their old school metal is skillfully executed; these guys are
all great musicians, but lacks originality. Their singer showed some
classic metal wailing – which was nice, but not enough to make the
performance memorable.
Sólstafir are an institution in the Icelandic metal scene, starting
out in 1995 with a traditional death-metal sound. Since then Sólstafir
have carved quite a niche for themselves, especially in the European
metal scene, their albums generally receiving glowing rewiews in in-
ternational metal magazines.
At Organ Sólstafir played material from a forthcoming album,
“Köld”, to be released in Europe this summer and in Iceland in the
fall. It is hard to describe the Sólstafir sound, without sinking into
some old clichés, so bear with me: their sound is unique, it is epic,
it is orchestral and sublime. Sólstafir make long metal symphonies,
hard hitting metal that is, at least in Iceland, entirely unique.
Sólstafir played 5 new songs and 2 old ones – but it was by
no means a short set. The average Sólstafir song is on par with the
length of a full length Ramones album. The new stuff sounded big
– it sounded as if the next album will be a really important release
– both for Sólstafir and the Icelandic metal scene. Sólstafir seem to
understand that the visual performance of a band is almost equally
as important as 3 minute guitar solos and the Organ performance
was no exception. A great concert indeed.
By Páll Hilmarsson
Morðingjarnir Summer Celebration Sólstafir
Photo by GAS Photo by GAS Photo by GAS
Where: Iðnó When: April 24, 2008 Where: Organ When: April 23., 2008 Where: Organ When: May 6th, 2008
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