Iceland Airwaves Day 5 Roundup: Slow Down Molasses // Kira Kira // PJ Harvey
The festival slows down considerably on day 5, but you fortunately don’t have to go off live music cold turkey: there are still off venue and official shows to see around town.
For example there was still action at Loft at the Sofar Sounds showcase. So much was going on that we could see only a glimpse of Living Arrows and Owl of the Swamp, two folk bands from the U.S. respective Australia.
Same situation at Dillon where we saw Slow Down Molasses in front of a jam packed room. The four-piece from Saskatoon does straightforward alt-rock, which has almost an exotic touch compared with the more than experimental music that dominates Airwaves.
After that we were in for a treat at Kaffibarinn: Kira Kira, an ambient music artist with pop star appeal from Reykjavik, who does music with a laptop and a homemade handheld synthesizer. Only at Airwaves you can experience this kind of music together with a cheering audience.
The capstone of the festival was the PJ Harvey show at Vodaphoehöllin, a huge venue outside of town. Seeing a legend live is always a delight, but I was a surprised that PJ Harvey chose nine men as backing band, all serious musicians and multi-instrumentalists, but none of them was able to play the bugle on stage for “The Glorious Land”.
And that was a wrap: the supposed shuttle busses didn’t run, so we ended our festival experience with a walk though the nightly town of Reykjavik. Takk, Iceland for a wonderful experience and I hope it will not be the last time we can visit Airwaves.
NOTE: please stay tuned for more photos and reviews of some shows in particular.
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