SPOT Festival 2012 (04-05-2012) - DAY 1

SPOT Festival 2012 – DAY 1

SPOT Festival in Aarhus

= Danish and Scandinavian music at their best. Two days with amazing artists, great atmosphere and huge amount of concerts. Good, because Danish didn’t make it to see all that should be seen, but there were some quite good shows. Time to share the experience on the blog. BTW – this is a shorter version of the report from DAY 1 in Polish, which you can fine HERE.

FRIDAY 04-05-2012

DEER BEAR @LYNSpot

Friday started with a great, sunny weather. Aarhus is a very cozy city. After a nice morning walk – time for breakfast. Of course with accompaniment of charming music.At LYNfabrikken, an interesting, lovely place of Aarhus there’s a caffeteria. That was the place where DEER BEAR concert took place. The duo performed their songs along with other bands on the event called LYNSpot (it was one of the many unofficial shows during SPOT Festival).

DEER BEAR were fantastic live.They played a very intimate show. A little bit nostalgic and melancholic.

„Sunrise”, „On the Other Side”- these songs sounded so good that I trembled.Beautiful album „House Behind The Eyes” is very touching live. I will remember this morning concert with the sun in the background for a long time.

Orange Extended

Funky guitars, the word “sway” that keeps coming back and the chill – that’s what ORANGE EXTENDED was offering during their show. They played the first concert of official SPOT Festival. Easy-going music of five Danes was perfect to take a deep breath and just relax.

Masha Qrella (DE) + Dangers of the Sea

First day of SPOT Festival was better and better with each concert. At 16:40 one of the INTERSpot project concerts started. German artist Masha Qrella and super-lovely Danish band Dangers of the Sea played on the Blackbox stage. International cooperation turned out to be a very nice performance.Musicians played their own songs together. Both Masha Qrella and Danger of the Sea presents more around-acoustic music with a hint of singer-songwriter style. It could be seen that they had a good time working together and sharing the stage.

Venue Lab

The project called Venue Lab joined musicians from very different geners of music. They were put into groups to create new songs, especially for SPOT Festival. I went to see the results, the show was starting and.. unfortunatelly, that’s all I can write about it. I had to run to see something else. I didn’t manage to see the group I was waiting for, the one with Ida Gard and Spejderrobot… but I heard they were great.

November December

Sometimes the show you went to by a coincidance is better than the one you were waiting for a long time. That what happened to me in case of November December concert. I really wanted to see Rasmus Walter. Unfortunatelly, when I came to the venue, the door was closed.So, what to do? I had to find another concert. My Danish friend recommended me November December. And he was 100% right! The band has the potential, as well as the music. They played very energetic show. It was a nice surprise and a time well spent.

[Time for a loooooong BTW – but an important one] Huge lines before the concerts and full venues – this was the biggest minus of SPOT Festival. From what I’ve heard the organizators changed the location of the event this year.I don’t know was it because of that or because of so many people that came to the festival this year, but I couldn’t get in into so many concerts. I missed for example Raptile Youth.

I Got You On Tape !!!

I learnt the lesson when I came to late for Rasmus Walter concert, so I showed up super early to see I Got You On Tape playing in the biggest sale during SPOT Festival – Musikhuset Store Sal. Long waiting payed off. I managed to get inside and see I GOT YOU ON TAPE. The show that for sure was a musical gem of the festival.The venue as full, we were watching the concert from our seats. It was almost an opera-atmosphere. I GOT YOU ON TAPE played without additional decorations or anything, just the lights and the music. Oh, what a music! The band played mostly the songs from their lates album. Full professionalism. „Run From The Rain” was great! But they played something older as well.

When I heard first notes of „Spinning for the Cause” – I knew that this is going to be one of the best concerts at SPOT Festival. And it was. I GOT YOU ON TAPE are perfect live, especially the drummer was giving his best. Charisma and faith in the music were present on stage during the whole show and the audience appreciated it. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful concert.

Schulz & Forever

Another music tip from the Danish friends was – “You have to see Schulz & Forever”. So I went to see them playing at Radar. I got inside in the middle of the show and I fell in love with the band since the very beginning. The leader of Schulz & Forever, Jonathan Schulz, is only 17 years old. But I would never say that after the concert. Well, maybe I would somehow… My first thought when I saw Jonathan on stage was “Danish musical Harry Potter without the glasses” (and to be clear – this was a compliment).

Adorable, a little bit shy Dane got the audience by his guitar songs and pretty mature lyrics. A bit serious, rough voice made me thinking of a million things at once. After Schulz & Forever concert at Radar I wanted more from them. And I heard more the next day during SPOT DAY PARTY (but I’ll write about it in a different place).

Bottled In England !!!

One of Good, because Danish favorite bands, BOTTLED IN ENGLAND, also played at this year’s SPOT Festival. And they were soooo good! They burned out the audience at Katapult. I knew before that the band is great live. After their concert in Aarhus I found out that they also have a super cool ideas for musical experiments. BOTTLED IN ENGLNAD invited a string quartet to play a few songs with them. „Change” played with classical instruments was great and I remembered it very well.

But nothing at the whole SPOT Festival can be compared to the unbelievable performance of BOTTLED IN ENGLNAD with a guest apperiance of Maria Mortensen from Scarlet Chives. One word: massive! The song they did together sounded like a drum’n’bass, very specific version of Bjork. Amazing, simply amazing musical experience! I keep my fingers crossed for this song on the next BOTTLED IN ENGLAND EP (or LP maybe…), because it deserves to be heard by every single music fan in the world. Really. It was THAT good.

Madness on stage, madness at the audience – 100% BOTTLED IN ENGLAND in BOTTLED IN ENGLAND + classical accent – I think that after a show like the one at SPOT Festival these Danes will conquer the world.

Spleen United !!!

SPOT Festival is mostly a festival for young, newcoming musicians and bands to show their music and get the interest of people from the music industry. It’s a big chance to get out there and start a career.

But during the festival some of the well known Danish bands played as well. For example: VETO, Alphabeat, I Got You On Tape or The Raveonettes. The musical bomb that blown away the audience at the SPOT Festival Garden was SPLEEN UNITED gig. Four Danes entered the stage at 23:45 and… totally smashed it!

Powerful doze of strong, heavy, energetic, agressive electronic beats was just… mindblowing. The audience went crazy and the concert showed that SPLEEN UNITED are in a very good shape.

Although I’m not so into their latest album „School of Euphoria”, I must addmit that it is great live. Especially teh singles „Sunset to Sunset” and „Days of Thunder” show their hidden power during the show. What these Danes were doing on stage was beyond everything. They were playing at everything, they were dancing, totally out of control. The parts of drums were collapsing all the time, but it didn’t stop SPLEEN UNITED from partying.

The highlight of their gig was brilliant performance of „Suburbia”. Great, great, great one!

After SPLEEN UNITED everybody wanted more party. So almost everybidy went to see Raptile Youth at Blackbox. Those who get inside, could go crazy a bit more. I didn’t make it. But it wasn’t hard to find another concert and a party to enjoy the night at SPOT Festival.

Day 1 of the festival ended up… in the morning of day 2. There was no chance for a sleep, because at 11:15 next show began. So I had to take a deep breath and…

SATURDAY 05-05-2012 – Spot DAYPARTY @V58…to be continued…

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