And it‘s started. The first night of Iceland Airwaves is officially over! And here are the results:
Since we have work and families and stuff we decided to take the Wednesday night easy, not going out until 8PM – just in time to catch Vök at Gamla bíó. They did a fine job providing us with a solid performance. Next up was Júníus Meyvant, a rising star in Iceland. Júníus hasn‘t been playing that much in Iceland, and clearly needs to play more. However, I do love his songs. He plays great melodies and has a nice voice so I will see him again. He‘ll play 4 more shows this weekend, so let’s support the kid!
After Júníus, we decided to take a walk on the wild side and try something new. Húrra was the venue of choice and Sindri Eldon & the Ways the band playing. Listening to them kind of brought me back to the year 2000 when everything was punk-rock and American Pie was the most popular movie. I loved that movie at the time and I loved punk-rock so this came as a pleasant surprise. You can always count on Airwaves to surprise you!
Gamla bíó was the next destination, where we caught the last few songs of AmabaDama. They play snappy reggae tunes and were fun to see. The crowd was digging them too, but we were waiting for our main event of the night which came next. Mammút!
Wow this band just killed it. KILLED IT! There‘s something mesmerizing about Mammút. It‘s always cool to have three girls in the front and it‘s always cool to be tight on stage. But the real star is the singer Kata. She jumps into kind of a trance when she sings, swaying to the music, shrieking when appropriate and controlling the audience while she does so. I swear, at times it felt like the crowd below the stage was hypnotized, swaying front and back as she did.
FM Belfast were up next but we decided to skip it, saving it for Friday night!
Wednesday Night Review
The verdict
Very good first night, with the best still to come
The winner
Mammút! Such a crazy powerful band. Definitely one of the tightest bands you’ll find in Iceland. Try to catch them if you can, they’re playing at the Reykjavik Art Museum on Saturday, along with a couple of off-venue shows.
The loser
Queues! The queue in front of Gamla bíó reached around the corner and all the way down to the street below. The queue in Harpa for Ásgeir was even longer. Pro tip, pick a venue for the night and stay there. Otherwise you might end up standing outside in the cold.
