I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: March 7, 2024] Daði Freyr 

I saw Daði Freyr about a year and a half ago on his first tour of the United States.  So now I’ve seen ALL of his appearances in Philadelphia (two).  I enjoyed the first one so much I grabbed a ticket for my wife and daughter as well.  Turned out that my daughter had a school thing she couldn’t miss.  And had I looked up the details, I would have seen the the show was sold out and I probably could have sold my ticket.  I never would have guessed it had sold out, but look at that poster–sold out up and down the country.

To my knowledge, Daði Freyr was only known from his Eurovision songs.  I had no idea that he made any kind of inroads into the US.  When I saw him last time there were some die hard fans at the show.  But this was crazy. There was a woman in front of us who, when he sang “Sunshine” nearly passed out saying “I can’t believe he’s real.”

Fascinating.

I went last time as a lark.  I went this time because I enjoyed his show and thought my family might too.  It was quite eye opening.

Like last time, the band was a trio–Daði is on synths, guitar and bass, Ylva Øyen on drums and keys and Pétur Karl on guitars and synth.

Center stage was a giant inflatable head of Daði and there were two giant hands on either side of the stage.  There was an announcement before the show in which Daði thanked us for coming and told us to look into the eyes and the souls of the people around us and get ready to dance with them.

They came out on stage and the crowd went nuts.  Appropriately, they started with “Thank You,” a classic synth pop song.  His voice is surprisingly deep and yet very warm at the same time.

last time, he followed this up with the rather amusing “Shut Up” but this time he jumped right into an older Icelandic language song–and the crowd went even crazier.

He noticed that at least one person from Iceland was in the crowd (they must have shouted something), and he told everyone to ignore that person and draw all of their Icelandic attention to him–no sharing, except perhaps a little with Pétur Karl.  We could give as much attention to Ylva Øyen as we wanted because she was from Norway.  But all Icelandic attention went to him–a great dry dense of humor.

After “Sunshine” he picked up a guitar that he bought last time he was in Philly (I remember him telling us that).  And he had written this song about Philly on that guitar.  He then improvises a (very bad) song about Philly in which he most said the word Philly a lot all while laughing).  He also said he’d never played in a bowling alley before, so it’s crazy that this song had lyrics about that too.  he promised after the next song he was going to go and throw a strike,

And so, after “Where We Wanna Be,” he did indeed bowl a strike.  It was such a great strike, that it broke the screen which was saying that he’d only gotten one pin down.  He bowled two more times, never getting a strike, but we all celebrated as if he had.

His latest album came out at the end of last year.  So he played a lot from it.  he had also played a bunch of songs from it last time (a year before it came out, so he must not be a very fast writer).

One thing I enjoyed last time was when he played “Kemur Þér ekki við” and Pétur Karl rapped on it.  He did it again tonight and it was equally fun, even if I have no idea what he was rapping about).

After another older song, he moved on to four songs that he hadn’t played last time.

Interestingly, despite the fact that he put out the new album fairly recently he had just released a two track single.   He played the B-side “Outside” first and told us that the song was about….”personal/private things….isn’t he allowed to have personal private things?”

Then came the super catchy “Moves to Make.”

His bandmates left the stage and allowed him to play the ballad “Trying” by himself.   It was a nice tender moment (and most of the fans were pretty excited by it).

The band came back and he launched into the awesome euro-dance of “Bitte” (sung in German).  It was great.

Then it was time for the big hit, “10 Years” and the crowd was appreciative, of course.  It was followed by “I’m Fine” a newish song that he played last year and is super catchy.

Next came the dark (visually) and kind of spooky seduction of “If You Want To.”  It’s a really sexy song about consent.  Well done, Daði .

Last time Ylva Øyen sang a verse from Endurtaka mig and I was pretty delighted that she got to come out from behind the drums to dance along the front of the stage (last time I thought she sang a lot more, but I could be wrong).

The new single is “I’m Not Bitter.”  It starts slow but it has a super danceable chorus.   he ended the set with his first Eurovision single, “Think About Things” which led to much dancing and singing along.

Instead of an encore break, he ran off and bowled a ball (and did not get a strike).  Then he strapped on his guitar and played a verse and chorus of “Backstreet’s Back.”  I didn’t recognize the song until the chorus, but the Philly natives laughed in appreciation right from the start.

They ended the set with another cover–there was no Chicken Dance this time, sadly.  This time it was “Whole Again” by Atomic Kitten.  I didn’t know the song or the band (they are a British pop band).  But the crowd seemed to know it.  It was catchy and dancy and I have just read was written by the guys from O.M.D.).

As I said last time, Daði Freyr is an outstanding performer.  He knows how to get an audience going.  He’s funny and charismatic and a delight to see live.  I guess when he comes back in a few years, he might be heading toward an even bigger venue.