Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.08.2014, Blaðsíða 42

42 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 11 — 2014MUSIC
After a while, one-girl-band and opening
act, Dj Flugvél og Geimskip, set up shop
on the floor beneath the stage with a lot
of synthesizers and toy keyboards. Her
style of music can best be described as
‘naivism’ so extreme it almost goes back
into the womb. Her overtly cutesy antics
had me going back and forth between
finding it really charming and insanely
irritating. That being said, her last two
songs, “Glamúr í geimnum” (“Glamour In
Space”) and “Trommuþrællinn” (“Drum
Slave”), were pretty impressive.
Then Grísalappalísa took centre
stage and wasted no time letting the
energetic rock commence. They ploughed
through the songs on their latest release
with strutting assurance. Vocalist Gunnar
Ragnarsson had on heavy eye makeup
and leather pants, giving off a sort of
gay-but-not-gay vibe, with the swagger
of Jagger, the
androgyny of Bowie
and the dance moves
of Ian Curtis circa
1979. The group’s
other vocalist, Baldur,
is more of an anchor
who doesn’t dance
as much, but his
spoken word poetic
rants and raspy
voice are every bit
as important to the
band’s sound and aesthetic. The band is
now like a well-oiled punkfunk machine
with guitarist Albert Finnbogason regularly
bursting into feedback-laden firework
displays of soundsculpting.
Gunnar kept upping the rock-ante
as the show went on,
and his stage-diving
and runs into the
crowd became more
frequent and wilder.
After the encore,
when they played
mostly material from
their first LP, ‘ALI,’
he went increasingly
apeshit. In front of the
stage, people got into
the mosh pit mayhem
and sweat rained over bystanders. Logical
steps indeed.
Grísalappalísa’s second LP is titled ‘Rökrétt framhald’ (“Logical Step Forward”), the music’s
critic cliché for a successful sophomore album. Yet, there was nothing conventional about
Grísalappalísa’s release concert, which started at Arnarhóll with a ceremony that about 40
people attended. Rúnar, the band’s guitar player, announced that he would unveil a new na-
tional holiday song, one that he then performed alone with his guitar and a small amp tucked
into his pocket. The anthemic lyrics that he got the audience to sing along with went some-
thing like, “Coca Cola Iceland, Grísalappalísa,” an inside joke about the award they won in last
year’s increasingly lame and commercial Icelandic Music Awards: “The Coca Cola album of
the year.” Rúnar then led a parade down to Húrra, which had been decorated on the inside
like an avant-garde high school prom.
Photo
Magnús Andersen
Words
Davíð Roach Gunnarsson
Viðey
Skarfabakki
Elding
Old harbour
Harpa
www.elding.is
Other adventures
Sea Angling daily at 11:00 from 1 May to 31 August
Puffin Watching daily at 9:30 and 15:00 from 15 May to 15 August
Elding Whale Watching schedule – all year round
* From 15 May to 15 September
** From 15 June to 31 July

Make sureit’s Elding!
ELDING
WHALE WATCHING
from Reykjavik
Call us on +354 519 5000
or visit www.elding.is
Jan-Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov-Dec
EL-01 / EL-02 / EL-03
13:00 13:00
9:00 9:00
13:00
9:00
13:00
9:00
13:00
9:00
13:00
9:00
13:00
9:00
13:00
9:00
13:00
17:00* 17:00 17:00 17:00 17:00*
10:00
14:00
10:00
14:00
10:00
14:00
13:00
20:30** 20:30
From Elding (Ægisgarður) to Viðey
11.50 14.50
From Harpa to Viðey
13.30 15.00
From Skarfabakki to Viðey
From Viðey to Skarfabakki
13.30
From Viðey to Harpa and Elding (Ægisgarður)
11.30 13.30 14.30 17.30
10.15 11.15 12.15 13.15 14.15 15.15 16.15 17.15
13.30
Summer Schedule 15 May - 30 September
14.30 16.30 18.302
2.0
15.30 17.30
Really hidden treasure
off Reykjavik.
Well worth a visit.
“
Biffajk taken from TripAdvisor
Island
#videy
videy.com
533 5055
Parades, Anthems
& Logical Moshing
www.grisalappalisa.comHúrraJuly 16
Grísalappalísa’s
album release concert
“Gunnar Ragnarsson had
on heavy eye makeup
and leather pants, giving
off a sort of gay-but-
not-gay vibe, with the
swagger of Jagger, the
androgyny of Bowie and
the dance moves of Ian
Curtis circa 1979”