Way Out West 2009

I'm sick and bored and I've come to the conclusion that it'd probably be a good idea to write something here to kill some time. And I think it would be good start when getting back into my blogging to write something about the two fantastic musical days I had on August 14 and 15 at this year's Way Out West festival in the Swedish city of Gothenburg. With this year's amazing line-up my expectations were sky high and I don't think I'll see this many good artists in such a short period of time again anytime soon. So let's start at the beginning.

Friday

My brother and I arrived at the festival on Friday afternoon and started out by managing to catch the last two tracks of Bon Iver's set on the Linné stage, which is Way Out West's only tent stage. We then went and had a look around before catching about three or four songs of Beirut's set on the Flamingo stage. Their performance seemed very fitting in the lovely sunshine that graced the Friday afternoon, but we left early to try and get a good spot for Grizzly Bear's set in the Linné tent. As the band were soundchecking it slowly became apparent that something was wrong - the bass was too loud and the drums didn't sound right. But since Grizzly Bear have meant quite a lot to me over the last few months - from discovering the gorgeousness of Yellow House to seeing all those reviews of Veckatimest declaring it a masterpiece and trying to avoid listening to the leak, I just felt like I had to see them. And so I did, even though the sound only got slightly better during the actual set. I found it kind of awkward seeing GB on a tent stage at a festival in the afternoon, as I feel like the most fitting setting for a gig of theirs would be either on a Paris street (see: http://tinyurl.com/2gyvvy) or in some deep, dark club with dimmed lights and the audience sitting on the floor in complete, mesmerized silence. So this gig didn't turn out as I had hoped, obviously. But as I've noticed, Grizzly Bear generally sound a lot better and alive when they play live than on record and so, as expected, the times when the bass and drums weren't overshadowing everything else, it was blissful as hell. And as they played 'On A Neck, On A Spit' as the last song the big highlight finally arrived and one couldn't help but dance politely to one of the best, most upbeat GB songs and looking forward to hopefully seeing them 'for real' on their upcoming European tour.


Next up was Florence & the Machine, the band I've now seen live the most times, this being the fourth time. When I saw her in London last summer I predicted big things and I do think I have been quite right, with her album reaching number 2 in the UK charts (and she would probably have topped it if it wasn't for that Michael Jackson guy), her Brit Award win and her Mercury Prize nomination, and so it is also quite interesting to have seen her develop from a lo-fi, drum-hitting girl in a gold jacket with a big voice to a fully grown popstar in high heels and extravagant stage pieces designed by TopShop accompanied by a five-piece band. But somehow with all the succes I have a few times felt like Flo was in the process of losing a her rawness and strong stage presence. As she supported Blur in Hyde Park she didn't seem capable of filling that big stage, while seeing her play acoustic at the Rough Trade shop was a lovely and refreshing different take on her music though still quite different from back in the day. When I saw her at Way Out West she absolutely proved herself to have grown to a different, but still fantastic pop star with an edge. Stomping and dancing across the stage Florence still has a way of being herself as part of the mainstream while maintaining something that is her very own.


After Florence's set it was time to get something to eat and so we did, while listening to Wilco in the distance. After that we headed to the Flamingo stage and found a nice, chilled-out place in grass to sit down and enjoy the uniquely amazing Antony. Accompanied by the Gothenburg Symphonic Orchestra he sang his heart out to all of us in the audience and gave one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful live performances I've heard and with Antony's charming and thankful apperance, telling the audience about how strange it was being recognised in Gothenburg and calling us his 'little angels' it just made me want to give him a great big hug.


As the afternoon turned into evening and into night, it was time to watch the Arctic Monkeys on the Flamingo stage. I wouldn't call myself the biggest Artic Monkeys fan, as I generally think they are very good at what they're good at - making energetic, straight-forward indie-rock, but not much more than that. They are absolute expert on this area though and as they are one of the bigger bands of the world today I felt like I had to see them. And it was worth it, as they ran through a set with lots of new material and proved themselves as being a very good live band. I was glad they played that many new songs as I think it made for a quite interesting set. I haven't actually heard their new album yet, but they do seem to have grown up and started being interesting again. I was quite gutted to have missed Fever Ray, though, but since she's Swedish I'll hopefully get a chance to see her at some other point. We left a bit early from the Arctic Monkeys set to try and get into Annedalskyrkan, the church that served as a one of the festival's club stages, to see Andrew Bird. But the queue outside the church was so long I couldn't believe my eyes and we ended up standing outside listening. I was pretty sad to have missed Andrew's set, as he is supposed to be amazing live, but it was still a fantastic day. Oh, and we even caught the particular part of Röykopp's set I wanted to see, i.e. the part where they were joined on stage by Karin Dreijer (of The Knife and Fever Ray) to play 'What Else Is There?' - it was a lovely little highlight since that song is my favourite of theirs.

Saturday

We kicked of Saturday with Patrick Wolf's set in the Linné tent at 1PM. From what I'd noticed when looking on the internet and in the papers and at the growing audience on the day, this was an eagerly anticipated set. I stood beside a girl dressed in all blue (including her hair) and saw quite a lot of people sporting looks not unsimilar to Patrick's. But we had to wait a while for the boy himself as he and his band didn't enter the stage before 5-10 minutes past 1. And at a festival with 45 minute sets that shortened the gig more than one would have liked. But anyway, Patrick entered the stage as extravagant as always, wearing a grey, black and white Union Jack jumpsuit (which he later took off, even though he promised not strip this time, as he had apparently done the last time he was in Sweden), a headpiece and his signature knee high socks. Though I have only seen videos from gigs of his before seeing him live for real, I think I can safely say his live performance must have changed a bit over the last year or so, as he has adopted something, for the viola- and piano-playing Patrick, as strange as the electric guitar and judging from this set it has had a big impact on his live show. Most of the songs he played, including the older ones, seemed to suddenly have turned into rock numbers with the added guitar, which I had a hard time (no pun intended) figuring out whether was a good or a bad thing. It became much more of a rock show, which isn't really what I would expect or want from Patrick, but it was a good and entertaining show anyway, though I think it could have been better under different circumstances.


Following Patrick Wolf's show was Jenny Wilson on the Flamingo stage, which was quite a highlight, even though it was pouring down with rain at this point. Jenny is one of my favourite pop songstresses out there at the moment - she's funky, fresh and strong, and has a voice I haven't heard a hundred times before. If they played her songs on MTV instead of Lady Gaga and Jordin Sparks I know that channel (and the world in general) would be a much better place. Backed by an almost all-female Jenny sported a big blue dress and hat and sang, clapped and played her way through tracks from her two albums 'Love & Youth' and 'Hardships!'. And her saxophonist was very, very cool as well.


A while later, as the rain still fell from the sky, we watched Vampire Weekend on the very same Flamingo stage and they were as always fun, sunny and nice. Afterwards it would be an even longer while before the next act we wanted to see was due and so we hid from the rain for a while.


We were back for My Bloody Valentine, who I've decided to remain undecided about. Because I quite like them on record - Loveless is a really good album - but after just two tracks I decided they were far, far too loud for my fragile ears - I just couldn't enjoy their set (especially since I hate wearing earplugs). So we decided we could live without theirs and Lily Allen's set and made our way to Annedalskyrkan on the other side of the road from the Slottsskogen forest where the festival took place.


Though the first of that evening's three acts in the church wasn't scheduled to play before an hour later, the queue was already pretty long, so coming early was a very, very good idea we found out. We mainly wanted to get in because I wanted to be sure to see Final Fantasy, the last of the three acts, but as things turned out, that night in general ended up being one of the absolute biggest highlights of the festival. Both of the two others acts had I heard the names of, but never heard any music from and I ended up being pleasantly surprised by both. Especially the first act, Peter Broderick, put on one of the most compelling, mesmerizing and fascinating live performances I've witnessed. As a multi-instrumentialist and someone who isn't afraid to record and loop everything and part-sing with himself, he left me ever wondering what he was going to do next. He picked up the guitar, the violin and the musical saw as well as encourage the entire audience to scream so he could hear how that would sound in the church - by the end he even ran through the church, singing with his looped self, while playng two tambourine-like instruments. He kept everyone spellbound through the entire set, resulting in a standing ovation by the end. He was followed by the young girl duo First Aid Kit, who played a charming and heartwarming combination of classic singer-songwriter tales and folk music. They were very good, but by the end I couldn't help but start to become a bit bored, as I knew what was up next. The concert that for me at the moment ranks as the best I've ever been to in my life so far is the one where I saw Final Fantasy at the Union Chapel in London this year. It was perfectly flawless and amazing and though I knew it would be different, I couldn't wait to hear what Owen Pallett had up his sleeve this time. That, it turned out to be, was a setlist very different to the one from the London gig. He played some oldies, some rarities, some covers and some new songs and ended the show with a cover of the slightly obscure song 'Independence Is No Solution', something I had never heard before. It was different from the London gig, definitely, but still incredible - I don't know how he does it, but Owen just manages to always put on a fantastic, beautiful and blissful show whatever the circumstances.
All in all, Way Out West was a mindblowing experience with so many great gigs in just two days. On the ferry home I realised just how many of my favourite artists I'd just seen live and I had a hard time getting my head around that fact. I'm definitely back next year, if their line-up is even just half as good as it was this year.

[ALL ARTIST PHOTOS FROM rockfoto.nu]