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Arvikafestivalen 2004
Wolfsheim (Apollo, Thursday)
This could very well be the most boring concert I’ve ever been to, and I've been to a few. From time to time I enjoy listening to Wolfsheim at home, and if I would ever do that at the same time as playing solitaire with a deck of 51 it would be about as boring as watching them perform live. When I first entered the tent where the Apollo stage is situated and saw the set of acoustic drums on stage I thought "hey, this can really turn out to be a great concert". Somehow I thought the band would do rougher versions of their songs accompanied by some action on stage, I couldn't have been more wrong. It sounded like on record, and everybody in the band stood frozen at the exact same spot all of the time. Not even the guitar player moved, the vocalist kept a steady grip on his microphone stand and, of course, the audience acted the same way, not one person moved as far as I could see.
Skinny Puppy (Vintergatan, Thursday)
Since this concert took place on the first festival evening it was a common topic of discussion during the rest of the festival, at least until after the concert Kraftwerk gave on the final evening. It seems people left with either a feeling of disappointment or feeling as if they were in heaven. Personally I was mostly disappointed, I had a feeling the band didn't do their best, as if they didn't feel like making an effort to put on a great show.
At times it looked awesome, both the light effects and the projections behind the band. The latter consisted of rapid cuts between Hitler, Bush, the Star Spangled Banner and Swastikas as well as a live feed from the stage mixed with different filters and layers. The problem for me was the fact that the band seemed a bit stiff, as if they relied on all the other stuff to do the trick. Not to mention the fact that Niveks vocal performance was poor during some of the songs. It was with mixed emotions I left the concert, on one hand I had finally seen Skinny Puppy live; on the other hand I had thought them to be a much better live experience. With that in mind, and with a little more distance to the whole thing, I am glad I was there, even on a bad day Skinny Puppy beat a lot of the bands touring the world.
Male or Female (Orion, Thursday)
Quite a good crowd had showed up to enjoy the concert with Front 242 side project Male or Female, the band consists of Patrick Codenys and Daniel Bressanutti. I only stayed for about half an hour, I left when they started to play some slow motion song, but I still got to hear a couple of great trance tracks with bass lines resembling those of Front 242.
Faithless (Vintergatan, Friday)
Faithless was one of the outsider headliners, considering Skinny Puppy and Kraftwerk setting the headliner frame. Still, Vintergatan was fairly crowded as the show began. More than anything, the concert was one of both heart and showmanship. Fans as well as stroller-by's got everything they could possibly have asked for, with classics such as "We Come One", "God Is a DJ" and "Insomnia" alongside new material, "Mass Destruction", and more.
Fixmer/McCarthy (Apollo, Friday)
Terence Fixmer and Douglas McCarthy gave me pretty much what I had expected, a lot of energy, a lot of shouted vocals and some Nitzer Ebb songs. They opened with the classic track "Join in the Chant" and got the crowd moving from the start. After that it was a lot of the same in my opinion, except during "Murderous" where they were joined by a young stripping couple, when they got naked (the couple, not the band) started throwing their clothes at each other. I can't really decide if I liked that stunt or if it was plain stupid, when the song stopped security came to escort the couple backstage. Other Nitzer Ebb songs I recognized during the show were "Let Your Body Learn" and "Control I’m Here".
Lustans Lakejer (Vintergatan, Saturday)
This was the second time I enjoyed a concert with Lustans Lakejer, the first one was back in 1999 I think. It is hard to compare the two with a time span like that but one thing I missed this time was some of their newer songs. I would've loved to hear "Cynisk", but you can't have them all and this time they played "Sång om syrsor" which is a rare thing. I think vocalist, and only real member of the group, Johan Kinde did a great performance. Unfortunately the band, and at times the sound, wasn't as good. So all in all I have to say it was an average performance.
Sara Noxx (Andromeda, Saturday)
Sara Noxx, one of the first acts announced for this year's edition of Arvikafestivalen, and one that I'd personally been looking forward to see for a very long time, proved to be the greatest disappointment of all. Had I been the promoter, I would actually have begun thinking about asking for a refund as Sara stood still, hand in pocket, utterly uninterested in getting the show going other than what she mustered saying in terms of encouragement over the microphone. In fact, that was the only thing that led me to believe she was present and alive at all. After some discussion this concert was ruled even more boring than Wolfsheim, saving them from the not so glamorous award.
Kraftwerk (Vintergatan, Saturday)
I've never before witnessed Kraftwerk live, and I have never before witnessed a crowd going wild when the band is replaced by robots. But I guess there is a first time for everything, and the people in front of Kraftwerk, approximately 17000 (the biggest audience ever for one concert at Arvikafestivalen) really went nuts at the first glimpse of the legendary robots.
As a live experience Kraftwerk was great, the quality of both sound and visuals was top notch and some of the songs really got me dancing, I wasn't the only one as I noticed one of Ralf's legs move a little. That was about all the movement we got from the stage, but it didn't matter. I spoke to a huge Kraftwerk fan during the concert and he was overwhelmed by the performance which in his opinion was better than any of the three concerts in Stockholm. At times I stopped watching the on stage performance and observed him instead, he was playing keyboards in the air, turning imagined knobs, waving his arms dancing and screaming "yeah!". I wasn't as astonished as he was, but I had a really good time during this concert.
Vive La Fête (Apollo, Saturday)
Vive La Fête was the total opposite of Kraftwerk when it came to on stage performance. Since I first saw them last fall they have grown into a full feathered live act putting a lot of energy into getting the crowd going. The band was really using the limited space their stage offered.
Summary (At home, a few days later)
To sum it all up, it was a great festival. I've never seen so many interesting acts at one festival before and even if some of them were a disappointment, and despite the fact that I got sick the week after the festival, Arvikafestivalen 2004 was a wonderful experience.
The weather was a nice treat as well, from the time I left home until the time I left the camping ground there was only rain at one time, only for a couple of minutes or so. The rest of the time there was sunshine burning, literally, on my skin. And though it was cold during nighttime it wasn't unendurable. I learned my lesson earlier this year during Hultsfredsfestivalen so I had some extra clothing this time. A good camper is always prepared.
When I got home I had two questions on my mind, questions I couldn’t answer. The first one was; with bands like this, why did only 11520 people buy a ticket to the festival? And the second was; how on earth are the promoters going to get a lineup like this again?
/Fredrik Hörström
Photos by Mattias Ernelli
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Skinny Puppy
Faithless
Fixmer/McCarthy
Kraftwerk
Vive La Fête
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