Suset Opens with Raw Rock and High Entertainment Value
For the third year in a row, Denmark’s fifth-largest city, Esbjerg, is hosting a packed, two-day festival, Suset. After acts including Artigeardit and URO, D-A-D really got things going as a worthy replacement for Dizzy Mizz Lizzy, who had to pull out at the last minute due to illness.
Frontman and lead singer Jesper Binzer jokingly shouted indignantly at drummer Laust Sonne: “We’re not even on the poster! People think they’re supposed to sing along to something completely different!” Nevertheless, the audience sang along from beginning to end – right through to a heavy, ragged and very long encore, the signature song “Sleeping My Day Away”.
As well as being talented, D-A-D are very conscious of being a bunch of pleasantly laid-back gimmick rockers. Whether it is Jesper Binzer singing with a loose microphone tucked into his breast pocket – or bassist Stig Pedersen playing something that looks most like a converted cruise missile. Raw rock in equally raw harbour surroundings.
The Start of a Long Career
In a very short time, 19-year-old singer and songwriter Mille (surname Liendgaard) from Risskov near Aarhus has emerged, thanks to hits such as “Dagdrømmer”, “Drikker med mig selv” and, not least, “Beholder mit tøj på”. We got all of those and several more – including “Tusind tanker” and “Kendt mig en uge” (which the audience began by singing parts of themselves) – at the harbour in Esbjerg.
You could sense that Mille was still at the beginning of what will surely be a long career. Not that there was anything hesitant about her performance. Not at all. But her live versions were not all that different either.
Perhaps a little harder-edged, some with more of a funk feel, others leaning a little more towards techno – but still equally suited to singing along to. And sing along they did, almost shouting – because Mille embodies accessible pop that seems tailor-made for three, four, five or six girlfriends to stand in little circles and sing together to each other.
High tempo, fine variation, but it would have been worth considering cutting down the number of songs in order to make a little more of each individual number.
Highly Addictive Hav
Very few people have as many almost shamelessly catchy melodies in their repertoire as singer, rapper and, not least, entertainer Benjamin Hav. And no one has such peculiar lyrics, which for long stretches sound like a first impulse. Like a wealth of words that simply fit well together.
It works because the whole thing is so bubblingly, irresistibly life-affirming. Live, too, it is clear that Benjamin Hav (together with Lukas Graham) has created one of the most captivating Danish songs of recent years, “Du ligner din mor”. But Benjamin Hav & Familien also have a firm grip with their latest hit, “Portugal”.
After five quarters of an hour with Hav and the extremely accomplished band Familien, you are simply in an even better mood. Without necessarily understanding the deeper meaning of what is happening. In the past, the two horn players used to dance in sync. Now most of the band plays in sync whenever they can get away with it. And Benjamin Hav dances like a marionette with slightly too few strings. Great entertainment. Highly addictive.
Aarhus Band with Something Up Their Sleeve
It has not taken singer Emil Vammen and the others in Aarhus band Zar Paulo particularly many years to shoot to the top of the Danish concert and festival scene. No wonder, because the group has a very good grip on audiences on a fairly broad basis.
The starting point is clearly hard-hitting new wave rock, in the way the style manifested itself in acts such as tv-2 in the early years of the 1980s, when restless pop collided with the beginnings of punk. Sharpest in a song such as “Telefonperson”.
Among their clearest sources of inspiration are Minds of 99 and Mew – but Zar Paulo are first and foremost themselves. Among the most direct – and strongly audience-gripping – songs are “Interessant mand” (which Emil Vammen uses for crowd-surfing), “Noget i ærmet”, “Klap for fædrelandet” and finally “Jeg synes, du er dejlig”.
In fact, it is as though the intensity increases with every song – and there is even room for several heartfelt moments amid the bombardment of hard rock, not just the opening invocation “We are one”, but also – and perhaps especially – the beautiful “Ikke gå så langt”, which in places has something hymn-like about it.
Zar Paulo are one of those bands that can take time to get used to and to open up to – but behind all the seemingly uncompromising new wave rock attitudes, there is something rewarding. They really do have “Noget i ærmet”, as they themselves sing.
Flickering Hit Fragments with Kelis
“How are you feeling?,” asked Kelis – and hurried on before she could get even something resembling the slightest hint of a reaction from the audience. Because 47-year-old singer and songwriter Kelis Rogers from New York was in a hurry. She had something she had to get through. Namely, no fewer than almost 30 songs – or rather fragments of songs – in the 50 minutes she was on stage. Even the most prominent hits – most notably “Milkshake” – were dispatched in between one and one and a half minutes.
This undeniably gave her concert a very flickering quality. Just as we were getting really worked up over an enticing rhythm in one of the relatively few more prominent songs, we were already moving on to the next fragment. And the next. Kelis’ voice was interesting without being particularly distinctive, and the surroundings could hardly have been more boring. With her she had a drummer, a backing vocalist and a mixer, DJ Natti Beatnik, who took care of everything else, especially machine rhythms, but also bass and a little piano.
This made it impossible to create anything spontaneous on the spot from the moment itself – because everything was pre-recorded and simply had to be mixed together. After the first half hour, you could sense that Kelis was finding it increasingly difficult to hold on to a thinning audience.
It became too scattered and superficial. In the end, she left the stage without saying goodbye. Just as she had never said hello either. The concert had its moments, but ultimately it became too superficial. Perhaps she does not believe in her songs enough to simply give some of them room to sparkle?
