Magnus Moriarty™, I Was a King, Soup, Bushman’s Revenge, The Thing @ TEIP festivalen. Trondheim, Norway 19-21st March 2009

TEIP Festivalen is the Trondheim student radio Radio Revolt’s festival. Fronting a great amount of new Norwegian acts this year, Nö Music were happy to show our love and respect.

Magnus Moriarty™

So, I think it was back in 2001 I first saw and heard Magnus. At the time with help from among others Truls Heggero of now Lukestar and Truls & The Trees fame. I remember not beeing too impressed with him live, but as he gave me a cd-r of what was (or was to become) his first album, I figured I had discovered one of Norway’s most talented makers of pop. And since then I’ve waited for an opportunity to see him perform again.

Things have been quiet around Magnus — untill last year when he released another great album. With Perhaps Interior Heart Politeness just out, and eight years of waiting, you could say my expectations were high.

Quietly opening the show was Magnus and his betrusted label mate Marius Ergo. Bursting in to the second song with a full band, it was clear that the so-called quality of sound was to ruin this gig. What’s normally quirky indie pop sounded like a Norwegian folk music band. I wish I had something else to tell you besides how the fiddle outweighed the vocals, or actually pretty much the entire band; or how the songs were unrecognizable… Hopefully I won’t have to wait eight more years before I catch him again.

I Was a King

It’s funny how the present Norwegian “underground” scene (if there is one) is so heavily inspired by a scene they in no way were able to follow back in the days. I mean, I’ve seen Sonic Youth, and I’ve seen My Bloddy Valentine and Teenage Fanclub, but that wasn’t untill 2000. Maybe it’s not weird, but actually the reason; we never had the chance to see Sonic Youth rocking out in their early twenties, so when it’s copied by a new Norwegian act it feels fresh and new instead of passé and outdated.

Not that I want to accuse IWAK of doing this. Quite contrary. Where many Norwegian bands play 90’s indie rock focussing on mimicking one band like SY or MBV, IWAK shows a product of varied inspiration. And even though live (at least this night) it’s kinda hard to seperate the songs from each other, it sure sounds like drunken summer festival nights of 2009.

Soup

Despite their not particularly above avarage band name, band logo and gig poster we went to check out this Trondheim outfit. Bands from Trondheim are well known to rock out and when they don’t, they post rock out. Soup is no different. Sounding like a mix of Flaming Lips (Soft Bulletin aera and onwards) electronics and, uh, post rock, I braced my self for lenghty instrumental landscaping and moon rocketting take offs. But this is actually where they let me down.

They have 60%, no make that 70, great material, and 30%… not that great. When they finally caught me in their massive and repeatative riffs and slowly left Earth, they interrupted the adventure by well, ending the songs. What can I say? I like my post rock adventurous and lenghty, and if they added an extra minute to their 70%, I would see them again. Well, I suppose I will anyway. They sound like they’re still searching, but have found coordinates I’m curious to see what reveal.

Bushman’s Revenge

After a good but not great welcome of their album from our reviewer, I entered Blæst this night with no expectations at all really. Boy was I in for a treat. Bushman, while having their feet firmly planted in the jazz scene, sounded more like three bands onstage performing three different genres at once. They’ve got their this-is-jazz-that’s-why-I-play-in-God-knows-what-rhythm-thing in place, but take that into, or back into, a mixture of 70’s rock, 90’s sludge and stoner. Still, it never sounds like they’re removing their music from whatever you want to define as jazz. It just keeks ass.

The Thing

The Thing is the band consisting of members even people outside the jazz world knows the name of. And of course the band, a fact that no promoter would let us forget, have a connection to Sonic Youth. How is one to describe The Thing as an live act? Awesome! (The true meaning of the word, not the hot dog version).

When Paal Nilsen-Love starts speeding up his punk attitude free jazz drumming, and you cannot see his hands that’s how fast it is, and still somehow manages to move around a cloth napkin from drum to drum, it’s just awesome!

And when Ingebrigt Haker Flaten plays his bass from sweet angels-kissing-you-in-the-ear melodies to I-hate-the-world-so-much-I-will-play-this-rhythm-that-not-even-nature-knows-exist-and-therefore-all-evil-in-the-world-will-also-cease-to-exist bass it’s just awesome! Mats Gustafsson is of course not letting the band down, and when he makes his sax sound like twenty different instruments and voices, it’s just awesome!

And never have I seen girls scream in front of the stage in no gig ever. Does this make The Thing The Beatles of the jazz world? I don’t know. I do know that they’re awesome!

Photos: Nils Kristian Thompson Eikeland

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