May 27-29 I found myself in Sweden, the town of Hässleholm to be exact, attending this year’s Siesta! Festival along with approximately 9000 others, predominantly Swedes (who, by the way, are a very nice and – especially the female half of the population – good looking bunch). It’s a small, intimate and very peaceful festival with only a few reported scrimmages, some theft on the camping area and just under 30 drug and alcohol related arrests, the latter concerning people being too drunk. Whatever that is. Oh, and the music was generally quite good, too, with Swedish bands filling most slots. Here’s what I caught:

The Bear Quartet (Photo)
I was rather disappointed with The Bear Quartet. They just didn’t play well and it’s been a while since I’ve seen a non-emo band look this life-weary on stage as they delivered a set of all new, afro-oriental rock material (check out four tracks here – nothing wrong with the music).

Johnossi
Touring on the back of their third album, ‘Mavericks’, guitar ‘n drums duo Johnossi delivered a powerful performance of their effective “White Stripes if they’d done Swedish pop” style rock.

Babian
Malmö based quartet Babian dished out high octane political garagerock as it was done some 50 years ago, including a nice little remake of Peggy Lee’s ‘You Give Me Fever’ in Swedish. Great…

Timo Räisänen
The former Håkan Hellström sidekick Timo Räisänen opened the main stage Saturday with a solid if unspectacular set of his danceable indiepop, a highlight being his version of Sugababes’ ‘About You Now’.

Amanda Jenssen
Amanda Jenssen also has a cover in her set, closing it with Cab Calloway’s ‘Minnie The Moocher’. Although an appropriate choice of song, it does strike me as a little unnecessary as her and cowriter/guitarist Pär Wiksten’s material is far strong enough to create the party I assume is the goal. Anyway, after seeing her in front of a fairly dead audience at SPOT Festival it was great to catch her on home ground and it was again a grand show.

First Aid Kit
After this it was time for a quick peak at First Aid Kit. That sisters Klara og Johanne Söderberg have something special is beyond question, and live they managed to add further intensity to their beautiful folk.

bob hund
Legendary bob hund have something very special, too. They have one of the best frontmen around in singer Thomas Öberg, who is the very impersonation of what it is rock can – and should – do to people. Simply incredible. (Oh, and the band is really quite good, too).

The Hives
Another great and effective frontman is The Hives’ Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist, and when he’s leading on in bombs like ‘Walk, Idiot, Walk’, ‘Tick Tick Boom’ and ‘Hate To Say I Told You So’ you have to be anesthetized and paralyzed not to jump along.

Teddybears
The setup was big with the coolest karaoke screen ever, the sound massive and with one exception in the lead singer, who is either talentless or couldn’t hear what was going on (either way he was completely out of tune), Teddybears’ show as a whole was pretty dang awesome. The perfect way to end a Friday night.

Elias & The Wizzkids
Elias Åkesson and his Wizzkids, who have their second album ‘Just Do It!’ out now, kicked off my Saturday with their immensely charming and convincing pop carried by Åkesson’s scratchy voice and often quite funny storytelling in the lyrics on life, love and the people in between.

Anna von Hausswolff
Also convincing was Anna von Hausswolff in the short time I spent in her presence. Not only sporting the coolest surname perhaps ever, she’s a singer with a vocal to drown in. Dramatic and intense.

Maskinen
One of the two biggest parties at the Chili stage during the festival were delivered by electro-hoppers Maskinen. Some of the finer points in their Swedish, jocular lyrics are lost in the speedy delivery, but then there’s always the music. Last year the gang went to Brazil to work with local talent, and that has had audible and excellent effect on their sublime beats throwing the crowd in to a frenzy.

Mew (DK)
Frenzy isn’t a word used often when describing Danish experimental rock darlings Mew. Creating emotional rather than physical uproar, the trio plus two easily transferred the epic sound and feel from albums (latest ‘No More Stories…’ from 2009) to stage. Impressive.

Familjen
The other big party at the Chili stage Saturday night had Hässleholm’s own son Familjen aka Johan T. Karlsson as guest of honor. With another local hero, Andreas Tilliander, handling the tracks, the mood was ecstatic both off and onstage from the get-go with ‘It Began In Hässleholm’ from the new album ‘Mänskligheten’, which made up a good part of the set. A great concert.

Röyksopp (NO)
Their only festival gig in Sweden this year and Norway’s Röyksopp seemed intent on making it a memorable one. With very elegant use of smoke and lights, a bass player and oft-used album guest vocalist Anneli Drecker to accompany and spice up Torbjørn Brundtland and Svein Berge’s impressive number of electro-hits sporting equal parts Kraftwerk precision, Jean Michel Jarre grandeur and Scandinavian cool, that was just what they did.