Nibe Festival day 2 with D-A-D in the rain and Rasmus Seebach as a hit machine

Day two at Nibe Festival offered a varied programme featuring names such as Saveus, D-A-D, Rasmus Seebach, Spleen United, Ida Laurberg and Infernal, with the festival demonstrating both its strength and its breadth, ranging from intimate pop and rock to heavy electronic dance music, where the contrast between the different styles became increasingly apparent throughout the day.

‘Now comes the one with the dog,’ exclaims singer-songwriter Ida Laurberg before the final song, “Terrier”, which is about being small, easy to overlook and yet determined to stand your ground. ‘But you’d better watch out, because I’m 1.60 metres tall.’ Even at this point, her characteristic blend of humour and vulnerability shines through.

Last summer, for some reason, Ida Laurberg found herself on the biggest stage at Nibe Festival, and although certain rock elements appear throughout her set, particularly thanks to guitarist Kasper Falkenberg’s forceful playing, her voice and style do not quite have enough power for the very largest setting. At its core, her music is cheeky and often rather quirky intimate pop, revolving around relationships, especially those that have fallen apart.

This becomes apparent in one song where she tells an ex-boyfriend how little she thinks about him and how completely she has moved on. In another, darker and blackly humorous number, she dreams of someone else’s partner dying so that she can have her chance. It is especially during “Sofa” that she truly rises above, telling the story of an ex-boyfriend who has moved on with her best friend, ‘the one we moved the sofa for’, with the song gradually building musically and gaining far greater emotional weight.

Over the course of five quarters of an hour, the audience is thoroughly entertained on a smaller and far more suitable stage, where her delightfully chaotic pop universe unfolds. Songs such as “Jeg kan rigtig godt li’ dig” and “Håber din kæreste dør” gain an extra live energy that suits them perfectly, while newer material suggests she is moving in a slightly heavier direction, already evident in “Lige før lukketid”, which lingers long after the concert has ended. At the same time, she repeatedly demonstrates that her voice possesses far more power and cuts through much more effectively than the impression given by the radio hit versions.

Dance with Machine Bass

How the 29-year-old dance-pop project Infernal, known for the huge hit and later signature song “From Paris to Berlin” from 2004, ended up on the main stage at Nibe Festival in broad daylight on a Thursday afternoon under grey skies and temperatures of 18 degrees Celsius is not entirely clear. It strongly suggests that the organisers made their decision based on the group’s former popularity, when Lina Rafn and Paw Lagermann dominated the charts far more extensively.

The problem, however, is that Infernal have now moved significantly away from their original dance-pop sound towards a much harsher electronic and at times almost metallic techno-pop expression, where the heavy machine bass constantly dominates the soundscape and pushes the melodies into the background.

In practice, this means that everything resembling singalong moments or easily recognisable hooks is overwhelmed by a relentless pounding bass, reducing the concert for long stretches to a physical experience of sound rather than a musical experience of melody and dynamics.

The result is a concert where the audience mainly stands swaying to a constantly pulsating wall of sound, and where even their biggest hit, “From Paris to Berlin”, only just manages to break through the massive production.

For the man standing next to me, who has been a devoted fan for decades and normally attends every single concert, this development feels like a decline from former heights. The conclusion is that the performance would have worked much better as a more traditional Infernal concert on a smaller stage after dark, where the classic dance elements would have had room to breathe instead of drowning beneath the current sonic overload.

Colourful Interlude with D-A-D

Almost fifteen minutes late, the Danish hard rock band D-A-D finally take to the stage to the sound of “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?”, played by what sounds like a marching drum corps. At that exact moment, torrential rain begins to pour down, becoming heavier and heavier, denser and denser, continuing well into the ferocious “Written in Water”.

The rain comes and goes, but at no point does it hold brothers Jesper and Jacob Binzer, Stig Pedersen and Laust Sonne back. Quite the opposite. They charge ahead with their direct, hyper-efficient monster rock, where guitars, bass and drums remain in top gear throughout. They largely stick to their familiar classic material, though they also find room for the more recent “Speed of Darkness”.

Throughout the performance, the four musicians embrace every well-known hard rock cliché, but they do so with a disarming sense of humour, from the tall hats and oversized boots to the bones decorating their coats, occasionally absurdly large instruments adorned with skulls, and the enormous tilted cow skull behind which the drummer takes his place.

One rock hammer follows another, each delivered with tremendous impact, while the concert’s natural breather arrives with “Laugh And A 1/2”, which D-A-D themselves regard as the audience favourite. Played on two acoustic guitars, it provides a brief pause between the otherwise relentless sonic assaults.

D-A-D have existed since 1982 and have always carried the feel of a colourful comic strip, as though everything is a game, a joke or a school break. That lightly ironic distance remains intact, but they take the rock energy absolutely seriously. The result is five quarters of an hour of constant and uncompromising presence from a band that, after 44 years, still manages to raise the intensity as the rain grows heavier, culminating in the ritual encore “Sleeping My Day Away”. Impressive.

A Refreshing Complete Experience

Give a warm welcome to the Danish band Spleen United, because there is something of a musical shape-shifter about them. One moment they deliver proudly pumping funk-pop aimed directly at the dance floor, the next they move into angular, growling electronica before suddenly launching into fierce guitar rock bordering on heavy metal, only to return shortly afterwards to their funk-inspired rhythms.

Spleen United are at their very best and most interesting when lead singer and songwriter Bjarne Niemann, together with the rest of the six-piece band, lose themselves in their instruments and allow the music to develop freely into a vast electronic adventure, where listeners never quite know where the journey will end.

It is precisely then that Spleen United become more than just a collection of songs. The concert develops into a hectic yet dreamlike trip where compelling rhythms and beautiful soundscapes merge into a fully realised experience. It is not about small, carefully measured compositions but about one complete musical journey that is difficult to define yet remarkably easy to surrender to.

Spleen United have remained together since 2003, apart from a break between 2013 and 2019, and as a satisfied audience member one cannot help but be pleased that the band now appears to have the wind in its sails once again, with more concerts and new recordings. Bring it on.

A Safe Bet with Seebach

For the rest of his life, the 46-year-old singer-songwriter Rasmus Seebach can undoubtedly make a living performing the many earworms he has created since his debut album in 2009. Ever since then, he has been an exceptionally reliable supplier of songs that appeal to a broad audience and are sung along to by the entire family. Consequently, every concert almost automatically turns into a parade of greatest hits, where the biggest surprise is simply the running order.

At this year’s Nibe Festival, he opens with “Lidt i fem” and, five quarters of an hour later, closes with perhaps his biggest hit, the particularly sea shanty-inspired “Øde ø”. In between, the first 15 to 20 singalong favourites seem almost to queue up, and, as the Americans say, ‘never a dull moment’. The programme is tightly packed, the pace remains high, and the audience is constantly encouraged to clap, sing and dance.

Towards the end, the celebration reaches its climax with the steadily pulsing techno-pop anthem “Natteravn”, featuring the rallying cry ‘Jeg kalder på dig’, where the atmosphere truly soars. Seebach and his eight musicians and backing vocalists have the audience completely in the palm of their hands, and it is difficult to identify a single less interesting song. Everything is presented as one grand spectacle featuring lights, fireworks and a constant stream of communal singing. With Rasmus Seebach, success is guaranteed—every single time.

Photos (c) Martin Damgård, Hverdagsvinkler.dk