The weather remained perfect for the second day of Iceland Airwaves. Sure, it was chilly – it’s November and the country has “ice” in its name. But it was also sunny for much of the day, so it stayed dry, and the was only a bit of a breeze, not the normal take-your-breath-away wind we’ve come to know and (not) love at the festival.
The first band up for us was Tuð (below). I’ve been lucky enough to get to know lead singer Nonni a bit over the last two festivals and this was my first time seeing him in action (though I did review their two albums on the original iteration of Life in the Vinyl Lane). The guys play at lightning speed – most of the songs are less than two minutes, with the notable exception of their ripping cover of HAM’s metal classic “Partíbær”. Tuð will be on my must-see list moving forward.
From there it was over to Lucky Records to see the Revenge of Calculon (below) Casino Fight! 10″ EP release show. This year the masked boys had a film crew following them around and yours truly got to play the role of a masked dancing superfan. I have no idea what will come of this video, but I’m looking forward to it! As for the show, they hit it out of the park – they sounded great. And yes, I always rave about their live shows, because they’re rad; but this time around the guys sounded tight – very in the pocket and on their game. I of course picked up a copy of the EP as well.
From there we headed to a nondescript building near the harbor for what was a very, very, very underground show. It was played on a ramp leading up into the building, presumably into some parking. At the top of the ramp the bands MC Myasnoi and Glupsk (below) set up in a hand-decorated area and proceeded to obliterate the three dozen or so folks who gathered in that concrete-lined passage, doom metal barreling down the passage and out into the street. I’m not going to pretend I was tough enough to stay for the whole thing – I didn’t have ear protection and it was insanely loud. But I’m glad to see that artists continue to find ways to execute on their visions, with or without the support of official spaces. There’s a lesson here for all of us.
We weren’t sure where to go next – there wasn’t anything on the schedule that really captured our imaginations. So instead we picked a venue. In this case the club formerly known as NASA, a place where we’ve seen so many incredible shows over the years before the building was gutted. Fortunately the venue room was retained, though completely re-done and looking much more presentable with the lights on. First up was an avant-garde electronic artist named Orvokki who gave us some nice moments, though I couldn’t quite lock into. She was followed by Finland’s MALLA who absolutely killed it with both her singing and her backing house music. I will definitely be playing some of her music upon our return – if her albums are even half as good as her live performance, she’ll be in heavy rotation in the upcoming months.
We decided to call it an early night, and after grabbing a delicious street hot dog we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep and prep for the last night of the festival.