Hejven.se

Sunday evening I dragged my fever infested body back to the fields of Roskilde Festival for the closing concert by Kings of Leon. The festival fields bore clear traces of the heavy water masses and mud was the dominant ingredient. But after a quick meal at the much more civilized Media City and a bunch of painkillers I felt ready for the last (and unfortunately only my second) concert at this years Roskilde.

The clock showed 22:00 when they entered the stage. Boom – Radioactive was blasting vividly through the speakers. After a few intro tracks lead singer Anthony Caleb Followill announced what seemed so straightforward: “We are Kings of Leon”.

Leading the show on with Tennessee-classics from their older albums: “The Bucket” and “Fans” and adding a few from their latest album like the slow “Back Down South”. Then a sudden break. Caleb on the mic again. He tells us that this is their last show on the tour and because of that he want’s to have a party. The 3 brothers and the cousin puts on the heavy “Crawl” to open the ball and follows up with the distorted “Charmer” from “Because of the Times”.

A rather unenthusiastic Caleb grabs the mic again the thanks us, the people at Roskilde Festival, for sticking out through the rain and staying this last night. We thank them for being there – on the stage.

Then something interesting happens. It got political.

“This next song is about gay marriage”. Boom, what a bomb. The band from the small heavily conservative town of Mount Juliet, Tennessee where same-sex marriage is banned by law suddenly stated their support of gay marriage. “Oh and we’ll dance like boyfriends …”

This was definitely the turning point of the gig. It got sharper from here and more interesting. The Kings added edge to the show by that little remark.
Still with an almost perfect mix of old songs and new songs like “Closer” from hit album “Only by the Night” and “California Waiting” from their debut album “Youth & Young Manhood”.

All in all I found that the Kings were slow to get going but when they first put it in 5th gear the were definitely in control and the audience loved it. For that I’ll give them 4/6 orange tents.

Kings Of Leon – Sex On Fire (Richard Sharkey & Peter Sar Remix) (download)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Kings of Leon – On Call (Grum Disco Remix (download)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

… were on fire!

Everything was there – except “Breathe Out”.

Saturday the danish band with great success in China played at the Pavilion Junior stage.

Is was a dedicated and slightly aggressive crowd that showed up for the Reptile & Retard concert Sunday evening. The crowd were shouting lyrics from “Speeddance” to get to mood up and the tent was boiling already before Reptile & Retard found them selves on stage. It got slightly out of hand and I found that standing in the front row was a bit too rough for me. So I moved a bit back and enjoyed the fantastic electro/rock sound of Mads and Esben (Reptile & Retard).

“We are the idiots that fell in love with machines” is one of the many catch phrases that got stuck in my head after a blasting concert that only missed one thing in my opinion: “Breathe Out”. It is my favorite track and it lacked from their set list. Shame on you guys.

It does cross my mind how popular Reptile & Retard has become considering that they have released nothing at all and has mainly been touring in China. Be sure to check out the interview we did with Mads a few months ago!

For this blasting experience I would have given 6 out of 6 orange tents but the lacking of “Breathe Out” subtracts one tent.

Reptile & Retard – Breathe Out (stream only) (removed)

Reptile & Retard – Speeddance (stream only) (removed)

The blog has been kinda quiet the past week or so and I apologize for that. It’s been a busy start of the summer!

Roskilde is closing in and this post is dedicated to introduce a few of the bands playing this year.

Danish Oh Land aka Nanna Øland is a bright star on the danish pop scene. With her fantastic voice and smooth electro beats she went straight to the hearts of thousands of people. This is a Max Tundra remix of her hit White Nights.

French Yelle is another female artist I’m looking forward to experience at Roskilde this year. This is her 2008 hit “Ce Jeu” remixed by The Twelves.

UK Gold Panda released his “Marriage” EP this year and this is the title track. I’m looking forward to see what he can pull at Roskilde.

VETO is the opening act at the Orange stage. They’ve played at Roskilde before but it’s a great honor to be the opening act. This is a Kenton Slash Demon remix of “Blackout”.

English indie rockers Foals is another band I’m looking forward to see at Roskilde. This is “Spanish Sahara” in a Mount Kimbie remix from the 7″ release.

Oh Land – White Nights (Max Tundra Remix) (download)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Yelle – Ce Jeu (The Twelves Remix) (download)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Gold Panda – Marriage (download)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

VETO – Blackout (Kenton Slash Demon Remix) (download)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Foals – Spanish Sahara (Mount Kimbie Remix) (download)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Today most of the names for Roskilde Festival 2011 were announced. I must admit that I miss a few big electronic names, but here’s a list of what I’m looking forward to right now (in random order):

Kings of Leon
The Strokes
VETO
Lykke Li
Oh Land
James Blake
Magnetic Man (3 hour set w. Katy B!)
Deadmau5
Yelle
Chase & Status

I’m hoping that the last few names are more electronic than the majority of the names released today..

Roskilde 2010 has closed now kicking it’s last guests out as the great cleaning job starts.

Once again the festival guests left enormous amount of trash, tents and sleeping bags. But as the volunteers start cleaning the camping and festival area we can look back on the festival and figure out what was good and what was bad. What to do better next year and what to keep on doing the exactly same way as we’ve always been doing it.

Pros:

• The weather (as if we’re in control of that..)
• The Camp Parties. Amazing stuff!
• Robyn I just love that blonde swede.
• Names like Nephew, Muse and Kashmir did an amazing job rocking up Roskilde
• An amazing crow at every f*ckin concert!

Cons:

• Too few electronic names! We hope that Roskilde will improve on this next year!
• The festival food. Too expensive and too poor quality.
• The fact that you can’t bring you own drinks to the festival area and the queues at the beer tents are HUGE!
• The toilets.. Smelly stuff.
• Must say too few electronic names again!

If I should rate this years festival I would give it 4 big stars. The weather helped a lot but I sure missed a few more electronic names. The rock names however were cool and really gave good performances.

This concludes Hejven.se’s coverage of Roskilde 2010. See you at Roskilde 2011 (pssst buy your tickets now!)