Swedish Parker!

I just discovered the most relaxing bar in Stockholm.

Sitting right by the water, enjoying a glass of white wine, everything’s so calm, so chilled…

Doesn’t hurt that it’s just a five minute stroll from The Mansion either.

What have I been missing all summer.

Basically translates to something like “Fluorescent (or Luminous, or Glowing in the dark), Kent!”

Quite possibly the one band in Sweden that EVERYBODY knows.

…and the one that just about everybody likes as well.

They seem a bit like the Powderfinger of this country.

No matter whether you’re an Indie Douchebag or a Poppy EuroTrash Fan, it seems acceptable for anyone to like Kent.

Every young Swede knows at least a couple of their songs, and every kid my age has a bunch of random teenage memories associated with them.

It also doesn’t hurt that they only sing in Swedish, or that they carry the title of “Sveriges största rockband” (Sweden’s biggest rockband).

So for all of the above reasons, they were able to fill up an entire football ground in Stockholm last weekend (granted it wasn’t quite the M.C.G., but still, not bad for a single local band).

What really summed it up though, was the crowd.

It’s like when you go to a gig, and the fans start screaming as soon as the band plays the first few chords of their most popular track (that was me, last week, when MGMT played “Time To Pretend”).

Only with Kent, that’s EVERY song.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcQjrCvNBZM[/youtube]

This guy was the support act, he was pretty sweet. Some famous old punk rocker that now has THE raspiest voice I’ve ever heard.

I took these pics the other night.

We had the Summer Solstice a few days ago, meaning that even in Stockholm (which is a long way south of the Arctic Circle) the sun is rarely disappearing.

This is about as dark as it’s been getting lately:

No wonder I’m in no rush to go home…

Of course it also means that the birds start chirping outside my window at 2:30am… but it’s a small price to pay

More brilliant music in Sweden!

I went to this festival last year when it was held in the wide open spaces of Stockholm University. This time round it was in a much more intimate setting – at the old Munich Brewery (which reminded me of the Laneway Festival back in Brisbane..).

There were indie kids everywhere. I saw no less than five Flock-of-Seagulls haircuts for christ’s sake… (it’s a hell of a long way from Stureplan).

But I also saw some bloody good music, just quietly.

Foals (quite possibly the highlight of the entire festival), Band of Horses (not bad…), Brian Jonestown Massacre (their lead singer is a f#$king douchebag! But they play good music.), Vampire Weekend (the surprise “brilliant set” of the festival), MGMT (the coolest guys in rock), and Black Kids (the most nervous guys in rock).

*******************************************************

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBQOdCCzzvk[/youtube]

The most eagerly-anticipated song of the festival, fact.

I’m feeling rough, I’m feeling raw, I’m in the prime of my life.
Let’s make some music, make some money, find some models for wives.
I’ll move to Paris, shoot some heroin, and fuck with the stars.
You man the island and the cocaine and the elegant cars.

…have truer words ever been spoken?

*******************************************************

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxlCFPGT_Ec[/youtube]
Takes the award for “best song I’d never heard before the festival but can’t stop listening to since”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=419fQYuWyB0[/youtube]
Catchiest song of the festival, by a long shot.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ff4L7U98mo[/youtube]
Just a bunch of fun little indie kids playing cool music. What could be better?

Oh and this was just pure gold:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgTvloqrY9U[/youtube]

MGMT played a brilliant, brilliant set. Afterwards one of the random backpackers I’d met at the festival got talking to the drummer, who mentioned they were heading into the city to do a guest-DJ set at a pretty nice club.

So we immediately thought, “hey lets go band stalk” and headed over there.

The MGMT guys are trippy indie rock-stars, not DJs, so it was fun to watch them play around with their new toys and spin some cool music at a club that’s usually reserved for the elite of Stockholm.

[some pics]

[and loads of videos]

Heja Sverige!

Swedish Parker has come full circle – I started this little escapade a tad over 12 months ago, when I flew all the way to America just to see a band play.

But not just any band… the best damn band in the fucking universe! Rage Against the Machine!

This time round they were playing a festival in the tiny little Swedish town of Hultsfred. So Amanda jumped on a plane from London and then we caught the first train south from Stockholm.

The instantly-recognisable Rage Against The Machine Star going up in the background (yes, we got there quite early).

We were practically the first ones there. The festival gates didn’t even open for an hour after we got off the train… So we had all day to check the place out.

Saw some bloody brilliant Swedish acts, just quietly. Including Markus Krunegård (who had the young girls screaming).

For some reason they had his stage roped off before he came on. The entire area was blocked off by… a tiny little piece of “security tape” (which kept breaking anyway).

It continues to amaze me how polite the Swedes are. If this was the Big Day Out and that happened, it would be chaos.

But no, the locals just stand around, ever so politely, waiting for the OK to go in.

We managed to get a glimpse of Adam Tensta. I can’t stand 99% of his music, but there is one song that is so ridiculously catchy, I forced Amanda to watch his set (but “only until he plays that one song, promise.”).

Of course it ended up being the very last song he played… so we were jumping around to hip-hop music with a bunch of teeny-boppers for a good hour or so :-/

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ijRSzli-p8[/youtube]

We saw Pete Doherty finally turn up and play a gig in Sweden (he spent last year’s Hultsfred festival in a Swedish police station – drugs..) and put on a brilliant Babyshambles set. (Even throwing in a few old Libertines tracks. Nice!)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZCgQ6rzMcQ[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vvwRnXlFw0[/youtube]

So by the time Rage Against The Machine came on at midnight we were running on the smell of Red Bull…

But the second Zack walked out and announced “Good evening we are Rage Against The Machine from Los Angeles, California.” the crowd went mental, we both got a huge shot of adrenalin, and everyone went crazy screaming along for the next 90 minutes.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DchcS2ekaXE[/youtube]

At a festival back home, this would have well and truly been the last act of the night. But no, the Swedes like to keep partying. So there was music up until about 4am.

Which was a good thing for us, our train home didn’t leave til 6am…

We left Stockholm Central Station at 7:00am Thursday and got back to Stockholm Central Station at 10:00am Friday. Ouch…

But of course, it was definitely all worth it…

(pics)

Mmmmm…

Pimms!!

24 Hours of Swedish National Day festivities.

A glorious day for Nationaldagen.

29 degrees and clear blue skies.

So Leo and I did the only logical thing we could think of…

Go cave exploring.

We took a bus to the middle of nowhere, in the countryside south of Stockholm. Hiked through the bush for a while before we found a few tiny little entrances into a maze of even tinier little tunnels.

Fortunately it was right next to a beautiful, secluded little beach.

***********************************
Stockholm AFL League (SAFF), Round 5
***********************************
Solna Axemen def. Bromma Vikings

Qtr Time: 1.2.8 || 7.3.45

Half Time: 6.7.43 || 8.3.51

3Qtr Time: 9.10.64 || 9.7.61

Full Time: 12.16.88 || 9.9.63
***********************************
***********************************

They’re already calling it the performance of the year.

The Mighty Solna Axemen turn around an abysmal first quarter to run over the top of the hapless Vikings, kicking 11 goals to 2 after qtr time.

The storming North-Easterly blowing through “Bromma Stadium” (a.k.a. that-little-rugby-field-behind-the-airport, kinda in the middle of nowhere) turned it into a quarter to quarter shootout.

But it was the shared goal-kicking performance of gun forward Joel “Buddy” Tjernlund and tearaway midfielders Coach “Former Male Model” Kingsley and Star-Recruit Mark, plus some very stubborn third term defense (the Vikings kicking a solitary with-the-wind goal), that got us up.

The win skyrockets us from dead last to first place (gotta love a three team league!).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omW7smvEXmU[/youtube]

Something called “Studenten” (the graduation party of Stockholm’s high schoolers).

It’s simple… hire a truck and fill it with:

- high school graduates

- music

- trees (wtf?)

- messages scrawled on sheets

- …plenty of alcohol.

Times that by 50 and have one big party, driving through the streets of Stockholm.

A very boggling sight.

Why didn’t we get to do this in Australia??

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdHlWFz7oaw[/youtube]

Iron Boy (aka Järnepojke), one of my best friends in Stockholm.

When Amanda and I discovered Stockholm three years ago, we spent a good half day wandering around Gamla Stan trying to find this little guy. All we knew was, he was in a courtyard behind a church… but there are a lot of churches in the Old Town.

It was all worth it though – we bonded as soon as we met and now I can call him a good friend.

Iron Boy doesn’t talk much, but he’s a good listener, and he’s always there for you.

He also loves to meet new people, hence little Järnepojke becoming something of a staple for my Stockholm Guided Tours.