So, X and I went to Accelerator music festival in Stockholm, for two days. Here's the line-up, and here's a chronological event of what went down, as ordered by X.
Day 1
The first thing that struck me about the festival was that a lot of the attendees were older than 18, which astonished me somewhat at first (maybe because there were so many early teenagers at Arctic Monkeys who I saw a few days prior) but then I remembered that the organisers had changed the minimum age-limit to 18 as alcohol was to be served on the premises.
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First, we saw Tokyo Police Club. X had already seen them at a time while I instead whittled away my pitiful existence on a boat to Finland and back...I think we all know/can figure out who was dealt the upper hand. This was the triumphant payback! After [ingenting] had played, we ended up dead centre in the front row. The band showed up and pulled off a blinding set which they opened with "Cheer It On". My favourite during the set was "Nature Of The Experiment" which nearly killed the audience, first of all because it's a massive track, second because the players were so into it, really thrusting out the track and third because some members of the audience threw themselves about. Most of the younger bunch at the festival seem to have been at this gig and I have a bunch of elbow-marks to prove this but little matter, the crowd was wild from loads of beer the music and that's what mattered, right? 45 minutes of TPC felt just right.
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We left the venue and walked down towards the middle between the tent and the main stage, where The Gossip were playing. Everybody who saw them were apparently spell-bound by the singer's voice; I really don't understand those people. Sure, the singer's voice is loud, but has very little real worth in comparison with people who really use their voices, e.g. Kate Bush, Diamanda Galà¡s or even Cyndi Lauper for that matter, so why care so much for a band that only has one real thing about it? The musicians seemed to crank out semi-decent blues-tunes in the background, but an overwhelming voice like that is just...overwhelming. I felt glad when they stopped playing, although they simply left the torch over to Isis, a metal outfit with long, long, long ““ OK, bleeding endless ““ drawly tracks that never ceased. Sure, I love My Bloody Valentine, Holy Fuck ((Who were to play at Accelerator but cancelled their entire tour due to cash-problems.)) and Mogwai at times, but this was just too much. Yawn, yawn. We sat in the sun, lapping up rays and talked a lot.
While Isis left the stage, TV On The Radio went on. Yeah! They amazed me with a combo of a very live singer (who jokingly asked the crowd if it felt OK or not) and a great, groovy, fat guitarist. The band completely wiped the memory that was The Gossip from the map. I felt happy with TVOTR for a while but after a bit the performance concentrated on the singer, and their sound became a bit too monotonous, ya know, party mode forever tends to gets tedious, even though it's a hellaparty.
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Next up, we spoke some with Olle, one of X's mates who was very nice indeed. We spoke about music and the festival and later wandered up to the big stage where gear was put in place for Modest Mouse that were to start playing. Johnny Marr plays guitar in that band. Now, if you know your indie stuff correct ““ or, indeed, the slightest bit about modern music ““ you know he was the musical engine and guitarist in The Smiths. ((Or, if you don't, just close this browser get hold of their music instantly. Or have a look in Johnny Marr's bag.)) Modest Mouse actually impressed me live; either that, or it could be the fact that f-ing Johnny "Guitar God" Marr was on stage. I mean, I usually don't suck up to musicians this much, but I just stood there in glee watching the man who's written the music to some of the best songs I've ever heard; he was in The Smiths, damn it!
The band stood playing their tracks, all quite bounceable, and the crowd reacted back by bouncing. The band seemed to have most of the thirty-somethings in the festival eating out of their hands, while delivering their poppy tracks that come across like care-free bagatelles. A bunch of guys who stood a few meters from us chanted "Johnny! Johnny! Johnny!" over and over, of course without moving a brow on the old man. X noted that somebody said "Oh look! Johnny's changing his guitar for another one!". Ecstasy in a nutshell! I wish I didn't come off as cynical as I probably do writing this, but we had a good time, really. Really.
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We moved on to have more wine and get crushed to tiny bits by a band known as Cansei De Ser Sexy, a.k.a. CSS. They're from Brazil and are known to be an ass-gyrating kinda band that's got one foot firmly fixed in rock and the other in baile funk/funk carioca. Fair enough! Some of their tracks are really good, so we were on the clock and pretty far ahead in the crowd as the rest of Accelerator seemed to be watching the end of Modest Mouse's gig. When CSS finally entered, the crowd in the front was apeshit drunk, bigger than us and hence I found myself thrust towards the singer who had removed the potatoe-sack that had covered her sequined dress underneath, and threw herself into the audience. Sum of that move: X ended up having the singer's alala smacked in her face and I had to fend the same singer off me while diving onto the ground to find what had been knocked out of X's purse during the commotion. Arrgh! Trying to fight off madly drunken punters who're all trying to get a piece of the singer while doing that was quite an ordeal. It's like diving during a storm, where you feel you're safe as long as you don't surface, which is when you'll most likely be hit by waves, or as during our ordeal, by elbows and bottles.
So we left after a while but returned triumphantly, shaking our asses to the end of CSS's gig. We then went and finished the day by listening to a few tracks by Interpol, who seemed intent on being all emo on a dark stage. Fair enough. We went home, but not after going past a 7-11 to get some ice-cream and popcorn to finish the night off. Yeeeaaawwwh. Mm-good.
Day 2
This day started mid-day; we didn't give much of a toss for O'Death or Frida Hyvönen who kicked the day off, but did most definitely care about seeing Gruff Rhys, the man who's probably most well-known to music-lovers for being the frontman in Super Furry Animals ((Whose album "Hey Venus!" hits the streets in August!)). Gruff's monumental semi-new, second solo-album "Candylion" can be heard here, but check out the following film that X shot from his gig, showing Gruff at his most experimental:
Before the gig I saw Gruff sitting by himself with his assortment of toys, in front of an empty stage; the big stage. Whoa! We went down to see, and yep, it was Gruff. So we stood around and waited for the gig to happen. As expected of a gentleman such as Gruff, he came down to the front row and gave a Candylion Air entertainment-guide to each who was up front. I'm happily showing off said guide in air-host fashion here.
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While waiting for Gruff to play, Anders popped up from nowhere. While he's responsible for showing me what SFA are all about, I didn't expect to see him at Accelerator. Gruff started thanking people for showing up despite the rain, and Lisa Jen joined him onstage, where they sat behind a big table propped with a red-and-black plaid cloth that was filled with Gruff's toys.
At first they sang and played really lovely renditions of some expected tracks, e.g. "Candylion" and later "Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru" (which means "Drive Drive Drive"; Gruff and Lisa actually sang this in Swedish ("Köra Köra Köra") to success and much well-deserved applause) but what really kicked things off were the brilliant renditions of "Con Carino" and "Cycle of Violence", both built from scratch by Gruff who used a bunch of toys that he recorded live and looped, thus creating a beautiful cacophony. He made sounds of crickets and owls, thunder and birds twittering. It may look simple in writing, but I really liked it, especially when it was done in such a pop-experimental fashion. I really loved it. Hearing Gruff and Lisa both scream at the top of their lungs really made my hairs stand on end. After what seemed like a very short time they left the stage and now I think this might have been the gig of the entire festival. Oh lord, how good Gruff is.
edit: here's a video I just found showing almost the entire version of "Cycle of Violence", it's brilliant:
X and I ventured forth to watch The Maccabees, which is a tight unit from England. They remind me of XTC and feel fresh, even though most of their songs don't really suit me; I prefer bands that are even more melodically inclined, e.g. Shitdisco and The Ordinary Boys (during their first album). We ended up at the front of the gig and were struck with how non-moving the band was. I mean, the singer and the lead guitarist didn't really move; the bassist was in-place and seemed very proficient. The drummer did his bit, I'm sure, and all of this had to lead somewhere, but...where? I'll tell you in two words.
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Felix White. A.k.a. Amphetamine God. The man moved like a speed-freak demon, kicking his shoes off in the second song already, smiling madly, jumping and dancing to the tracks while the singer and the lead-guitarist seemed to bow their heads in solemn lamentation of, I dunno, their dead sense of taking the stage? The band is a tight unit, don't get me wrong, and there's no missing how good their bassist is, but it felt weird seeing one man basically carry the live-weight of the band. After about half of the show, the dead guys came to life; the lead guitarist jumped about and smiled while the singer joked a little on Rufus Wainwright being a "double-edged sword" as he seemed to have flipped the Maccabees off backstage. The band drove on and played their better-known tracks as they finished off the gig. Off walked Mr. White, drenched in sweat, perhaps unknowingly having saved the band.
Upon leaving the venue, we heard José Gonzà¡les play the last notes of a cover of Massive Attack's "Teardrop". He then followed up by playing a cover of some other track. Yes, if you're not Swedish, you've probably seen the Sony-commercial where people drop thousands of brightly coloured balls that bounce down a San Francisco-street. The song playing in the background is played by Gonzà¡les, and yes, it's a cover ((Of the best Swedish band in ages ““ The Knife ““ and their track "Heartbeats".)). And everybody in their right mind stayed the fuck away from his horrid strains known as "adult rock". Well, if that's so, gimmeh shock treatment and say I'm not right in the head, but I don't care; I'd rather listen to the sound of our Prime Minister having his rectum shaved by a monkey having an epileptic fit than having to go through this guy's music in the near future. But hold on. Something is coming.
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It wasn't a cyst. It was neither stomach flu, stigmata or back taxes. It was worse. It was Junior Boys.
I like their album "So This Is Goodbye", but they're a PAIN live. I'll tell you why. The keyboard-player smokes and plays some "atmospheric" chords at times. The drummer's OK. The singer/bassist/guitarist sings hoarsely, expecting this to add ambience or portray him as mystic; he chews gum doing this. He also plays bum notes. Clever. Just pick up their latest album and never, ever see them live. As X could have said it, any person who treats his audience with so little respect as to willingly deny it the most she/he could ever give should get home, pee and go to bed.
Brainwash was required after that! At this point we stood in line for wine just as Jens Lekman started to play. Thank the lord. Suddenly his tracks seemed like angelic vats of gold compared with what Junior Boys had dished out. Argh! I have to rant more about them: they even put their tracks to shame by playing them live! I quote Sarah Silverman: "What the cock is that shit?" Anyway, back with the program. Mr. Lekman played his rocky indie-symphonies as we sat down in the grass and had a lovely time chatting to his fervent ardour, and then walked the grounds, laughing at Jamie T (what a Pete Doherty rip-off he is, not to mention his merchandise sold, a simpley gray dodgy hoodie sporting a logo of his, costing nearly 60USD) until we decided to skip Rufus Wainwright completely and instead go see The Sea & Cake.
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These guys rocked. I'm happy about having seen this band live; even though some might be inclined to think they're duller than Junior Boys ““ and mind you, if those people exist and don't lie, they're probably lobotomised ““ they're hellanot. Think Sonic Youth with more restraint and a different style; they're not as experimental in chaos, are very controlled and obviously wanting to try new things. They soundchecked themselves and then tuned their guitars between each track. We stood near Archer Prewitt, the lead guitarist who looks like a mix of Clark Kent and Harry Potter, and I guess those tracks aren't easy to play (or have your instrument stay tuned to). Their bassist must be the busiest on the planet, frenetically twiddling his fingers and hands as if someone had thrown fifty diamonds in his chest and at the same time shouted at him that he could keep those that wouldn't hit the ground. The tracks sounded as if they might have been easy to play, but hell no, one could easily hear that wasn't the case.
After this we kept ourselves to the small stage where The Sea & Cake had played to make sure we didn't miss out on Tough Alliance, one of the best Swedish bands in ages. We sat down speaking some with Anders who had suddenly shown up, when he left for a while and I spotted...the Amphetamine God. Whaa! X darted like a shark with frikkin' lazer-beams on her head and snagged Felix. He commented on us looking happy during the gig and we told him he'd made the gig. X acted a living ad for Tough Alliance, saying they're always drunk on-stage and finish their gigs after 15 minutes of playing. I'd want to see that band! Felix was very nice and said he'd try to see them, but no deal, we caught you and your band sneaking into a taxi as we went home afterwards, ha!
Speaking of which, we decided that waiting for Tough Alliance who were more than 45 minutes late wasn't worth it, so we scuttled back home together with other tired remnants of Accelerator 2007.
All in all I loved it. I may sound harsh and weird on describing the artists, but I'd have to say that the mixture of all the bands made it happen; I hail the organisers for bringing together such a vast spectrum of artists in such a nice and well-planned venue. Festivals in Sweden are special, as they (mostly) aren't held on an air-strip or junkyard but rather in some glen or backwash town (i.e. Hultsfred).
If I'd be forced to pick out two faves, they'd be Gruff Rhys and Tokyo Police Club. Cheers!