the national (and scandi fest memories)
the national have been on my mind a lot recently. they have curated a charity compilation album (dark was the night) that i intend to buy very soon. and i made my first purchase of one of their albums not long back and have been listening to it quite a lot in my ears on trains and buses travelling to and from different cities. i resisted the national for quite some time, after seeing them at the cockpit in leeds a while back and not really being that taken with them (for some reason or another). i then saw them last year at a festival in sweden and i had an about-turn. i'm not sure if this had anything to do with the scandi crowd being so attentive - both at the 'way out west festival' in gothenburg and 'oya festival' in oslo that's the one thing i noticed being so different to crowds in the uk - everybody seemed like really they wanted to be there to watch and listen to the bands.























of course another reason i liked the national in scandinavia last august is, because of them, i won the 'spotting famouse people in the crowd' competition that i was having with ingunn and dave. (i spotted one of the brothers in the crowd at oya the day before they played there; my compatriates can vouch for this although, as it turns out, there is no photo evidence.)

after returning from said festivals, i promised i would update on my thoughts of both. but i never did. my highlight (of the trip, and the year) was sigur ros...but also fleet foxes were pretty amazing (the crowd was going crazy for them). and seeing wayne coyne in a bubble floating over my head whilst tellytubbies filled my peripheral vision was quite something.

some photo memories here and here. and some words by dave about oya here.

will i get to scandi for any festivals this year? i'm not sure, although i heard beirut just got attend to the oya line-up, so it's tempting. i do hope to get to stockholm in may (non festival, but fun all the same i hope), so that's a start for my foreign jaunts this year!

x