Arvika, Sweden2nd to 4th July 2009
Arvika festival 2009 Day 1: Santigold, Röyksopp, Nine Inch Nails and Elegant Machinery
The Arvika festival was held during the dates 2nd, 3rd and 4th of July this year and I was there for the first time with a photographing friend Fredrik Sundström who had been to the festival several times before. With headliners like DEPECHE MODE and NINE INCH NAILS, this year’s festival goes to the history for being the year when the festival had the largest bands and the largest audience ever in front of the main stage Vintergatan.
On the first day of Arvika festival, the weather was the way a Swedish summer are meant to be, but all rainy summers has almost made me forgotten just how sunny and hot they can be like. But face it being at a festival when it is above 30 degrees, it’s sunny and no wind then it gets really hot and sometimes even hard to breathe in the heat. At the festival ground there were several water stations where you could fill you bottle with fresh, cold water and at these places there were long lines almost all the time. People were seeking out the shade and I believe that many people never expected this kind of weather!
Santigold - Apollo Stage
Santi White is the name of the woman that is beyond the stage name SANTIGOLD or SANTOGOLD as she is formerly known as. Santi White is an American songwriter, producer and singer. She released her debut album ‘Santogold’ in 2008. www.myspace.com/santigold
Music & Performance
SANTIGOLD entered the stage with her band the stage with her band and two kick ass dancers that posed themselves on each side of Santi. During the show, these dancers added quite something to the total impression with their cool dance moves and stone faces.
The single ‘L.E.S. Artistes’ came early in the set and it was great to see it live! Towards the end of the show, Santi asked if anyone likes THE CURE and the crowd roared back to her, then they did a cool cover of THE CURE’s ‘Killing an Arab’. SANTIGOLD had a good contact with the audience, she interacted a lot with them and before the last song she invited nine people from the audience to come up and dance with her on stage. I really enjoyed this concert; SANTIGOLD delivered a good show with great energy and she really gave of herself and you could tell that she had a great time.
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Light: 8
Sound: 8
Total: 8 / 10
Röyksopp – Apollo Stage
RÖYKSOPP consists of Torbjørn Brundtland and Svein Berge; the Norwegian duo plays electronic music with beat and a lot of energy. The band was formed in 1998 and they released their first album ‘Melody A.M’ in 2001. http://www.royksopp.com/ / www.myspace.com/royksopp
Music & Performance
RÖYKSOPP had one of the largest crowds gathered in front of the Apollo stage which is the second largest stage at the festival area. The crowd waited for the band to come on stage and they did not have to wait long until the band was there starting their melodic electro-pop. During the show, the Swedish singer Robyn came to sing on ‘The Girl and The Robot’ and it was really cool to see her energetic dance to the song! And speaking of dancing: RÖYKSOPP’s show made a lot of people in the audience dance and bounce around and people liked the show.
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Light: 8
Sound: 8
Total: 8 / 10
Nine Inch Nails – Vintergatan Stage
Trent Reznor has come a long way with his band NINE INCH NAILS that he started back in 1988. He has had a lot of hit singles on the way and when he announced that he is to stop doing tours I was happy to see the band for the first time here tonight. My friend Fredrik was surprised to see that Trent had only new musicians with him on stage. http://www.nin.com/ / www.myspace.com/nin
Music & Performance
A great crowd had gathered in front of the main stage Vintergatan. A lot of smoke flowed out from the stage a couple of times before Trent Reznor and his crew came on stage and kicked off with the song ‘Home’. This was a really good concert Trent delivered but he did not interact with the crowd and it felt like he more or less just did his thing. Nothing wrong with that of course but I just thought it would be… more… Also I missed songs like ‘Only’ or ‘Something I Could Never Have’ in the set but the last song ‘Hurt’ was pure magic, it’s such a great song.
Setlist
01. Home
02. 1 000 000
03. Discipline
04. Non-entity
05. Marsh of the pigs
06. The frail
07. The wretched
08. Fragile
09. The way out is through
10. The becoming
11. Wish
12. Gave up
13. Burn
14. Survivalism
15. Head like a hole
16. The hand that feeds
17. Hurt
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Light: 9
Sound: 9
Total: 9 / 10
Elegant Machinery – Apollo Stage
ELEGANT MACHINERY is a Swedish synth-pop band who consists of Robert Enforsen (vocals), Richard Jomshof (synthesizer), Johan Malmgren (synthesizer and vocals) and Leslie Bayne (synths and percussions). The band started in 1988 and it has been resting for a while but now they are here with a new record ‘A soft Exchange’. http://www.elegantmachinery.se/ / www.myspace.com/elegantmachinery
Music & Performance
ELEGANT MACHINERY was the last band to play at the Apollo stage when the sunny day had turned into a clear night. A lot of people had come to see the band play and more came as the crowd from NIN went on the move. ELEGANT MACHINERY had a set with songs like ‘Feel the silence’ or ‘A soft exchange’ from the latest album, ‘Save me’ and ‘A little sacrifice’. You could see that the band enjoyed being on stage - the singer Robert Enforsen was filled with energy and bounced around on stage trying to get the audience to bounce with him to the music.
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Light: 9
Sound: 9
Total: 9 / 10
Pictures by Mattias Nordgren (http://flickr.com/_mn) and Fredrik Sundström (
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