SPOT Festival 2013

Rob and I had the pleasure of boarding this bus and heading to Aarhus, Denmark for SPOT Festival 2013. 

Well, it’s been over a month since I returned from the SPOT festival. It was a rad and awesome experience.  I interviewed eight bands/musicians and saw fifteen different acts. The first interview has published, my talk with precocious Broken Twin.  The festival organized a private bus up to Århus, there were three: one from Koln, one that started in Berlin and stopped in Hamburg, and one from Antwerp. The ride provided a great chance to meet other people in various facets of the music industry: labels, management companies, and other writers. I liked being back in the city of Århus, it has a special vibe, just so many students and young people. I found my notes from my first time there. I still note this whole huge generation that is dying to rebel, but when you have a government that coddles you so much you really have so little to rebel against. Rebelling against banality. That’s another essay waiting to be written. I also interviewed festival darling Schultz and Forever. I really enjoyed talking to Danish rock band Baby in Vain.

Anyway, way below you’ll seem my version of a spoof on Harper’s Index, if you don’t know what that magazine is then you are missing the best of the academically disconnected liberal discourse in the USA. So you probably don’t know what it is.

The thing is, festivals like this are the first filters of the many bands and musicians go through before crossing over into mainstream recognition. Like any big gathering, there’s a lot of crap and a lot of overrated stuff. However, there were a few hidden gems. My favorites were the hip-hop group Point Blank(I know, Danish hip-hop, who knew?).  It’s like the mid-90s all over again. I picked up their album and it’s dirty sexy rhymes, I dare you to listen to it and not want to make out with any pretty young thing around. It also helps that the main lyricist (NAPKIN COLE) is foxy as well as talented. The next was SYND OG SKAM, this eight-piece punk noise outfit that was worth it for the sound and the fascinating-like-a-train-wreck live performance. 

it's actually "da Mayor"

Just want to brag that the delegates had a special breakfast with the mayor of Århus, Jacob Bundsgaard, the Friday morning, it was free coffee and food and a nice speech and one the main organizers of Roskilde introduced him. The mayor is a young guy and well spoken, he made a joke about the rarity of so many music industry professionals being up that early, and that thing was at 11. Ha.

SPOT Festival 2013 Index

Number of total hours spent on bus to and from Århus: 19

Number of bands seen: 15

Number of musicians interviewed: 8

Number of times a musician told me his most compulsive habits were smoking weed and masturbation: 1

Approximate number of kilometers walked between the main venues: 15

Percentage of those bands that I think will be around in a year: 85%

Percentage of those bands that I think will be around in ten years: 10%

Amount of times I employed the double negative “This isn’t anything I haven’t seen before:” 10+

Ratio of meals consumed sitting down at a table versus running to catch a show: 2:7

Cost, in Danish crowns, of the cab ride I took one kilometer: 89

Ratio of just good bands versus unique and truly awesome bands: 13:1

Complete number of intense, heartfelt discussions: 4

Number of strangers I shared a room with, at a hostel: 5

Number of times I saw someone hit in the face with a door: 2

Amount of times I yelled “She’s not the next Grimes!”: 1

Total number of shots given to me when it was discovered I’m from California: 1

Age, in years, of the guy I did a shot with at the “This” venue in the Scandinavian Congress Center: 19

Number of beers liberated, by me, from a label party versus total cases of beers liberated, by friends, a backstage party: 2:5

Frequency with which I mentioned a previous trip Århus, per hour: 1:1

Water bottles lost: 1

Number of times we discussed Minor Threat and Suicidal Tendencies, respectively: 1:14

Percentage of more eloquent and informative posts you can read after this: at least 2.

I gave my watch and my necklace and intend to get both those things back at Roskilde. Love you always, Denmark.