Danish royal SPOT Festival went down rather smoothly last weekend – and wasn’t short of extraordinary newcomers and hungry yet reserved Scandinavian audiences. The amount of talent that Spot Festival manages to bring together year after year is actually incredible while at the same time the line up is at least two thirds Danish. Among the obvious great performances were Norwegian singer Aurora with a breath taking set, Asbjørn and his great poppy parade, and Rangleklods who played a few of their new songs along with their trademark lights show. Really, good lighting makes all the difference. Regardless, their new album Straitjacket is fantastic and so was their gig. However, Team Poule of course has a knack for checking out those smaller and new names on the line-up.
A first proper surprise was Travelling Tribes. Four studied musicians going at it on keys, drums, guitar and cello. They played a heavy jazz influenced yet very pop set on Friday afternoon. As someone who usually enjoys seeing a group of more or less self taught individuals playing instruments, it was really quite amazing to see an actual professional band that still manages to be pop and great to listen to. Attached below is the song Tapping On The Door taken from their current album Artifical Moonlights that came out late last year. Which sounds great, but give them a stage and a whole new dimension of their sound unleashes.
So, after Travelling Tribes set the bar quite high came Aarhus locals Lowly. They played at the Lille Sal venue which is inside the Aarhus Musikhuset and usually hosts theater productions, lectures and classical music concert and seats about 300 people – seats. Lowly played a 40 minute set which featured their full band along with two dancers presenting the lyrics in sign language. It was absolutely amazing. The whole setup of 300 people sitting and the five Lowlys enjoying themselves on stage to the max was the most magical concert experience Team Poule has had in years, ever maybe. Like riding an elephant on the moon. Lowly describe themselves as a noise-pop band but give them a stage like that and their music is just grand. And being able to see every single face in the audience must have been be a great experience for them too. Truly amazing 40 minutes, an actual piece of art. Attached below is their latest treat Fire.
Team Poule hot tip Wangel sports one of the greatest voices ever heard. He played an intimate set alongside his band mates. Definitely one to watch out in the months and years ahead. He released a great EP last month, and is busy working on new material to take across Europe this fall. Look out. Another great surprise was Icelandic ensemble Samaris who showed what happened when you put a singer and a clarinet player in front of a massive synth table – great things. Turns out they have 17k+ facebook followers, maybe not so much of a surprise then.
Highly anticipated though was the set of ex Reptile Youth mate Antonio Gram. He stood neatly hiding behind his knobs and switches doing what he does best and around him singers and dancers were busy shuffling around. He did add a drummer to his live set and oh my – drummers these days. They seem to be capable of anything. He was playing drums while rapping (!) which made Team Poule lose their breaths only from watching. Absolutely stunning. The entire set was great and featured changing singers, one of them dancing through the audience, and a guy just casually chatting over the booming synth sounds. An excellent end to a SPOT Festival that was yet again packed with new talents and three days of spectacular concerts. Said this before but the amount of talent each year is staggering. If you will have us Spot Festival, Team Poule will be back next year. That said, Aarhus is a really cute city if you are into a bit of touristing too.
Closing this spot year is Copenhagen DJ Unkwon, played a great set – although with this kind of music you never what they actually do on stage.. the sound was perfect though. Take it away, sø gøød.
