Copenhagen Psych Festival Huset, Copenhagen Oct 10-12th, 2015

Solens Folk

This was a three day event once again but at a different location. Logistically it was quite crazy for the booker Kasper to work with the people at Huset and pull it all together. Sue and I arrived around 18 on Thursday and the first band we saw was a group called Solens Folk (The Sun People), which features the drummer, guitar player and bass player from Måneskjold (Moon Shield). IT was a strange mix of spoken word stuff (with a guy wearing an old Army helmet), heavy doomy stuff to totally spaced out soundscapes with just using the guitar and bass pedals and small keyboard. Pretty cool actually. Met my friend Rune from Oslo there. The schedule had changed a bit with times and bands so we had keep looking at the new one.

Red Lama

Red Lama was a 7 piece Danish band with hand drums, synth, lead vocals, two guitars, bass and drums. The opening track the singer sounded a lot like the Jim Morrison, the style, not the voice and the song was pretty cool. We only saw the next 2-3 songs and it became more melodic and standard 80s inspired rock music. It was not for us.

Duncan McKnight and Friend

We caught a couple of songs of an American living in Copenhagen, named Duncan McKnight. He seemed kind of stoned or drunk, a small guy but we was really passionate about his songs. A female lady who occasionally banged an empty plastic bottle on the chair for percussion accompanied him. It was quite a small crowd for most of the acts in the Analog Bar. They seem to be enjoying themselves. 

Papir

Papir played an amazing 75 mins set with at least one new song called Syre Rock (Acid Rock), where Nicklas played some really cool guitar. I don’t think I have seen the band for over a year and they still are amazing. The first part of the show was perhaps some more dreamy stuff but then they really got some energy. IT was super hot in the Haut. Temperature will be a problem. Very packed and people were into it.

Dune Messiah

Back at the Analog Bar for Dune Messiah, which was one guy with an electric guitar playing some of his songs. Nothing special and only about 15 people. We arrived at the 1^st Floor to check out Kogekunst. I have seen this crazy duo twice before and they always put on an amazing performance. These two guys are totally mad, but so passionate about the art rock they make. Small drum kit, guitars, French horn, Novation synth and whatever else they can find, they play it, smash, trash, but sting together, have a groove, a beat…. Far out and what a blast.. Cool stuff.

Kogekunst

Lorenzo from Baby Woodrose was playing a solo acoustic show in the main hall, Haut but it was totally packed and they limit the number of people inside so we could not get in. We just had a breather before Den Stora Vilan from Sweden. This was a really great band and we saw the entire concert before going up to see White Hills. My friend Silvana from Berlin had arrived.  Anyway, they were a four piece with two guitars, bass and drums. One of the guitar players and bass player sang lead vocal. The drummer also sang backing vocals. They sounded a lot  like early Wishbone Ash. The program said the Grateful Dead but they were not that laid back and bluesy. We quite enjoyed them… A decent crowd as well. 

Den Stora Vilan

Set List: Disney, G-Takt, I Morgen, Stöloen, Anton, Domino, Geoiginte au,  Det vi ej Förstår, Rock Låten,  Drömmen Iprack

Now you had to chose between White Hills in the hot main hall or Sonic Dawn in the Analog bar or Nils Gröndhal on the 1^st floor. Clearly, most people chose to go home, as it was 23:45 on Thursday or go to the other shows, as there was only about half a full room for White Hills. I had played with White Hills the last two times they were in Copenhagen but it was quite hectic for them coming in late from Berlin, not a very organized staff at the venue, etc. so it was not going to happen this time. Anyway, the band had rearranged the set and added a couple of different tracks from the last tour in April. The opened with a long extended opening for Radiate to open the show and then into Lead the Way. It was nice to hear In Your Room from the previous record (not the new one), which they did not play any songs from on the April tour. Then we got the 4 new songs, Let the Right, LSD or USB, No Will and Automated City. Dave takes off his guitar for two of these tracks and Ego and Rodney lay down the heavy groove so Dave can sing, rap, play this synth and sampler. He really gives it all…  The show ended with the amazing and spacey Don’t be Afraid and Pads of Light. No encore and in fact the audience quickly left giving them little time to even tries to sell any merch. Actually, seems a pity they don’t have a proper merch area for the bands, as this is how they make some money, especially the Danish bands that play for nearly nothing.  Anyway, that was the end and White Hills killed it. They are such a powerful and amazing band, giving 200% every night and really a league ahead of all the rest of the bands that played. Hard to compete with this. They deserve to be the headline band and to have the room totally packed.

White Hills

Day 2

A lot of amazing bands are playing today and the first gig ever in Denmark by Vibravoid, who I met briefly last night as we were leaving the venue at 01:30 in the morning. I am quite tired today and hope to have the energy to see Yuri Gagarin at 01:15 in the morning. I have to leave the festival and go pick up Black Moon Circle at the airport at 21:10 and then we will all come back and hopefully catch some of Vibravoid, Hills, Goibia….. Goibia and Vibravoid overlap, which is kind of silly they did not split this up.. Anyway..

Måneskjold

Sue and I arrived about 17:50 and went straight up to the Musikcafeen to soundcheck with Måneskjold. Things were a little behind and trouble with the drum sound but I got all my stuff set up on the side off the stage as there was no room on the stage.  I played on the first song and then I joined again after 3 songs for Bilspil and Dødsdrom. Then they decided to play a new song that I had never heard and Kasper said to keep playing. They got a good response from the audience and I think I did cool stuff on Bilspil and Dødsdrom but was not so happy about the first song. We see what the recording sounds like.

Bellhound Choir

Moongazing Hare

We caught a few songs of Bellhound Choir, which was Kristian from Pet the Preacher with a violin accompaniment. I had seen him sound before and liked it. This was a bit different. They had a 12” EP out now. Not many people watching them, which was the fate of a lot of the small bands, the Danes are very social so they all sit outside and smoke and only go see the bands that they really know. It was also insanely hot inside the building.. There were even fewer people in the Analog Bar for Moongazing Hare, an interesting outfit playing according, tibetan bowls, plucked guitar, and synths..  We saw about half the Black Lizard show. This is a Finnish band that was a lot like Brian Jonestown Massacre with a bit of hypnotic Wooden Shjips through in…  They had two guitar players but neither one of them played any real solos. A few small freakouts but mostly just rhythmic guitar. Crowd like it..

Black Lizard

I now had to run to the airport and pick up the Black Moon Circle guys and come back. That went smoothly but it was 50mins from the time the plane landed before they came out of the customs. I had last seen them in Trondheim 1 and half years ago but it was like old friends meeting yesterday. Great guys..

Anyway, saw the last 30 seconds of Vibravoid and found Sue with my friend Silvana outside their show, where it was cooler.  Seems Vibravoid had a great show and the room was pretty full. So hot!  We next went downstairs and saw the Hills. That was a fantastic show and they played for about 65mins. Really awesome bass player and female tribal drummer. They give the others the room to totally space out. My friend Sven even did some spoken words early on in the set. He had done this before as well. Cool concert but so hot in that room..

HILLS

Baby Jesus was rocking out and people were dancing but it was loud, hot and the sound pretty harsh in the 1^st Floor Elevation room.  Fribyttedrømme was filled up so we could not get in. Sue was a bit disappointed as we had such a great time at the show last time. I ran into Fredrik, one of the guys filming and taking pics and he said it was great and Lau got the audience to lie on the floor and that was great. Pity we missed it. 

Yuri Gagarin

Last band of the night for us was Yuri Gagarin. I had seen them a couple of years ago. They will have a new 7” out in a few weeks but did not have it yet. Not sure if they played new stuff as it all sounded like one massive wall of bass, guitar, drums and a few synths sounds and wind floating over the top. The lead guitar player that gives the band the melody, and creates the focus of the songs was so low you could not hear him at all unless you were in the front. I tried to tell him he had to turn up but he was as loud as it could go he said, so there must have been a problem with the cabinet. Anyway, no one could hear him in the room. Pity as it ruined their show. It all sounded like the same song over and over without his parts. Very powerful band.

Set List: Sonic Invasion, Oblivion. Sea of Dust, New Order, Turkish Big RIP

By the time we got home it was 2:45. Damn late and I was tired.

Day 3

11:00 Up again but need more rest if I am to play well today. Most of the others are still asleep.  We don’t play with BMC until 23:20 tonight, so need to conserve ourselves. I might play with Syreregn also..  Thor sent an SMS and he would like me to play on 2-3 songs.

The Orange Grove

 Set List for Orange Grove: Ladybird>Jam, When the Sun>Milk and Honey, California Night, Desert Mind, Blue Soul, Dreaming

Tidebound

19:00 We arrived a bit late today and missed Skifting, which I wanted to see. We saw the first 4-5 songs of the Grateful Dead inspired The Orange Grove, a new Danish band with three guitars plus pedal steel. The steel player also played some keyboards.  IT was nice music but they never took their songs to the next level and despite having three guitar players solos were very rare or they were like 10 seconds long…  Saw a few minutes of Tidebound (Dave and friends) playing dark acoustic music.  I now had to go prepare for playing with Syreregn in the basement Analog Bar. I think this was the 5^th time I played with the band. Nice to see Thor, Rasmus and Jacob again. The bar was really crowded for Syreregn and it was fun to play on some of these tracks I played on the record. Mathias also joined on bongo for the first two more spacey tracks. It was a difficult sound for me on the stage but I tried to manage. I think we played a great show of psychedelic blues rock and straight up blues rock. Great band. The audience loved it and wanted more.. 

Set List: Marana Tha, Skabt værk Består, Sol over Rejkevik, Hypnokongen, Time the Time, Tag  solen Ned

Now I had to get all my gear back upstairs to play with Black Moon Circle in a few hours. Causa Sui was next and this was their first gig in Denmark in 2 years. I had spoken with the guys in the band in the garden and they were all in a great mood. They have a new bass player that moment, while Jess is busy taking care of his 2^nd child, who was recently born. I loved the concert but I could only see the first 40mins or so and then I had to go set up.

Set List: Juice, Homage, Grunge (new song, just a working title), Jn-Jn, Red Valley, El Fuego

Causa Sui

The Black Moon Circle concert was well attended and we played excellent. It was all songs from the first two records but quite long jammed out versions at times. These 5 tracks was about an hour. Vemund was killing it on the guitar! I felt inspired and had a great time. The modular was not packed in a really good way and I had no time to figure it out so I was limited…. The jamming in Machine on the Hill and Andromeda was amazing. This is a band that has a great interaction between the musicians and is able to take one of their normal songs out into the stratosphere! 

Black Moon Circle

Set List: Plains, American Eagle, Jack’s Cold Sweat, Machine on the Hill, Andromeda

There were so many other cool bands playing this day but there was no time to see Indian Jewelry, Oracles (Germany), Madman’s Moustache (Sweden), and De Underjordiske, Catch the Breeze….

It was a great festival but running up and down all these flights of stairs, the Musikcafeen and Haut, being over 30C inside, was pretty tough so a lot of people just hung out in the garden and only went and saw a few bands, which was good as there was not enough space in these rooms for everyone anyway. The event was sold out and great weather outside and the vibe and decorations were fantastic. Kasper Fjord, the booker, did a great job to pull this all together and his mostly volunteer staff also worked pretty well. Nearly all bands were on time and all went pretty well. Let’s see if they do it another place next year. Next CPH Psych fest event is Nov 20^th with Øresund Space Collective and Kungens Mand (Sweden)..