Øya Festival wrapup.

Well, the festival is over; people are back to their boring lives at work. What a letdown. I started my week of loud noise watching GTUK at Spasibar who also played later at the festival. He's a wild German guy who screams over insanely fast Nintendo beats....great stuff. Tuesday Magnus Moriarty, Ranheim and Bungalow Ranchstyle rocked Internationalen. Wednesday it all started in the park with expensive drinks and lots of good music. Boredoms were fantastic. 3 drum sets and a wall of noise. Fuck hippie drum circles, Boredoms are the real shit. Tinariwen played heartwarming African desert blues, followed by Woven Hand who's intense singer ...always gives a good performance. GTUK put on a great second set of the day followed by about 3 NIN songs before I left. Thursday opened the day with a Norwegian band called Real Ones and one called Deadends...a nice suprise. Followed by Gogol Bordello. Man, this Balkan rock thing has really catched on lately....where were everyone like 5 years ago? It was just as good then. Malajube played a solid set (not as wild as at garage, but still good) followed by CocoRosie who frankly annoyed me. I like it on record, but got bored quickly live. Justice then put on a great set of hits...the kids went wild. Would have been much better in a club though...they pretty much got kicked off stage for playing too long. The sad thing about festivals is that when a show is great and the crowd is dying for an encore, they cant do it because of the tight time schedule. New Young Pony Club followed Justice....then Tool played. I lasted 3 songs before I left. (I was a fan ca. 1995...I guess I'm getting old) Later that evening I witnessed one of the best shows I've seen in years: (and if you've been paying attention, I've seen alot). Patrick Watson at Øya Night. (Come back to oslo Pleeease) Patrick Watson is a genius...enough said. Norwegian singer songwriter Ingrid Olava opened up and put on a touching show. This turned out to be a brilliant combination and a fantastic night. Woke up Friday really hungover and made it just in time for Architecture in Helzzzzzz.... Later, Spoon put on a good show, although they looked confused by the sunlight in the middle of the day. Can't be the most fun time to play.... Next up Devandra Banhart bored me with mumbling burnout hippy music and I quickly moved on to the best show of the day: Battles. I first saw Helmet in...91-92 wish I'd seen him more often. Hypnotic intense beats. Tight like a drum machine. Other members are from Don Cabellero who I've been a fan of for some years. These guys can play! Next, ...And you won't know us by the sound of our songs played and it didn't do much for me. Keep in mind at this point I'm a wreck so I'm alittle extra critical. The Jesus & Mary Chain was disappointing, yet played an ok set. The sound was horrible and they looked like they were sleeping onstage. They seemed to just be going through the motions. I guess I would do the same if I got alot of money to reunite and play...OK maybe not. Rocky Erickson finished off the night. Where the hell did all these Norwegians hear of this guy? The crowd was insane. Personally I've only heard the 13 Floor Elevator stuff....This guy got to play 3 encores and people would not leave the area. Even the stagehands and people in the back were frothing at the mouth. Good to see and old rocker get his day. I ended the night at a local club where Shining played a"secret" gig. Intense and great as always...as far as I can remember. Should have stayed at home Saturday...hungover and the music was not as great as the previous days, but I fought on trying not to loose the little sense of youth left in my body. Listened alittle to Rockettothesky followed by a set by The Melvins (including Big Business). Good mix of old and new, but the guitar and vocals drowned a bit in the 2 drum sets. Canadian band The Besnard Lakes who I'd never heard of were pretty decent, so was The Go! Team afterwards, but I was mentally and physically far from enjoying live music by that time. The obnoxious Lady Sovereign; who was the only English solo artist that showed up (Lilly Allen was sick, and Amy Whinehouse was hanging out at a rehab in London) played something while I tried to sleep; followed by more female hip hop with Yo Majesty who are famous for playing topless.....meh. I stayed the entire day to check out Primal Scream but I went home after 3 songs this night too. Seems like I cant handle a full week of music and drinking anymore. Oh well, I'll be back next year.
Below are a bunch of pictures and crappy video clips that I took.
Better videos are on Youtube and several full show are here: http://rita.nrk.no/community/oya07/ (read post below for how to see them if you don't speak Norwegian) You can watch em and tell me I'm wrong about some of the shows if you like.



Patrick Watson:

Woven Hand:

Tinariwen:

Spoon:

Rocky Erickson:

Ingrid Olava:

Melvins:

Malajube:

Justice:

GTUK:

Gogol Bordello:

Battles:

Vidoes are below.....