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Roskilde Tweetup #Twølstafet
If this is not proof enough that I won, I don’t know what is.
Oh yeah, that’s right. The rules stated we should tweet where we ran around the beer can, not once we reached the finish line.
I blame @mortensax, not @jacobpackert who was “the winner”.
Roskilde Recap
Seeing that I misread the itinerary for my trip to Berlin that will not happen today, but tomorrow, I find myself with time to do a recap of Roskilde Festival anno 2010.
It’s the seventh time I visited the land of Dusty Piss, and it was both a very familiar visit, and a completely new experience. Familiar because I visited with old friends I only see at Roskilde, and, let’s face it, nothing really changes at Roskilde.
On the other hand, something had changed. I don’t know if it’s me getting older, or Roskilde growing up, but it seems much more of a restrictive playground now, instead of being the anarchistic melting pot I remember it to be previously. Lots of people have moaned and groaned about the new prohibition against bringing your own beers to the festival site (not camping site, mind you).
Who the fuck ever brought beer to the festival site? You cut open a 1.5 litre bottle and filled it with two bottles of vodka and whatever juice you could find room for. I don’t mind Roskilde wants to make money (they donate the profit to charities anyway), but it seems that the youngsters who used to drink magic liquids had to stand in line with everybody else for beer. That is a problem.
Also, the food was better than ever. I had quite a few salmon sandwiches with fresh-baked bread, cabbage, dill and a lovely dressing. And what’s wrong with that? Everything’s wrong with that. You’re supposed to eat canned foods, lousy bread and season with leftover weed.
It’s getting nicer and nicer, and on one hand I love it, but it’s bringing Roskilde to a level where it shouldn’t be.
[Old man rant/appreciation over]
The music program this year didn’t impress me before the festival, and it didn’t impress me while I was there. But that’s not to say there weren’t great music to be heard:
Thursday:
Electrojuice – 5/6
The guys are 16 and 17 years old and they stirred up a party like few others could do it. Deeply impressed.
When Saints Go Machine – 4/6
It’s difficult to be an upcoming band and awaken all of Roskilde from Orange Stage, but they did a good job and people seemed to like it. On the other hand, it couldn’t be worse than Petter or Teitur who’ve been opening acts the last two years. (How Roskilde Festival can deem them “upcoming Danish acts” have always baffled me.)
LCD Soundsystem – 5/6
Hot, steamy, overcrowded. Biggest misplacement of the year (Cosmopol has room for 6000 – LCD needed Arena’s 17000!). But it was a great concert anyway, though I never even saw the band.
Gorillaz – 4/6
Everytime they got a rhythm going with a few upbeat songs in a row, they’d slow the concert down to a halt. It sounded amazing, and the band is incredibly tight live — it just doesn’t work when you break the flow continuously.
Friday:
Baron Criminel – 5/6
Biggest surprise of the year. Kristian Leth from The William Blakes has made a project that focus on Haitian voodoo and the rhythms associated with the religion. Combined with Troels Abrahamsen on “electronics” and Kresten Osgood on everything he could get his hands on, they succeeded in mesmerizing an otherwise sleepy Cosmopol stage on an early Friday afternoon. Incredibly hard task, but to me they succeeded, though I’ve heard many others didn’t like it. Comes down to taste, I guess.
Florence + The Machine – 2/6
They are the new Evanescence. Listening to Florence Welch sing for an hour is about 50 minutes too long. She’s incredibly talented, but combined with a sound volume way too low, it just became monotonous and annoying to listen to.
Delphic – 3/6
Incredibly talented guys, and I love their record. However, it just wasn’t their day, even though they tried with all their might and power to convince people to rock out.
Health – 1/6
I recognize the attraction of punk in a small, sweaty room with 50 people going nuts. However, a band that isn’t really focused on which kind of style they want to play (or project at least) just doesn’t cut it for me. Their drummer was incredibly talented, though.
Tech N9ne – 4/6
He was there. He rapped. He did well, but I don’t remember anything other than the lyrics to “I’m a player”.
Den Sorte Skole – 5/6
They had the difficult task of playing 40 years of music from artists that have performed at Roskilde in two hours. We heard everything from Neil Young to Bob Marley and Kraftwerk to Malk de Koijn and what we heard was good. Seeing a sea of lighters to the sounds of Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah” was a moment to remember, but again they got the flow going and kept interrupting it — instead of just building up the tension throughout the concert with a few bursts in between. A shame, because that might have made it a legendary act, instead of just a great experience.
Saturday:
Kings of Convenience – 4/6
It doesn’t get more hipster than Erlend Øye, and they did a great job of delivering a sleepy, dreamy experience to the tired festival-goers. However, I ended up liking the stories and cover version of Leslie Gore’s “It’s my party” much more than their own music in the end.
FM Belfast – 5/6
They entered the stage dressed in suits and bow ties and ended up in their underwear and shirts in the end. A full-on party in the middle of the afternoon with good music, but fucking amazing energy. I haven’t seen a band in many, many years that openly enjoyed playing as much as FM Belfast. They smiled at each other, joked with the audience and generally spread a lot of joy. Even a cranky old bastard as myself ended up with a big fat smile on the face.
Brother Ali
Only heard a few songs, but it was great, and I hope to catch the freestylin’ albino another time. You should too.
Kashmir – 3/6
I used to be one of their biggest fans, but I really don’t like the new album. It’s boring and incredibly monotonous. They’ll do better in the end, I hope.
Turboweekend – 4/6
Great live-band that only gets better and better each time I see them. Silas Bjerregaard is one of the best lead singers in any Danish upcoming band, and it’s a joy to experience it live. How they go from a great concert to a magnificent one, I don’t know. They do everything they can, and it’s great, but still lacks whatever it is that takes it to the next level. I really hope their next album is a homerun — they need a few more songs as good as “Trouble Is” and “Something or Nothing”.
Robyn – 5/6
How she transformed herself into the new Madonna is beyond me. Instead of taking the crap pop-route, she now rules the intersection between house-y, electronic, dubstepping, dancehall’ing pop music. It’s not as extreme as M.I.A., but broader appealing. And that’s not a bad thing, mind you.
The Prodigy – 2/6
They get the two stars for “Firestarter” and “Smack My Bitch Up”.
Matias Aguayo – 4/6
Chilean/German house act signed to Kompakt featuring live vocals and lots of fun and gags. Great warmup for Moderat.
Moderat – 6/6
The only act that moved beyond great and into the realm of “fantastic”. It might have been because of the time slot at almost 3 in the morning, or the general exhaustion, but it was rough, hard and loud. Modeselektor in itself is really good, and Apparat is great, but it’s only when you combine the strong beats and the flickering sounds you reach beyond it. I can’t wait to hear more of their new stuff.
Sunday:
Local Natives – 4/6
Slight problems with hitting the high notes, but in general a great band with lovely songs. I hope I get to hear them again when they have even more to offer, and not at a festival.
The National – 5/6
I listened to “Boxer” about a year ago and didn’t like it. I don’t know why, but I recall finding it a bit boring. Then I saw a stop motion movie which used “Slow Show” as the background music and fell in love. “High Violet” taught me how to listen to The National, and now I find “Boxer” almost as good. I guess you just have to let it lie for a bit before being able to unlock it. If I didn’t like The National before I saw them live, I’m not sure I’d have liked them afterwards. Matt Berninger’s voice is low-pitched and melancholic until he suddenly runs amok and screams like a madman. It’s perfect in any way, but I’m not sure they get many fans out of their concerts. They do treat their fans, however, and it was quite the experience to see him jump the stage and run into the crowd.
Prince – 4/6
When Prince plays the guitar and sings the hits we all know and love, it’s perfect in every way. Seeing him live is like being able to say you saw James Brown or Michael Jackson before they passed away — and I’m happy I had the chance to do so. That just makes it even more sad that he feels the need to have his choir ladies sing gospels while he exits the stage for 15 minutes. It dragged on for way too long, and I felt that the time was better spent in the company of Prince than his backup musicians.
tl;dr
Not much anarchy, but great food. Music was decent, but it desperately lacked the special stuff that would take it from being just “great”, to an otherworldly experience.
Closing the accounts for Copenhagen Twestival
On March 25, 2010, we were able to have more than 250 people come together for a single cause: Supporting Concern Worldwide. All of these people have one thing in common: They are Danish Twitter users.
Getting Marie Fisker and Rune Kjeldsen to play on stage, and Thomas Madsen-Mygdal to interview Morten Lund about his entrepreneurial endeavors, created a unique experience for those involved. Tom Collins even played for us after being called early in the evening on a cancellation, and it just goes to show the efforts everybody are willing to put into this crazy project.
Lots and lots and lots of sponsors provided us with gifts for the lottery and money for the cause. All the money from the ticket sales, lottery tickets, sponsorships and donations have finally been tallied and we can give the final score:
94,000.- kroner.
It has taken a long time to end at this amount because of some problems here and there, but this is what we’ve sent off to Concern Worldwide on behalf of Copenhagen Twestival.
The videos are still (!) on their way, but hopefully we can show you what happened in glorious technicolor sometime in 2010.
Kristoffer and I started this project with the intent of meeting a couple of interesting people, and the fact that 250 people agreed with that on a cold March night is still beyond my wildest imagination.
We started out with the goal of reaching more than last time in every way. That meant more than 30,000 DKK in profits from more than 150 people. We met that target and exceeded it significantly.
However, what amazes me the most is the level of support we get from sponsors, participants, performers and partners. Especially those who helped plan and execute the whole thing: Morten, Benjamin, Jacob, Ronni and Laura. They deserve all the love they can get for agreeing to help with this.
We have a lot of things to improve for next time, but we’re doing our best and hope you have a great experience the next time as well.
If you have any questions or comments, do get in touch.
(Cross-posted on the Copenhagen Twestival blog).
A personal note on 2009 and what 2010 will – hopefully – be like
Ever since the Christmas holiday I’ve wanted to make a post on what a crazy year 2009 was, as well as what I expect of 2010. Now I finally have the time to do so, and it’s personal so feel free to skip it.
2009:
On New Years Eve 2008/2009, I had just arrived back in Copenhagen from a semester abroad in Boston that was far from perfect. I had a nice time now and then, but I felt that the daily life on a campus 12 miles from Boston is too unlike my way of living that it became unbearable as the months went by.
I missed Copenhagen, I missed my girlfriend, friends and family and I just wanted it to be over.
I came back, and I got a new job at zyb/Vodafone that I was very happy about. I enjoyed working there until this fall when budget-related issues popped up, and I was relieved from my consultancy contract. Now I work at 23 which is something completely different, yet somehow very related. I don’t get these jobs because I apply for them, but because I spend crazy amounts of time on Twitter and at events around Copenhagen, talking to people that share my interests. This is something I want to continue doing, and especially Copenhagen Twestival has established some relationships that I value a lot, and hope to nurture more in the future.
It seems that 2009 was all about breaking down and establishing. In the summer I became a bachelor in more than one way, and I like the diploma I got from CBS, but not the feeling of being all alone that the breakup created. It’s over now and I learned a lot from it. “Taking less for granted” is sure as hell one of the lessons I took with me on that account.
2010:
I normally don’t do New Year’s resolutions, and I don’t plan on starting now, but there are still some things I’d like to focus more on in the coming year.
Listen:
Listening isn’t always my best skill, but I need to listen a lot more than I speak. I want to read more, and have removed a bunch of the shitty feeds clogging up my feed reader (Mashable, TechCrunch, TUAW etc. are all gone – it’s too much fast noise). I’m looking for good writers (hopefully making me a better one as well) that don’t publish often, but publish something worthwhile. I’ll share what I’ve found soon.
Act slow:
Again, this relates to the fast news being thrown out from Google Reader. More slow, less fast. Hopefully that affects how I work and think as well – it’s been too much fast stuff blazing past and too little of the meaty blogging/article-writing that really matters, and gives a worthwhile perspective on things.
Build more and learn new stuff:
I really really want to learn how to write better html(5) and css(3), as well as starting from scratch on how to do jQuery. I don’t know shit about programming in Python, Ruby on Rails, Javascript and what else is there, but jQuery seems like a nice place to start doing a bit of web app-stuff. This will in turn, hopefully, do wonders to what I can share and ship, and I already have a couple of ideas laid out that I would love to work on (a local version of Internet Garage Sale is one of them).
Be happier:
I’ll stop bitching about shit on Twitter. No more tweeting from the queue in the supermarket, no more whining about this and that, and hopefully I’ll start noticing the good stuff more.
For instance, I bought two lovely sweaters today. It’s really cold in Copenhagen these days and I’m cold all the time. What to do? Buy nice sweaters. So I did. And now I’m warm. I like that.
Consume less but better:
I already have too much shit, and I really don’t need anymore. Everything I buy in 2010 will be thought through, and either replace something of lesser value, or fill a gap that is justified in making me do my work, or everyday chores, better. This means getting rid of my CD and DVD-collection (I don’t listen to music or watch movies one physical media anymore), and a bunch of electronics that lie around but are never used (thus making the Internet Garage Sale-clone).
This a bunch of introvert self-praising, but it helps me write what I want to do in the coming year, if I want to complete it. Last year I wrote I wanted to take a photo and blog every day. That didn’t happen. Hopefully I can write one blog post every week; if I stop bitching about shit on Twitter, I should save right about the same amount of time every week it takes for me to write a blog post.