As those of you following ALL SCANDINAVIAN on Twitter probably discovered I spent my weekend in Denmark’s second city Aarhus attending the fifteenth SPOT Festival, which this year sported one of the best programs I can recall, not least because a number of our favorites where on the bill. Almost logistically flawless (apart from a cock-up at the grand opening Thursday), generally good weather (a little rain is to be expected in this part of the world) and 111 acts in various shapes and forms, mainly from Scandinavia and especially Denmark, it was again a really good experience.

That said, a festival can probably never avoid bad scheduling, but having the three electropunk party girls in Le Corps Mince De Françoise on at three in the afternoon was a big mistake. They should’ve played Friday or Saturday night, but they did against all odds manage to create a little party with their powerful stage presence and impressive number of potential hits. Something much hyped The Asteroids Galaxy Tour didn’t manage. It is a hype making sense when listening to their cool retro-soul and they do have some really good songs. Live, though, it didn’t really get anywhere and with their sloppy delivery it ended up being quite boring.

Not boring and anything but sloppy was Are We Brothers?. They are just an amazing live act! Very capable musicians, amazing energy and a crowd controller extra ordinaire in lead singer Lasse Boman – and the funky pop from their eponymous debut can’t but get an audience going. A great frontman is something Norwegian punk-pop outfit The Disciplines are also blessed with in Ken Stringfellow – to a certain extend. ‘Cause however entertaining it is to have a lead singer spend more time off stage than on, at five in the afternoon the novelty kinda wears off and ends up seeming a little forced. Or perhaps that’s just me…

What is definitely me is the combination of Nordic folk music and a Mac as it’s done by Valravn. That just gets me every time. The primitive vs the modern, nature vs. machine creates a very dynamic tension field and when executed by such skilled people as this Faroese/Danish outfit it’s magic. As instant ALL SCANDINAVIAN favorites ORKA, who was one of the acts I most looked forward to watch live after being blown away by their album ‘Livandi Oyða’ – and didn’t let me down. To an extend mocking about the same musical combo as Valravn, only darker and more industrial, they have a unique sound and their homemade instruments make it a visual feast. Unfortunately not many people gave themselves this mind-boggling live experience.

One guy having no problems gathering a crowd was electronica prodigy Mike Sheridan. With a completely packed 1600 capacity main concert hall one could fear that the “one man and his mixing desk” setup would be a visual catastrophe, but discrete white light and a massive big screen showing elegant, colorful visuals did – along with the melancholic, ambient electro from his impressive debut ‘I Syv Sind’ – create a beautifully moving parallel reality. Like eclectic genre cruiser Prins Nitram whose use of visuals play a little trick on the mind and take live vs. backtrack to whole new levels. Having prerecorded himself playing drums, keys, bass etc one man becomes three and it works wonderfully. The Friday ended where Saturday began with a short whiff of electro wonder-kids Electrojuice, who just keeps getting better. Not least live where they seem much more confident than last year at SPOT.