Text: Alex Maines and Anne-Marie Forker
Photography: Anne-Marie Forker
A substantial crowd had gathered, filling the slope above the Hagen stage, to experience the Japanese metal band Envy. It was an experience. From the get-go, it was obvious that this would be something different. Frontman Tetsuya Fukagawa stood centre stage, his back turned, pushing tense, staccato syllables into the microphone, while bassist Manabu Nakagawa used a ‘cello bow. And then it exploded. The sound rapidly became chaotic, brutal, drummer Hiroki Watanabe threatening to drive the band over the edge into incoherence. However, the music was also oddly cinematic, and this dual atmosphere that would return throughout the concert. Fukagawa continued in his role as a kind of beat poet, sometimes half turned away from the audience, sometimes gesturing wildly out at them. On occasion, he seemed to be conducting the band, flexing and gesturing in time to the frantic music. With three guitarists, the sound is full and it covered a wide dynamic range, though one disadvantage of having them on the Hagen stage is that they were a little at the mercy of the wind, and some of the front-line got carried away, leaving Watanabe’s drums the dominant sound. Nobukata Kawai, guitarist and main song writer, provided both backing and some of the higher lines. Tsuyoshi «Yoshi» Yoshitake and Yoshimitsu Taki likewise shared the limelight across the numbers. There’s no “lead” guitar as such, just different parts and different contributions to the wall of sound that spooled out over the rise. The frontline were in almost constant motion. There are pop sensibilities in some of the pieces, something which makes the band’s music so hard to characterize, particularly given that they are not afraid to mix musical atmospheres within numbers not just between them. Even some of the darker pieces had major key progressions. So, we had the blackest of black metal, angry and dysphoric, which then slipped into a chorus which had echoes of Snow Patrol, u2, Radiohead. Then there are pieces where Fukagawa added synth textures and sequencer patterns, bringing us closer to electronica. It worked. So, it was striking but not surprising that the audience remained fixed to the spot. Despite the lyrics being in Japanese and the musical landscape being uncertain, shifting, frequently bleak, Envy held the crowd from first to last, which should be considered a triumph. Hats off to Øya for, again, bringing in something different and opening the door to an international artist of quality. Given the attendance, an appearance like this could easily serve as a springboard for another visit. Duomo adigato! 4.5/6 (AM)
British indie rockers Wet Leg played the Vindfruen stage, fronted by the charasmatic Rhian Teasdale, dressed in silver with multi-coloured hair and a fur collar. Opening the set with «Catch These Fists» from their latest album «Moisturizer», the substantial crowd were captivated. They sung along loudly to “Ur Mum” and “U and Me at Home”. The rest of the band, which are now a quintet rather than a duo, Josh Mobaraki, Ellis Durand, and Henry Holmes, were tightly knit and shone brightly during “Liquidize”, with their gritty guitar riffs and pounding bass. The band balanced new songs with older fan favourites such as «Wet Dream». The set ended with “Chaise Lounge”, “Mangetout” and “CPR”, and the atmosphere grew more intense with each track. Wet Leg know how to hold an audience in the palm of their hands and it is easy to imagine they might return to play the main stage one day. 4.5/6 (AMF)
Following on from their triumphant appearance in 2023 and their headline slot at mid-pandemie Øya in 2021, Brenn. were back and rightly on the main stage. The bowl around the Amfiet stage was full, well past the sound desk on the upper slope, all the way to the trees stage right, and it was a party. Right from the comic flailing 2001 A Space Odyssey intro, the atmosphere was energetic, good humoured, joyous. The music supported this, with an immediate high energy start, punchy, even a little edgy. This isn’t Hanson, after all – there’s a bit more attitude there. The crowd were in motion, like beans in a barrel, juddering and bouncing. Frontman Edvard Smith Save wasted no time and was down on the catwalk, owning the stage and the whole Amfiet from the first number, and Rémy Malchère Pettersen followed him not long after. The core of the crowd knew all the words, not just to the hits. It was a good selection from across their three albums. Save gestured to the crowd – “I want to see circles of death here, and over there” and waved his finger like he was stirring coffee. He had the crowd in the palm of his hand. But he got more. A huge tear appeared in the middle of the crowd. He had parted Amfiet better than King Knut. Then, the waves of enervated fans surged back in, colliding and ricocheting off each other. Despite all the orchestrated madness in the crowd, the band were on top form and gave as polished performance as they come, even if Save did slip up on the set list early on, tuning his guitar down for “Du Og Jeg” when that was the song after. “Drop D, the so-called Black Sabbath tuning” – everyone has taken their chance to tip their hat to Birmingham’s favourite sons. If there is such a thing as an afternoon headline slot, Brenn. own it at this festival, full stop. It would perhaps become kitsch if they started to perform at Øya every year, but I don’t see the fans complaining. It was joyous enough to suit the warm afternoon, but heavy enough to get us ready for Queens of the Stone Age. Nice work, gutter! 5/6 (AM)
Irish post punk band Fontaines D.C. delivered a powerful, melancholic and melodic set on the Sirkus stage that was so much more than post punk. The five piece opened the gig with the song “Here’s the Thing” from their latest album “Romance” (2024), which has elements of 90s alternative rock. (Check out the title track of the album for a riff that reminds you of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”.) They drew the audience, which was so big it expanded outside the tent, into a varied set showcasing the band’s expansive musical range, decorated with clever lyrics. There are nods to James Joyce and Vladimir Nabokov in the band’s songs. There were older tracks such as “Boys in the Better Land”, and newer tracks including «In the Modern World”, which sounded like Madrugada in places. Similarly to the Irish band Kneecap, who had appeared at the festival on the same day, Fontaines D.C. took the opportunity at Øyafestivalen to highlight their support for Palestine with the political messages «Free Palestine” and “Israel is committing genocide” displayed on the screen, the latter during the “selling genocide” line from “I Love You”. Never over theatrical (lead singer Grian Chatten slowly walks around in semi circles, dragging the mic stand) and maintaining an intimate connection with the adoring audience, the band closed their set with “Starburster”, to which the crowd sang along loudly. Watch this space – Fontaines D.C. may well become the biggest Irish band since U2. 5/6 (AMF)
Øyafestival has provided a broad range of musical styles this year. So, it was fitting to cap off Friday night with a proper rock performance, to take up the torch from Brenn’s earlier, more mischievous set. Queens of the Stone Age, though more often associated with the stoner rock sub-genre, seemed like a good choice to light up the twilight around Amfiet. However, it wasn’t going to be quite like that. The lighting was dark and moody, and atmosphere gritty, and the music also had something of that about it. This wasn’t a joyous upbeat summer set, but something more harsh. However, to judge from the crowd response alone, it was still the right decision. From the start, with “No One Knows”, the audience were involved. They sang along with verse and chorus, they chanted the main riff, they bounced up and down. This continued into “The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret” as Josh Homme and his band kept the pace up, taking no pause. Bassist Michael Shuman prowled around his spot on the stage, his head jerking in time to the beat. Guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen was the same, in almost constant motion when he had no backing vocals. Homme’s vocal duties kept him at this microphone for most of the set, but every guitar solo gave him a chance to move away, spinning his guitar around on his hip, leaning back and pulling faces.
In a set which dipped pretty evenly into their back catalogue, the vibe was quiet consistent, and, truth be told, despite the crowd energy, there was something a little subdued in the delivery. That’s not to say that the band weren’t tight – the technical side of the performance was fine – but something was missing. The songs were hard, played with punch and bravado, but they also seemed to disappear into the boisterous air around the stage. The wind had caused some difficulties with the sound earlier in the day, and you can’t sound-check and empty field. So perhaps that, combined with the shifts in genre over the course of the day meant that anyone but the most hardcore fan isn’t going to receive (and return) the energy from the stage. That said, it was still a full set, and well-chosen to fit the festival setting, with few deep cuts and largely the better numbers taken from the albums. You could argue the set lost its way a little in the middle, with too many changes of tone. “Carnavoyeur” from the latest record “In Times New Roman…” capped this off. It’s an interesting piece, and a more recent release, so it was good to see it on the roster, though it didn’t go down as well as the hit parade pieces from “…Like Clockwork” and “Songs For The Deaf”. However, there’s no doubting the set closed well, with three hard-hitting numbers delivered with real authority, “Little Sister”, “Go With The Flow” and, finally, “A Song For The Dead”, and again we were back with the crowd joining in with all the words. The fact that so many seemed to know the songs and knew most of the words says a lot for the level of support there was out on the grass and that this was the right close for the Friday night, just a shame that somehow the delivery fell flat and there wasn’t the right rapport between band and crowd. 4/6 (AM).
