This year's Spot Festival was a massive success. I doubt we'll hear as much about the bands, who played this year as we have of the bands who played here last year (Sondre Lerche, The Raveonettes, Under Byen, and Junior Senior). But that doesn't mean there wasn't a lot of talent present. I saw a lot of good shows and a lot of crappy shows, but I'll focus on the good ones here.
The set-up of the stages was different from last year, because there was a lot of construction going on. So where everyone was hanging out in the foyer of Musikhuset last year, this year people were hanging out on the lawn in front of it instead. And seeing as the weather was incredible that turned out great. I don't think I've ever seen so many hipsters in one place and every band seemed to be featuring an asswipe sporting a trucker cap. But with the success of Junior Senior I guess that was inevitable.
I don't know how many people attended the festival, but there seemed to be familiar faces everywhere and combined with great weather and good music you really can't ask for a lot more.

Friday started off with a show by local band Tiger Tunes. You might remember I mentioned that John Peel played their demo recently, so they've already gotten some serious exposure. I've listened to some of their demos, which are of very varied quality. But live they really hit home with their mix of energetic dance-oriented rock mixed with 80s keyboard sounds (apparently their singer is a huge Simon Le Bon fan). So their show was a really pleasant surprise and I hope their record label hooks them up with a good producer, who will capture some of their live energy on their forthcoming record. For a preview check out the live version of Train Stations, Harbours, and Airports on their website.

After the show I went and saw David Fricke talk about last year's festival and the bands he saw back then. He's still nuts about Under Byen and The Raveonettes and said that after he had reviewed the Raves' CBGB show he'd received a call from the President of Columbia Records (He never calls me. I'm not that important.), who wanted to know if Fricke thought signing the Raves was a good idea. Fricke had said it was, but added to us that saying yes is easy, when it's not your money. He talked a lot about how being Danish can be an advantage, because you add something new to playing music, because your background is different from people living in NYC or London, and the moderator mentioned that the singer from Under Byen had given the best answer when asked what her source of inspiration is: Public transportation and water. Oh, and he mentioned that Mexico's Café Tacuba is one of the best bands around right now, so you might want to check them out if you're not listening to enough Mexican music.

Later I went and saw Figurines. Imagine if indie rock hadn't changed since 1994 and the only records you owned were There's Nothing Wrong With Love, Bee Thousand, and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (man, 1994 was a good year!), then you'd probably make music that sounded a lot like Figurines does. I love those three records, so while the band isn't exactly original they play music in that style very well and I couldn't help smiling all through the show. Their show was cut a little short, because Kashmir were scheduled to go on straight after, so that was a bit unfortunate. But Kashmir once again put on a great show, so we didn't complain for long. They played mainly songs of their new record, but threw three old songs into the mix just to make the kids happy.

After the Kashmir show we hung out, watch some more stuff, and then went to the After Party. The first band was The Breakers (who apparently are signed to Sony), who played loud and fast garage rock. They were okay and certainly had the attitude in place (the singer wore an undershirt with "I Am The Fucking Rock Star" printed on it) and after them Separations played. At this point I was pretty beat, so I made my way home, so I could catch some Zs before getting up for a new day of rock.

The next entry will feature reviews of Pluto and Superjeg, and some fun anecdotes from the Richard Gottehrer talk, so stay tuned for more Spot stories.