Uber-geek Souvenir
In science there is only physics. All the rest is stamp collecting. – Ernest Rutherford.
Maybe it’s because I used to be a stamp collector (molecular genetics lab tech), but I can’t resist the urge to measure things that don’t really need to be measured. Iceland Airwaves was a five-day MFA program in music that quite literally changed the way I hear music. When I came home, I put on my old CDs and sometimes I could barely recognize the once-familiar music – I just heard different things.
That should be enough. But no, useless data must follow.
Just the Facts, Ma’am
Number of shows watched1: 42
Number of artists watched2: 36
Number of venues attended: 14
Number of artist interviews performed3: 9
Complete list of artists
- 1860
- Agent Fresco
- Angist
- Apparat Organ Quartet
- Ásgeir Trausti
- Beneath
- Benni Hemm Hemm
- Eldar
- Exit Music
- Ghostigital
- Gone Postal
- HAM
- The Heavy Experience
- Lockerbie
- Momentum
- Mr. Silla
- Myrra Rós
- Nova Heart
- Of Monsters and Men
- Ojba Rasta
- Paul Corley
- Retrobot
- Reykjavík!
- Shabazz Palaces
- Sigur Rós
- Siinai
- Skálmöld
- Sólstafir
- Stereo Hypnosis
- Svartidauði
- THEE Satisfaction
- Tilbury
- Úlfur
- Ultra Mega Technobandið Stefán
- Valdimar
- Valgeir Sigurðsson
-
Footnotes
[1] Incomplete performances are included; however, if I only caught the first or last song, it didn’t count. For example, Exit Music is included, even though I left just past the midway mark. The Barr Brothers are excluded, because I only heard 1 ½ songs. Performances where I could not see the stage, such as Agent Fresco at Nordic House and Apparat Organ Quartet at KEX, were also included, as long as I could clearly hear the music. Shows that happened to be going on in the same space where I was busy doing something else, such as the folk singers who performed at KEX on mornings when I was writing, or bands playing in venues where I met artists for interviews, are excluded.
[2] I attended multiple sets of several artists, so the number does match the number of shows. Also, in one case, two bands performed together.
[3] Includes interviews with Airwaves performers that were performed before or after the festival.
About the author