Reykjavík Grapevine - 24.09.2010, Qupperneq 18

Outside Reykjavík | Venue finder
Keflavík
Suðsuðvestur
www.sudsudvestur.is
Hafnargata 22
230 Reykjanesbær
421-2225
Hafnarfjörður
Hafnarborg
www.hafnarborg.is
Strandgata 34
220 Hafnarfjörður
585-5790
Borgarnes
The Icelandic Settlement Centre
www.landnam.is
Brákarbraut 13-15
310 Borgarnes
437-1600
Stykkishólmur
Vatnasafnið / Library of Water
www.libraryofwater.is
Akureyri
Akureyri Art Museum
www.listasafn.akureyri.is
Kaupvangsstræti 12
600 Akureyri
461 2610
Populus Tremula
poptrem.blogspot.com/
Kaupvangsstræti 12
600 Akureyri
Kunstraum Wohnraum
Ásabyggð 2
600 Akureyri
Mývatn
Mývatnsstofa
Hraunvegi 8
660 Mývatn
464-4390
www.visitmyvatn.is
Egilsstaðir
Sláturhúsið
Kaupvangi 7
700 Egilsstaðir
470-0692
Seyðisfjörður
Skaftfell
www.skaftfell.is
Austurvegur 42
710 Seyðisfjörður
472-1632
Hveragerði
LÁ Art
www.listasafnarnesinga.is
Austurmörk 21
210 Hveragerði
483-1727
For years, the staff of the Iceland Air-
waves festival has worked tirelessly to
promote the festival abroad as an excit-
ing option for a weekend get-away des-
tination for young people on both sides
of the Atlantic. As a part of this effort,
Iceland Airwaves warm-up shows have
been hosted regularly in both London
and Copenhagen. This was my first op-
portunity to attend one of these festival
promotion showcases and judging by
the fanfare surrounding this event, I
have probably been missing out.
The venue was sold out days in
advance. It was not the largest of
venues, truthfully, but a nice one, with
the event taking place in reception
loft in an old refurbished warehouse
that jointly houses the Icelandic, the
Greenlandic and the Faroese embassies
on Nordatlantens Brygge. Inside, one
can buy Icelandic beer and Maltöl, a
rare taste of home, and admire the hide
of an unlucky polar bear who met his
maker before going on to bigger things
on a wall in Copenhagen.
The evening starts off with a very
low-key performance by Danish duo
Murder, who, despite their rather
ominous sounding name, play stripped
down folk tunes and at times evoke
memories of my mother and her tireless
appreciation for Simon and Garfunkel.
Based around classical guitar plucking
of Anders Mathiasen and interwoven by
the restful voice of Jacob Bellens, their
minimalistic melodies inspire a good
part of their audience to simply take a
seat on the floor and take in the peace-
ful atmosphere. But despite knowing
that this will please a large part of the
audience, as it probably does on most
nights, I am mostly bored.
The Icelandic indie-rock outfit
Dikta follow Murder on stage. Having
established themselves quite admirably
within Iceland, it may be their time to try
their luck abroad behind the success of
their third album, Get it Together, which
was an altogether different beast from
their earlier albums. The power-chord
driven indie-rock blasts have somewhat
given way to a more eloquent and
keyed down melodies which fit singer
Haukur’s vocal range a lot better, par-
ticularly in a live setting. They delivered
a very solid 10-song set in front of an
ecstatic crowd before returning for an
encore or two. Their biggest slip-up of
the night was the band members’ woe-
ful attempt at speaking Danish, an art
best left to the locals.
Behind Dikta’s performance, a DJ
set has been scheduled, joining one of
Iceland’s more established names, DJ
Margeir, with Denmark’s prodigal son,
Kasper Björke. But the crowd wears
thin quickly, as most attendees seem to
have another place to be. An hour later
the party is called off.
—SVEINN BIRKIR BJÖRNSSON
PHOTO By VANDA HELLSING
Iceland Airwaves Warm-up
Copenhagen
Music | Iceland Airwaves
As the Iceland Airwaves festival draws
ever closer (four weeks! Four weeks!)
they keep announcing new acts to the
bill! Sheesh! There’s not a chance we
can see all we want. But that is a luxury
problem.
We are really excited about this
year’s line-up, and the most recent ad-
ditions to it are pretty amazing. There’s
everything from Chateau Marmont’s
warped seventies Euro disco to Auto-
drone, a heavy shoegaze band from the
US, promising to add gothic meat to
the bones of the festival. There’s also
FM Belfast (we know a lot of you were
holding your breath for that), Domi-
nique young Unique, Shumi, Kenton
Slash Demon, Sammi’s Big Band, and
dark prince of all that is hip in the elec-
tronic, no colours too bright, no sound
is too loud, genius Dan Deacon.
Tickets have been known to sell out
fast, but the last we checked they’re still
on sale at midi.is. The schedule is also
now available online at www.icelandair-
waves.is.
See y’all there!
ICELAND AIRWAVES HAS NEVER
FEATuRED AS MANY BANDS
Magic Thursdays
For concert information see music listings on this spread
or visit us at www.sinfonia.is
Tickets » 545 2500 » www.sinfonia.is » Concerts take place in Háskólabíó.
GRÓFARHÚS 6th floor · Tryggvagata 15 · 101 Reykjavík · www.photomuseum.is
Opening hours 12–19 mon–fri, 13–17 weekends · ADMISSION FREE
Sjónarhorn / A Considered View
Ljósmyndir eftir Wayne Gudmundson / The photographs of Wayne Gudmundson
18 September 2010 – 9 January 2011
CENTER FOR
VISUAL ART