Messed!Up
Way Out West is back! The festival that started in 2007 changed to whole festival scene in Sweden, by bringing the festival from the forests in the smaller towns to a major city and without camping options. They have continued to evolve throughout the years, by going taking the decision to go vegetarian, developing the area with more stages and so on.
The bread and butter of the festival in terms of lineup have since the start been indie music, but in recent years the lineup have moved more towards hip-hop and urban genres, even though that has always been a part of the program. I remember my first year, 2008, with Kelis and N.E.R.D. for example, but this year it was clear that a among the main headliners, this is lacking. They added Skepta to the lineup late, but the Kanye Wests (or whatever he´s called nowadays), Kendrick Lamar, or Frank Ocean are lacking. Instead the lineup, at least among the large names, has been tilted more towards rock and indie rock. For example Queens of the Stone Age but the cancelled as most people know by know, but was replaced by Jack White (impressive to find a replacement like that with short notice, especially as it was not Looptroop Rockers), The Smile which were replace by James Blake late (great work also with that replacement), PJ Harvey, The National, and Pulp. And I love that of course.
But the question to me was whether that would pull the huge crowds. The festival has grown considerably, especially since the pandemic. On Saturday 2023 Håkan Hellström performed to the largest crowds ever, but it was just too crowded, but I thought it might be a too narrow lineup. But the feeling during the first day of the festival was that it was really crowded again. The difference might be that we saw a more homogenic crowd than previous years, both in terms of age and everything else. But it´s interesting to see that it still works to book indie, or rock, and sell tickets. But when walking around in the area, it is also clear that large portions of the audience are there just to be there, rather than to see every single band, so Way Out West attracts much more broadly than ‘just’ the music.
The opening act was hometown queen Sarah Klang. Together with six band members she started out with the epic Canyon and later Bellyshots. She´s very sympathetic and it sounds great, but as the concert clashes with The Kills, I make a move. Better make a move fast.
The Kills is one of those bands that showed up in the early 00´s and got quite some recognition in the tough competence among band playing indie rock. After some years of hiatus they have been back touring again, and last year they released a new album. The band consists of Jamie Hince and Alison Mosshart, the latter who adds vocals on Meds by Placebo, objectively speaking the best band in the world of course.
On stage The Kills puts on a sparse show, with a drum machine and guitar by Hince, but it´s energetic and full throttle. It´s a really cool show with Mosshart being a great front person. And I feel pretty young a the audience. That is nice. Baby Nice comes early on, and they end with the hits Doing it to Death and Future Starts Slow.
Swedish Little Jinder plays on one of the Höjden, a stage that has developed over the last years from hosting talks to nowadays having shows with smaller bands. It´s a really nice stage. Little Jinder is always fun, and she has a proper mixologist on stage, serving drinks to the band. She is always on of the funniest artists around, with great stage banter (not often Eva Rydberg is mentioned at Way Out West. Well, it´s often of course, but not THAT often. I think).
Album opener ouvertyr opens the show, moving into my and my sons favorite Super 8. But once again it is a pretty major clash. One of the most important bands for me, and judging on the sizeable crowd, and many others, Big Thief played at the largest stage. They were the last band I had ticket to before the pandemic, and until the same day it was unclear if they would be able to perform but obviously, they cancelled and got back home. But I´ve waited since then to see them.
A few weeks ago they parted ways with the bassist for ‘interpersonal reasons’. They had to find a replacement fast and I wondered if that would affect the show, given the complex structure and long history of the band playing together in it´s original form. But to me at least, that was not an issue at all, with a highly competent replacement, making the band sound great.
Singer Adrienne Lenker is one of the most interesting artists out there, and she has an interesting stage presence. Both being introverted and open at the same time, it feels like she is connecting with the audience in her own way. Her voice sounds just awesome, and having such a tight relationship with the rest of the band gives a depth and strong connection, which gives them the possibilities to do more or less whatever they want. I was very proud of the following quote I thought about all by myself: they´re like Local Natives without a trust fund. I´m smart. And am probably wrong. I hope they all have trust funds. I would like one.
They play one of my favorites not early on, followed by Simulation Swarm. It´s pretty nice to see that band like them can play on the largest stage at that time slot and the audience being focused and really listening. It´s quite demanding music after all. In the end they play a new song, No Fear, but stops after around two thirds to restart. That’s quite a ballsy move but totally in line with the rest of the show. Really, really great!
After that, Air played their Moon Safari record. Love the record. They had nice clothes.
James Blake was great, but I was waiting for PJ Harvey. He acknowledged that it was too early for him, as the light show did not come to use at all. But the classics The Limit to Your Love, Retrograde and The Wilhelm Scream sounded just as good as they did 10 years ago.
But this was the night of PJ Harvey. I saw her at Primavera a few moths ago and thought it was great. Just as she started playing, the rain just poured down, and the second the last song ended, it stopped. She might be God. Probably.
It´s weird. She´s so theatrical in her appearance, but it never feels distanced. She´s such a performer, moving in and out of characters in her songs and sits down during a song to perform a contemplating school student in a bench, scribbling down some notes. The crowd adores her, and its surprisingly quiet despite being late. Prayer at the Gate opens the show, followed by a few songs from the last records, before moving into a chunk of songs from the epic Let England Shake. A few oldies show up, with Man-size and 50th Quieenie, and from Uh Huh Her they play The Desperate Kingdom of Love. And Down By the Water as the second to last song, good damn. GOOD DAMN.
The best show of the day, without a doubt.
Jack White ended the night with a bombastic show, but it was just too much for me at that point, but he really went for it, that´s for sure. Full attack from the first second. Great first day, that followed with a few songs of Henrik Palm at Musikens hus.
