Tag Archive Iceland Airwaves

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Blue Lagoon Chill at Iceland Airwaves Saturday

Napping at KEXStamina began to be an issue on Saturday, and not just for the old farts like me. The occasional napper could always be found on the couches or in the hammock in the KEX lobby, but today they were dropping like flies. At one point, all of the couches were full.

I began to see the wisdom of hosting the Blue Lagoon Chill Party on Saturday afternoon, and as much of a challenge as it was to get up in time for the bus out there, I was really looking forward to treating my headbanger’s neck with a massage while floating in geothermal waters.

Chilling during Airwaves

Dropping like flies

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Iceland Airwaves is so Metal

Angist

Iceland Airwaves is rightly known as one of the premier indie music festivals in Europe (the world?). So I’m not sure how I managed to spend two days at such a kick-ass metal festival. But I did. Thursday and Friday of my festival consisted mostly of metal bands, with some very notable exceptions. Read More

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I Want My Hat Back

Reykjavik sea wall

Waves crashing over the sea wall onto the waterfront path.

The wind, oh the wind wind wind wind wind wind. Oh the roaring and boring of the wind deep in to my bones in to my soul. Oh the wind wind wind wind wind wind.

Edgar Allan Poe should have written about wind instead of bells. Actually, now that I think about it, it’s really strange that he didn’t. Maybe he did and I just can’t think of it because I haven’t slept in days. Whatever historical fact may be, it is certain that if Poe had lived in Reykjavík, he would have written about wind. Read More

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Blown Away on Thursday Night at Iceland Airwaves

Harpa in Reykjavik

Image of Harpa from Wikipedia

After listening to far too many wonderful sets while staring at walls or other people’s backs, I determined to stake out a venue for the evening. I chose Harpa, the exquisite glass sculpture of a building on the waterfront that houses at least three different performance spaces, and hosted the greatest number of acts I wanted to catch on Thursday night.

And besides, it was physically difficult to walk outside in winds so fierce that (foreign) people were starting to whisper the word “hurricane” doubtfully to each other.

Reykjavik waterfront

The view from KEX along the waterfront. Harpa is the black building.

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All-Ages Airwaves

A family watches a set at Airwaves

Watching Asgeir Trausti

At first it was easy not to miss the kids during my trip to Airwaves because everything I was doing would have been sheer torture for them. Alone, a seven-hour flight felt much shorter than the five-hour flight I shared with the kids last summer. As I spent hours reading every last plaque in numerous museums, I thought to myself, “Thank god the kids aren’t here for this.” Sliding along the icy trail to Gullfoss Waterfall, I thought, “Good thing the kids are at home, I wouldn’t try this with them.” At Laugardalur Swimming Pool, I remembered one girl’s refusal to approach water without floaties and another’s refusal to approach water at all and felt relief that I could just relax without keeping an eye on kids or arguing with them about full participation in family adventures. Read More