I realized earlier this week that I never posted about the final day of Iceland Airwaves 2025, which was a serious oversight on my part because a few really cool things happened.
We opened the day at Lucky Records just after Noon. Why, you ask? Oh, I don’t know, maybe because I kinda-sorta was scheduled to perform my first ever DJ set?1 Hell yeah! I was slated to play for an hour before the first musical artist hit the stage for the Meet The Neighbours showcase, a party intended to bring folks from Scotland and Iceland together for music, manifestos, and some drinks. This was the second iteration of the event, and we’re friends with Oscar, the brains behind the operation. So when Ingvar over at Lucky asked me a month ago if I’d be up to do a set I said sure, but also reminded him that I’d never DJ’d before. “Don’t worry, it’s easy,” he wrote back. “Just remember you have bring records to play.” So I put together a set of 80s and 90s hip hop and electro, packed the records into my carryon, and hoped for the best. Oh, and I also went to Discogs and ordered a Mr. ‘Rogers ‘Neighborhood record, because what better way to open your Meet The Neighbours set than with Mr. Rogers singing, It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor…
I performed under the name DJ Oby and had an absolute blast. Since the next DJ on the schedule didn’t show up I got to do a short second set as well, after raiding the shop’s used hip hop section to grab some Fat Boys, Tone Lōc, a breakdance compilation, and a few other things to spin. As an added bonus I even got my name on the event poster, so you know I made sure to grab a copy of that to take home. I’ll definitely do this again if I get the opportunity.
After dinner it was over to Loft Hostel to catch the card of Mr. B the Gentleman Rhymer (who we also saw on Day 1) and Revenge of Calculon (who we saw on Day 2). Mr. B trotted out some different songs this time around, my favorite of which was a chap hop medley of late 80s/early 90s hip how, which was both hilarious and infectious. A number of people at Loft were just there to have a drink in the bar and you could see they were initially skeptical of Mr. B, but he won most of them over with his quirky and fun performance.
And then, kids, it was time for Revenge of Calculon. Two tables in front of the stage were moved off to the side. Masks were donned by those of us that had them. And a full-on dance party broke out. There were a half dozen of us at the core of the action (Mr. B and his partner the lovely Mrs. C as well), but once people realized (1) we weren’t going to stop and (2) the music was fun, they started joining in, and at one point we snaked a conga line through the bar. It was sweaty and hot and fantastic, the true high-point of the entire festival for us. I’m not sure how many times I’ve seen Calculon perform – probably eight or nine at this point, and ever time it’s a blast.
From there we bounced around a little. One show I was looking forward to turned out to be disappointing, so I’m not going to name the artist here. Then we headed over to NASA to close out the night. The first act we caught was kind of an odd one to find at Airwaves, a latin soul group out of New Jersey called 54 Ultra. Unexpected, yes, but also talented, yes. The band was hot as hell and seemed to go over quite well with the audience. The last band was the one we came to see, Night Tapes (below). They are fronted by the captivating Iiris Vesik, the Estonian chanteuse we saw as a solo performer at Airwaves about a decade ago. Their brand of dream-pop was the perfect way to close out the festival.
And just like that, my 14th Iceland Airwaves came to an end. The time passes so quickly in Reykjavik. We got to spend a ton of time with friends from all over the world, people we’ve met at and stayed connected with via of Airwaves. It feels like the festival is much more of a social event than it was when we first started coming to Iceland, and I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t part of the appeal of coming back year after year. We loved seeing Paul and Oscar and Sarah and Emma and Nonni and Pan and Leana and Ingvar and Gestur and and and I could go on and on. Will we be back for 2026? Well, two of our state-side friends who have been in the past confirmed that they want to go next year, so if they’re going you can bet we’ll be there as well. Who knows, maybe we’ll see you there as well.
- Do I get to add “International DJ” to my LinkedIn profile now? ↩︎