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Archive for the ‘Daði Freyr’ Category

Daði Freyr: I’m Doing a Tour (Brooklyn Bowl, Philadelphia, PA, March 7, 2024)

Posted in Atomic Kitten, Backstreet Boys, Blusher, Brooklyn Bowl, Daði Freyr, Philadelphia, PA on March 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[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. (more…)

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Blusher (Brooklyn Bowl, Philadelphia, PA, March 7, 2024) [DAÐI FREYR]

Posted in Blusher, Brooklyn Bowl, Daði Freyr, Nelly Furtado, Philadelphia, PA on March 7, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 7, 2024] Blusher

I was pretty excited to see Daði Freyr again.  I didn’t pay much attention to the opening act.  Last time it wa a local musician whom I hadn’t heard of.

This time it proved to be an up and coming megastar band from Australia called Blusher.

Of course, when they came out, my wife and I thought that they were a local group of teenage girls.  They sang well, the song was catchy, but they seemed so young!

Then they introduced themselves (Jade, Lauren, and Miranda) and Jade’s Australian accent was terrific and we agreed that we instantly liked them at least 5% more.

I’ve now looked them up and learned they are not teenagers (or maybe they are, but they’ve been making music for a pretty long time, anyhow).  They opened for Aurora last year.  Jade Alice (her solo name) has been making music since 2015.

I enjoyed their lyrics, which weren’t profound but were more than standard pop lyrics.

Dead End has a really catchy pause mid-verse that draws you in.  I really like Limelight–super catchy chorus

They announced a cover that we might know (I didn’t), and then played their new rocking single “Rave Angel.”    It was followed by another new song “About You.”

Then came their first hit “Softly Spoken.”  I hadn’t heard of it but it has had a million streams.  The worldplay is pretty clever.  At the end of the song Miranda sang into a mgeaphone.  Unfortunately, it cut out while she was yelling at the end.

“Hurricane Chaser” was a fun song with a cool metaphor.  But the new song “Accelerator” had a mad fast dance beat and was super catchy.

They ended with “Backbone,” a catchy song about your friend hating your boyfriend: “You said you’d punch him in the chest if you ever met him.”  Super catchy, but an odd place to punch someone…ouch.

For this song they did some basic self-defense move choreography, which was cute.  The whole show they did very simple choreography–the kind that teenagers come up with when they’re singing in their bedroom.  It made them somehow even more adorable.

And the crowd ate it up. I felt like the crowd might have been a bunch of rubes or a bunch of plants–massive shrieking when all three waved their arms at the same time, and massive screams of pleasure when they all turned around to reveal they were–gasp–all wearing sunglasses.  It was a little weird, but it made the band feel great and I think their first show in the States was a huge success for them.

I’ve decided to follow them online to see how big they get, so I can say that I saw their first show in the States.

  1. Dead End ¿
  2. Limelight ¿
  3. Say It Right (Nelly Furtado cover)
  4. Rave Angel §
  5. About You §
  6. Softly Spoken ¿
  7. Hurricane Chaser ¿
  8. Accelerator §
  9. Backbone ¿
§ new songs (2024)
¿ Should We Go Dance? EP (2023)

 

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Daði Freyr: The Fabulous, Wonderful & Nice Tour (Theatre of Living Arts [TLA], Philadelphia, PA, September 17, 2022)

Posted in Ásdís, Band-Maid, Blær, Daði Freyr, Daði og Gagnamagnið, Eurovision, Iceland, Króli, Philadelphia, PA, Theatre of Living Arts on September 18, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 17, 2022] Daði Freyr

Daði Freyr has been in Eurovision twice and that’s how I know him.  He hasn’t won, but he won the hearts of many.  He was the leader of Daði & Gagnamagnið and was due to represent Iceland in Eurovision in 2020 with the song “Think About Things.”  But the event was cancelled and he was invited to represent them again in 2021 with the song “10 Years.”  They came in fourth place.

He is a goofy guy for sure–he is super tall (6 ft 9.9 in) with quite a deep voice.  In the performances his band was quite humorous dressing in identical sweaters with pixilated images of themselves.  Back then the group was his sister Sigrún Birna Pétursdóttir (backing vocalist), wife Árný Fjóla Ásmundsdóttir (dancer), and friends Hulda Kristín Kolbrúnardóttir (backing vocalist), Stefán Hannesson (dancer), and Jóhann Sigurður Jóhannsson (dancer)—known as “Gagnamagnið”. Gagnamagnið, while translated to English as “the Data”, literally means “the amount of data”, and is the Icelandic word for “data plan”.

But for this tour it was a trio–he is on synths, with percussionist Ylva Øyen and guitarist Pétur Karl rounding out the trio.

His videos are exceptional-he really has the visual side of things down perfectly.  I wasn’t sure how he would translate live, but I had to take the opportunity to see him.  He was not only a great, engaging frontman, he was very funny as well.  He told us that he has to stop moving his microphone stand so much, so if he did we should yell Hey!  But not in a mean way.

He started with “Thank You,” a classic synth pop song.  His voice is surprisingly deep and yet very warm at the same time.

He stood between two small synth rigs and sang “thank you for being fabulous, wonderful, and nice.” It was earnest and catchy.  But he immediately started joking with us since the next song was called “Shut Up” (nothing personal, he assured us).  “Shut Up” had a disco feel with the slinky guitars.  The song ended with him pointing to everyone pretty much individually and quickly singing Shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up. (more…)

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Meet the Bug (Theatre of Living Arts [TLA], Philadelphia, PA, September 17, 2022) [DAÐI FREYR]

Posted in Band-Maid, Cavetown, Daði Freyr, Daði og Gagnamagnið, Meet the Bug, Philadelphia, PA, Theatre of Living Arts on September 17, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 17, 2022] Meet the Bug

When Daði Freyr announced his U.S. tour, I grabbed a ticket right away.  i wasn’t sure if there would be an opening act.  And it wasn’t until a few days before the show that it was announced that Meet the Bug would open.  Who is Meet the Bug?  We’ll let their bio explain:

Meet the Bug is the solo endeavor of Philadelphia-based bedroom pop polymath Cariahbel Azemar. Her latest EP Beet The Mug is “a vibey meditation on keys and glimmery vocals that tackles heavy childhood trauma from the perspective of an emerging artist realizing the power of her voice.” Azemar uses her songs as a sort of diary, cataloging the highs and lows of coming into adulthood as someone who is both on the spectrum and ADHD.

Born in Port au Prince, Haiti and raised in the Georgia suburbs, Azemar began taking classical piano lessons at the age of four. … While at a performance by one of her primary inspirations, Cavetown, Azemar noticed someone she knew in the opening band – meaning, to her, that maybe she could do this, and so she shall. Thus Meet The Bug was born. Coinciding with the start of the pandemic, Meet The Bug’s early focus was her YouTube channel, where she mostly posts covers and originals. Now an active member of the Philly DIY community, Azemar can be found performing in house venues, bars, and cafe’s about town. Most recently, she played support for Daði Freyr at the Theatre of the Living Arts in Philadelphia.

Clearly this went up after I saw her.

Her set was delightful.  Lyrically the songs might have been a little dark, but they were more angsty and hopeful.  But she sang with a gentle voice and, best of all, nearly all of her songs were played on a ukulele–a fairly large ukulele (maybe a small guitar? but i think it had four strings).  This gave her songs a kind of sunny vibe. (more…)

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David Sedaris–“Girl Crazy” (New Yorker, October 14, 1996)

Posted in Daði Freyr, Daði og Gagnamagnið, David Sedaris, Drinking, Ellen DeGeneres, Essays, Eurovision, Funny (ha ha), Homophobia, Iceland, LGBTQ, New Yorker, Racism, Sex, Sexism on May 20, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: DAÐI FREYR OG GAGNAMAGNIÐ-“10 Years” (Iceland, Eurovision Entry 2021).

I first learned about Daði og Gagnamagnið last year when Eurovison didn’t happen.  I have no idea how they came on my radar (something in Instagram, I assume).

Daði og Gagnamagnið is the creation of Daði Freyr Pétursson.  Much like The ROOP, the visuals from Daði and his band are what really sells the song(s).

Daði is the composer/musician and in performances, he is supported by his sister Sigrún Birna Pétursdóttir (backing vocalist), wife Árný Fjóla Ásmundsdóttir (dancer), and friends Hulda Kristín Kolbrúnardóttir (backing vocalist), Stefán Hannesson (dancer), and Jóhann Sigurður Jóhannsson (dancer)—known as “Gagnamagnið”. Gagnamagnið, means “the amount of data”, and is the Icelandic word for “data plan”.

And the real selling point?  Teal green sweaters with pixelized portraits of themselves on them.  Last year’s “Think About Things” was pretty awesome (the video is incredible).  A blast of disco fun.

This year’s “10 Years” opens with a string quartet playing a sad sounding melody and then Daði appears singing in his deep clipped style.  Then a huge disco bass line comes in and before you know it, the song is in full dance mode–a swinging disco confection with the remarkable hook

Everything about you [pause} I like.

Add in some disco wah wah guitars and some irresistibly dopey dance moves and its impossible to look away.

And what on earth are the weird keytars?  Presumably homemade and non-functioning except that now they shoot sparks from the bottom.

Just when you think its all over, up pops a fairly large choir of little girls to sing along before the disco resumes.

And then it’s over but they are not done because after an awkward pause of them standing there, one of the guys shoots a confetti cannon at the camera.

Novelty?  Sure.  Funny?  Absolutely.  Catchy?  Definitely.

UPDATE: This song came in fourth.

[READ: May 10, 2021]  “Girl Crazy”

Back in the mid to late 1990s, David Sedaris wrote a few Shouts & Murmurs for the New Yorker.  It’s interesting to see a writer whom you know for a certain style of writing crafting jokes in a very different manner.  Shouts & Murmurs are rarely actually funny, and that’s true of most of these.

Obviously the topical nature of most of these means there’s a component of “wait, what was going on?”, but the set up usually explains everything pretty well.  Now we are more likely to say, “Aw, remember when that’s all we cared about?”

This piece is about when Ellen DeGeneris’s character Ellen was about to come out on Ellen.  (Wow, remember when that was a big deal?).  And like several of these pieces, these are written as letters to the person in charge.

There are five letters here.

The first suggests that a six year old boy from North Carolina wouldn’t have gotten in trouble for sexual harassments for kissing a girl in his class if only he had kissed a boy.  The network best not mess with Regis and Kathie Lee. (more…)

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