Messed!Up
As promised by the Danish Meteorological Institute, day 5 was one of the hottest festival days in years, and we had to crawl out of our tents at 8 am already to breathe some fresh air. Better up, it was the first festival day (well, half day) and the start of ticking off the line-up list. Tonight, we had Jinjer, Fontaines D.C., and Wet Leg on the list, and preparations started early – eat good food and skip the beer (well, almost). The heat, however, changed the plans a bit, and we had to break our golden rule: never go for a swim in the festival lake. Imagine going for a swim in a small pond (it’s not a lake, whatever some might claim) with 2,000 peeps that haven’t had a shower yet. Do I even need to point out that there’s no living thing in that pond? But with +34 in the sun, there wasn’t much choice.
As not much happened during the day, we thought we’d better go for some campsite touring. For the first time in 25 years, we had friends all over the campsite. When we started visiting the Roskilde Festival in the early 90s, it was like hanging out with the peeps in the neighborhood at home – everyone was at the Roskilde Festival. But then family happens, you know that thing that changes your life for a few decades? Well, kids grow up and move out, and their moms and dads decide to re-live their youth for a few days and revisit the festival for the first time since the early 2000s. This was such a year. Spread out all over the camp, from the caravan camp to Silent & Clean, friends from the past made their comeback. Memories from the past were exchanged, expensive wine bottles opened, and promises of meeting up at the festival for the next ten years were made. I’ve already signed this year’s festival as one of the best in decades. To be honest, we’re not young anymore, but the mix of people of different ages is what creates the atmosphere at the festival. The Roskilde vibe builds on people of different ages hanging out together. Just take our neighboring camp as an example; their age range is between 28 and 54.
That’s how it should be. A long tour – 16,000 steps – later, and it was time for the first gig. Ukrainian metalcore band Jinjer growled their way onto the EOS stage and slashed some brutal riffs off their guitars. However, Jinjer in daylight is not a fun experience. Not even the band seemed to have their best moment, although charismatic frontlady Tatiana Shmayluk did her best. Maybe it’s me. I’ve probably seen them too many times by now and need something new. Off we went to a Danish band called Slimo, and they were perfect for a break while having a drink (and a nap). But there were two bands we’ve been buzzing about for a while that were up next: first, Fontaines D.C. at the Orange Stage, and after that, super hyped Wet Leg at the Arena.
A few weeks ago, we went to Primavera Sound in Barcelona and had Fontaines as one of our must-see bands, but the show was a huge disappointment; the band looked tired despite (probably) playing in front of their biggest audience this summer. But hey, everyone has a bad day, and we still remember some amazing Fontaines gigs just after the pandemic – you have to give the lads a new chance, right? What did we get? Something even more boring than the Primavera Sound show. Come on lads, you made it to the stars in the shortest possible time due to rowdy shows, and now you just left that behind you? We left after 6-7 songs and walked over to the Arena to get a good spot at the Wet Leg show.
Wet Leg have been all over the music press for the last months, and when that happens and the excitement gets a little bit too much, my alert system starts – no one can be that good. So, it’s better to keep expectations low, right? Boy, was I wrong!? What an amazing show! Frontlady Rhian Teasdale is a rock star. She bursts onto the stage with swagger – flexing, prowling, occasionally setting aside her guitar to dominate the spotlight. It’s punchy, punky music that kicks things off with attitude and thumping rhythms, and the audience is with them from the start to the end. One of the best moments is when Teasdale ask the crowd to scream, and people responded with a massive collective scream at “Ur Mum,” for example, creating an almost cathartic release. This is what we want at festivals – speed, chaos, and energy! By far one of the best shows this year.
Now, the idea was to have a break and wait for Deftones to play at the same stage, but the summer heat did its best to assemble the thunderstorm gods, and there was a massive rain coming in accompanied by brutal flashes across the sky. As soon as it started to slow down we headed off to the camp to pick up our raincoats, but on arrival, it started to rain even heavier and we got stuck. It was either getting crushed by the flood or missing out on Deftones, a band we’ve seen 8-9 times over the years already. We went to bed at midnight.
Great start to the first day of the festival. Best moment of the day? Finding out that all old friends are back! Maybe there’s a chance of coming back until we retire after all.