by Sylvia McKeown
Pretty much the first thing everyone has asked me since I’ve come back is “Who was your favorite?”, which isn’t exactly a fair question. How does one compare Patti Smith, Madonna and Björk to one another when all they have in common is that they are all woman that make music and are old. Like seriously old.
Patti Smith was pure striped down rebellion, the 60-yr-old ran around, danced, headbanged, wailed and spat her way through her greatest hits with more ferocity than artists a third of her age. Although you could see that time has worn her and her original bandmates down somewhat, the energy they emitted still had the power to whip the crowd into a frenzy. She was the very essence of cool. From the barebones punk performance of my personal idol we move to a woman who’s unique voice was the soundtrack of my high school daze.
Armed with a troupe of Icelandic choir girls, an insane procussionist, a computer geek and a host of visuals and pyrotechnics, Björk painted an immersive artistic visual experience. But even with all of that the thing you couldn’t keep your eyes off of was the giant metal barrel, hanging from the roof of the stage, that emitted giant sparks and a bassy tone from 2 tesla coils every time the geek touched 1 of 4 iPads. Imagine sparks flying, Icelandic blonde hair whipping madly, raining fire and a crowd jumping in time to Björk screaming “Raise your flag! Higher! Higher!” Boom! Mind blown.
BUT! Even so with all of this, it is small fry compared to the theatrics ol’ scary-armed Madonna got up to.
Let us count the ways: 4-story-high parting screens, a motel room, a completely moving projectable stage, multitudes of tightropes, 3 imported Israeli singers, all of the dancers ever, her son and the list obviously goes on. Luckily Madonna’s photographer liked my t-shirt and gave me golden triangle access. What is that, you ask? The area between the main stage and the circular walkway that went into the crowd. In other words: as she did mash-ups of ‘Express Yourself’ and Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’, bitch was a fucking meter away from me!
Even with these 3 powerhouse performers from the pillars of my musical history, there was still a lot of competition from some of the other acts I saw. First Aid Kit managed with nothing but an acoustic guitar and their voices to fill an entire industrial size stage that Blur failed to perform at a few hours later. Feist proved that, depending on your mood, you can be good in Oslo but amazing in Gothenburg. Anthony (& the Johnsons) lecturing us on how mothers should rule parliament. Florence (and The Machine) commanding us to jump for her own amusement. And Bon Iver… Oh, sweet Bon Iver.
However, if I had to be honest my favorite acts I saw in the last 2 months were Beach House and St Vincent. I hoped St Vincent would be good as they’re one of my favorite bands but holy fuck I didn’t expect what I got. Take the whole sweet chilled album, Strange Mercy, and imagine it turned punk rock. Annie’s beautiful almost fragile voice against her immense dirty dirty guitar solos battling the beat of 3 kick drums, a moog and a keyboard played to perfection. And when I say punk rock I mean thrashing on the floor, manhandling guitars and writhing crowd surfing. It was genuinely one of the favorite and most surprising experience I’ve had only to be topped by meeting them all on a tiny biplane from Oslo to Gothenburg the next morning and having a rad, beautiful chat with Annie – who is as nice as she is talented - at the baggage claim.
So in a flash 2 months have passed, and I have many more stories.
It’s hard for me to comprehend what I’ve seen, let alone compress it into paragraph lengths that will not bore you. So I urge that if you see me loitering at Wolves (as I often do), ask me anything you like and I will regale you with tales of live music, science academies, 200-foot trees, the beauty of the Swedes, punk pirate lesbian rock ‘n roll weddings and German clubs in old bunkers filled with half-naked men. Until then I’m in search of a bed, a chiropractor and a Black Label.
Peace!