2am. At the office. After Flow Saturday. Had such wonderful time enjoying some of the more mellow acts that decided to skip the clubs. Though I must say I'm already regretting skipping Sleigh Bells (and as I write this they've just started playing back at Suvilahti). The Sleigh Bells album, Treats, is not exactly my cup of tea (though I'd say the glass is half full, not empty), but like some reviewer wrote - that's the album M.I.A. should have released instead of Maya. Would have been a great band live ... aww, enough. Beach House - Walk in the Park - this gives me that goose thing still.
So what did I see today? Arrived a bit late and missed the start of Husky Rescue's set. What I did get to see was excellent. Ship of Light is a brilliant album, full of the kind of smart pop that makes you feel good without being feel good music. Live they were maybe even better. Will have to go and see them some other time for a full gig. Highly recommended.
Next up - a "Voimala concert" feat. Owen Pallett. With limited seating available I'd had to stand through Ulver on Friday. So, I thought, let me get to the venue, say, forty minutes before the concert. Yeah, right. There was a hundred meter plus queue already then. Made it in anyhow but the seats were naturally all taken and what place I managed to find had me craning my neck to get a view of the stage. But wow, what a gig. If Ulver's Voimala concert was the unlikely Friday highlight, then Owen Pallett was today's - and then some. The guy is a genius in crafting chamber pop that is certifiably artsy and at the same time immensely listenable and just plain good. Couple that with Pallett's enviable technical proficiency with the loop pedal and he puts up a live show that rocks - literally. Last year I missed most of Pallett's gig (as Final Fantasy then) as it clashed with Fever Ray. But I can still vividly remember how brilliant it was to walk from the main stage after Fever Ray - in a semi-conscious daze - and then stop by the tent stage and listen the final few songs of, um, Final Fantasy.
(Though in the name of full disclosure and with the risk of making it painfully obvious that I don't really know my music, at that time I had no idea what kind of music this artist, this "Final Fantasy" did. I had already decided that I would go for Fever Ray, and for some reason I had this impression that "Final Fantasy" was some sort of heavy metal group. I even remember thinking, why would they have heavy metal at Flow? Then again, why would they have black metal at Flow? By all means, if you have more black metal like Ulver, bring it on.)
After Owen Pallett it was off to the tent stage for the rest of the night. When I got there Junip was already up and running. I haven't listened to any Junip proper but Jose Gonzalez, yes. His cover of The Knife's Heartbeats is a nice counterpoint to the original - great song, great rendition. Junip as such wasn't a revelation or anything. Just good stuff.
Then it was time to don the keffiyeh (the black and white one, from Baalbek, Lebanon, "this one is very special - Hassan Nasrallah wears one like this!" - not exactly a positive thing). Omar Souleyman. From Syria. He started with a more traditional, slower song, A positive thing since that gave room especially for the call-response dynamics between Souleyman and the electric oud. Liked that one a lot. For some reason it brought back memories of night time bus trips from the north back to Damascus. The drives like to play that kind of stuff. Sitting in the bus, in the dark, headlights of cars passing on the highway, the dry Syrian landscapes, a village here and there, one moment awake, one moment asleep, thoughts can drift, the music, I think it works for the passengers, too. The rest of the gig - dance dance dance. That music, that you get when you grab any of the Damascene cabs, racing down the Mezzeh autostrada, playing chess, that is, the street has like four lanes but somehow the best chess players make room for some twice that parallel. (I've always thought Tetris is the more fitting metaphor but it seems like the USSR failed to export that invention at the time Arab socialism was still a going concern in Syria.) Omar Souleyman was billed by Flow as the wild card and I think they'll be happy that they did. People liked the gig and in a good way. There was always a risk that Omar would end up taken not that seriously, in a more Pensselisetä kind of way. There was perhaps a bit of that but for the most part people were expecting a show to dance to - and in that respect Omar Souleyman sure did deliver.
Beach House. The tent stage headliner, scheduled for the same slot as M.I.A. on the main stage. For me there was no question that Beach House it would be. I am not super particular about their two earlier albums (too somber and too demanding when you want some music you can code to) but their latest, Teen Dream, is worth all its Pitchfork nine-point-oh. For the gig I had huge expectations and they mostly, but not quite, delivered. Seemed like the band expected more from their mostly placid Finnish audience. Maybe they shouldn't have. After all their music works best when you just close your eyes and savor that delicious dream pop ambiance. A wonderful gig nevertheless. Just that something that would have made it extra special was missing.
As it is, Owen Pallett's performance wins the day on the superlatives count. Go see one of his shows if you can. I will.
P.S. Yeah, walking out towards the main gate I passed the packed main stage. M.I.A. was still on. Not being a big fan of her music I'll give it to her for being a cultural mashup artist par excellence. I got to hear Born Free from the new album which, I have to admit, did in all its affected aggressiveness work. She finished with (no surprises there) Paper Planes which, I hate to admit, was just awesome. So there.
