Øya: Day Three

I’m still fairly overwhelmed at just how kind and cool everyone running this tight Øya ship is. Thursday morning’s trip over the Fjord was such a nice refreshing way to start the day, and blew away the night before’s cobwebs.

As you can see below, it was also a great opportunity to put my four-way ski-walking skills into use.

That afternoon I managed to take a little trip to a studio that a lot of the band’s performing are using as a base whilst they’re here, about 10 minutes away from the site. The Megaphonic Thrift, who played recently over in London with Crocodiles and A Place To Bury Strangers, kindly allowed me to film them doing a stripped back song. With just three of them performing in the dimly lit studio, it was the perfect setting for their utterly stirring music. This band are fantastic, normally very loud, and they are performing in the UK again this autumn so I thoroughly recommend you catch them whilst they’re here.

Next up I met the frontman of Vinnie Who (http://www.myspace.com/vinniewhoofficial) from Denmark, who played a song on the piano in the studio for our FlyTV sessions. Although their music, as I later found out at their blisteringly neo-disco pop set later that night, is typically jubilant and upbeat, he performed one of their more melancholic songs, and it sounded beautiful. It sort of reminded me of Soulwax when they’re doing their brooding indie band thing.

Back on site, I set off to see LCD Soundsystem. I managed to sneak into the photographers bit at the front, and felt like a TOTAL dweeb taking pictures on my iPhone, but it was damn exciting. The set was excellent, ‘Tribulations’ being my ultimate favourite, and James Murphy putting on a whistle-stop tour of some of their greatest hits. They are THE perfect festival band in my eyes.

Lastly I went to see Pavement, who I’ve always wanted to see, but have felt like a bit of a phoney in the respect that I am not some uber fan who knows every B-side and rarity. Apparently that does not matter, as it was one of the best shows I’ve ever been to in a long while. Steve Malkmus is one of the coolest frontmen and I have fallen slightly in love with the band. I’m probably a decade or two too late, but at least I got there in the end.

I finished the night watching the extremely invigorating Vinnie Who in a packed out venue, before heading off to dance to Grandmaster Flash’s DJ set. Then I bought a panini and then I went to bed.